Aucklanders snap up North homes

Aucklanders are increasingly eyeing Northland properties listed on Trade Me.

Trade Me says 47 per cent of recent Northland property views came from Auckland, compared to 33 per cent at the same time last year.

Just 33 per cent of recent local property views came from Northland itself, compared to 43 per cent last year.

The Trade Me figures compared views of current listings over 30 days with the same number of days last July.

Auckland views of Northland properties listed on realestate.co.nz were up 179 per cent for the year to July 31, compared to the period last year.

Barfoot and Thompson Whangarei branch manager Martin Dear said Aucklanders were keen on all sorts of properties, including coastal, investment and horticultural, and particularly mid-sized horticultural blocks with houses.

"It's turned our market around totally," said Mr Dear.

Aucklanders made reasonably quick decisions because they were used to working in a fast Auckland market, he said. Other buyers had been from Tauranga and expats returning to the area.

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz) figures show the median price of a Northland house in July was $325,000 - up 16.3 per cent on July last year. Mr Dear said prices were starting to rise because of lack of availability. However, spring would bring more homes. "Houses are selling within five days of listing. It's that Auckland boom just starting to hit us."

Figures show 266 Northland dwellings sold in July, up on 156 last July and 255 in June. Mr Dear thought Aucklanders had started driving the increase.

Reinz said 8121 dwellings sold nationally in July, up 37.8 per cent on July 2014 and 9.4 per cent on June 2015. The July national median price was $465,000, up 11.8 per cent on July 2014 and 3.3 per cent on June.