Rise of the $1 million suburbs

A staggering one in five suburbs in the City of Sails now boasts homes with a median price of more than $1 million. Photo / Janna Dixon

Eight new neighbourhoods join the exclusive million-dollar club in just six months.

The number of million-dollar Auckland suburbs has jumped to 31 in just six months as the city's home values soar.

Eight newcomers have joined the growing list, most of them on Auckland's North Shore.

It means a staggering one in five suburbs in the City of Sails now boasts homes with a median price of more than $1 million.

The qv.co.nz e-valuer quarterly report shows North Shore suburbs Bayswater, Greenhithe, Mairangi Bay, Milford, Rothesay Bay and Waiake crossed the mark - with Mt Eden and Pt Chevalier on the city fringe.

And it shows long-standing $1m suburb Herne Bay rose almost $90,000 from April to $1.88m in October, inching closer to becoming Auckland's first spot with a $2m median.

The upmarket suburb first hit the million-dollar mark in 2003 and is tipped to make it to $2m next year. Nearby St Marys Bay followed in December 2004, then Parnell in April 2005. The number increased throughout the property boom, reaching 10 suburbs by February 2008.

The effects of the global financial crisis saw it drop back to three in 2009 - Herne Bay, St Marys Bay and Parnell - before picking up again.

Agency Barfoot and Thompson sold 225 properties worth more than $1m in Auckland this November - compared with just 75 in 2011.

"That is how much it has increased in just three years. It is a big shift," managing director Peter Thompson said.

"This year, we have sold a third more homes in the $1m-plus category that we did at the same point last year."

Bruce Wiggins from QV said the pre-election lull had not been as low as expected.

"If you want to buy a house and the interest rate is good you are going to buy it."

The market would enter a seasonal, holiday quiet period - but it would be temporary, Wiggins said.

"It goes nuts again for February, March and April."

The Reserve Bank last month announced it would not be easing its loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions on new residential mortgage lending, designed to cool the market.

But this week it kept the official cash rate at 3.5 per cent, meaning attractive interest rates will stay.

Nick Goodall, research analyst at CoreLogic NZ said it was no surprise the number of $1m sales had increased given values are continuing to rise steadily in Auckland.

But he said the lower end of the market was seeing a faster rate of growth with 9.9 per cent value increase year on year compared with 7.9 per cent increase at the upper end.

Andrea Rush from QV said there was a lot of growth in the cheaper suburbs.

"Even some of the traditionally more affordable suburbs such as Otahuhu, Mangere, Manurewa, Glen Eden, Ranui and Helensville have average values over $400,000 now," she said. She believed the popularity of North Shore suburbs was driven by good schools.

The most affordable suburb on the North Shore is Birkdale, which now has a median QV price of $562,000.

The QV report provides data on 157 suburbs in the Auckland region.