Harcourts sales consultant Brayden Coldicutt said they've sold several homes in the likes of Parklands in Napier for over $1m. Photo / Paul Taylor
Harcourts sales consultant Brayden Coldicutt said they've sold several homes in the likes of Parklands in Napier for over $1m. Photo / Paul Taylor
The days of the $1 million Hawke's Bay mansion with a long sloping lawn down to a large and enticing pool are over.
In its place are $1m new builds - grey-rooved, functional, and oh-so suburban.
Hawke's Bay real estate agents say that the soaring property market means that while$1m will get you a nice home, it won't be the unique architectural masterpiece of the days of yore.
New OneRoof data has revealed that more than 200 properties in Hawke's Bay sold for over $1m in 2020.
Four bedroom homes in subdivisions like Parklands and townhouses around Napier and Havelock North are now fetching seven figure prices, according to OneRoof statistics.
In 2019, 124 properties in Hawke's Bay sold for more than $1m and the number of properties that sold for over that same threshold increased to 214 in 2020.
Christensen said there was still an assumption in the Bay that the seven figure sum will buy a large and luxurious home.
"Some of these $1m homes are just three bedroom houses that are in really good areas," he said.
Benson Brothers Construction building new townhouses on Duart Road in Havelock North. Photo / Warren Buckland
Real Estate Institute of NZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said Covid-19 had significantly affected and increased housing prices throughout the country.
"When Covid-19 first hit New Zealand's shores in the first quarter of 2020, no one would have predicted that the year would become a record-breaker for property prices," she said.
"And that we would conclude the year with a 68 per cent uplift in the number of $1m-plus properties sold."
OneRoof post Covid-19 regional statistics showed the median value change of the property market in Hawke's Bay had gone up 19.5 per cent.
An earlier Hawke's Bay Today article revealed that Waimarama and Poraiti's median average house values were now both over $1m.
Harcourts residential sales consultant and auctioneer Brayden Coldicutt said they are seeing seven figures sales in places you wouldn't expect too.
"We're seeing $1m sales in the likes of Parklands - we've had quite a few big sales in that area - and out in Bayview, Eskdale way and even in parts of Taradale as well," he said.
A property being built on a section in Parklands, Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor
Coldicutt said he wasn't expecting the market to go as crazy as it has.
"In January of last year we were still going well and it was a really buoyant market," he said. "But since the end of lockdown things just started taking off in terms of the amount of buyers out there."
He added that even since November 2020 the market has become even crazier.
Coldicutt said a reason for this could be due to a smaller number of properties on the market compared to 2020, in Napier.
"This time last year there was around 240 homes available for sale, whereas at the moment there are about 130," he said.
"I said to some people I sold to three months ago, if they put their property on the market now they'd probably make money again."
So who is buying and looking for homes?
Coldicutt said there have been a lot of first time buyers trying to get on the property ladder and people downsizing.
"The new retirement villages are being built around Napier and Hastings - what we're seeing is a lot of people downsizing to those so they've felt 'hey let's sell while the market is hot now'," he said.
Hawke's Bay also saw the largest percentage increase of properties sold over the $3m mark in 2020 in New Zealand, according to REINZ.
The multi-million dollar sales grew from one property in 2019 to three in 2020.
