First-home buyers in Tauranga could save about $20,000 if they bought a KiwiBuild house. Photo / File
First-home buyers in Tauranga could save about $20,000 if they bought a KiwiBuild house. Photo / File
First-home buyers in Tauranga are paying a median price of $520,000 for the keys to their own three-bedroom home.
That's according to new sales data released to NZME by analysts CoreLogic, which also showed first-home buyers could save at least $20,000 by buying a KiwiBuild house in Tauranga.
First-time buyers paid a median of $520,000 for a three-bedroom home in Tauranga.
The price first-home buyers were willing to pay for a three-bedroom home sat $20,000 above the $500,000 price cap the Government has set for any KiwiBuild homes built in Tauranga.
The price cap for KiwiBuild homes outside of Auckland and Queenstown is $500,000.
However, work is under way to identify whether this price cap can be further broken down by bedroom numbers, or adapted to better reflect other regional variations.
Tauranga was one of only two places, with Wellington, where buyers paid prices higher than the $500,000 cap.
CoreLogic senior research analyst Kelvin Davidson said first-home buyers could potentially save up to $20,000, assuming any KiwiBuilds in Tauranga are priced at the top end of the cap.
Davidson said the figures reaffirmed Tauranga was one of the more expensive property markets in New Zealand and, at face value, buyers would potentially have plenty to gain from KiwiBuild.
Simon Anderson, chief executive of Realty Group. Photo / File
Simon Anderson, chief executive of Realty Group, which operates Eves and Bayleys, said the price cap could be lifted to encourage more new buyers into the market.
"It's one of those things that make it possible for first-home buyers to secure their first home," he said. "The more we can encourage first-home buyers, the better."
However, he said there was plenty of homes on the market suitable for first-home buyers.
"The typical first-home buyer is looking for something to add value to, the worst home on the best street," he said.
Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin. Photo / File
Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin said there was more buyer activity on the properties listed just under the $500,000 mark.
Martin also said the price cap should increase to allow first-home buyers to purchase properties that were more expensive and still receive the monetary assistance from the Government.
First National Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Omokoroa owner Anton Jones believed a price cap of $550,000 was a better price cap to give new buyers "extra leeway".
However, he said anything that helped first-home buyers get into the market was a good thing.
First National Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Omokoroa owner Anton Jones. Photo / File
The Labour-led Government has vowed to make New Zealand housing more affordable by committing $2 billion to build 100,000 KiwiBuild "modest starter homes for first-home buyers over the next decade".
Couples earning up to $180,000 would qualify for its new KiwiBuild affordable homes, while the income limit for sole purchasers would be $120,000.
Loan Market mortgage adviser Bruce Patten said that while the Government could take some "validation" from seeing its KiwiBuild prices undercut market prices, it didn't necessarily mean the homes were affordable compared to a family's average salary.
"The KiwiBuild homes are priced relative to the market, and I don't think they can make them any cheaper," he said.
He said KiwiBuild homes could become more affordable for families over the next decade as their wages rose if the Government was able to maintain its current KiwiBuild prices while ramping up production.
Chris Glaudel, the deputy director of non-profit lobby Community Housing Aotearoa, said KiwiBuild would bring on a much-needed supply of new homes but there would still be many households that couldn't afford to buy one.
These families needed a different pathway to buying a home based on the size of their income rather than market prices.
Such pathways included rent-to-buy home ownership schemes and housing developments that allowed families to live in affordable rentals so they could save more money for a deposit, he said.
The latest QV House Price Index showed Tauranga home values jumped 3.3 per cent year on year to an average value of $709,339.
Western Bay of Plenty house prices increased 2.5 per cent year on year to an average of $630,254.
