Mission Bay property prices double to $2.2m

Median house prices in Mission Bay have doubled, according to Barfoot & Thompson. Photo / Greg Bowker

The median price of properties in Mission Bay has doubled in the last six months compared to the same period last year, to more than $2 million, new figures show.

Sales data from Auckland's biggest real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson shows the waterfront suburb has seen a huge increase, topping the firm's list of the region's 20 property "hot spots".

Between February and June 2015, data from the sale of 26 properties showed the median price of homes in the area was $1,080,500.

Over the same period this year, that increased to $2,158,000 based on the sale of 20 homes - a jump of 100 per cent.

Barfoot agent Andy MacDonald said the increase could be attributed to demand and an increase in high value sales in Mission Bay.

During the February to July period, half of the 20 homes sold in Mission Bay were more than $2m, while just five of 26 in the comparative six-month period in 2015 sold for that amount.

Other areas topping the agency's hot spot list were Mangawhai Heads, which recorded a 56 per cent increase to a median sales price of $655,000; Grey Lynn with a 48 per cent increase to $1,497,500; One Tree Hill up 40 per cent to $1,269,000 and Royal Oak up 36 per cent to $1,140,000.

Orewa in the north, and Weymouth, Waiuku and Tuakau to the south also feature on the list, with Barfoot managing director Peter Thompson attributing it to people looking for affordable housing within a commutable distance of Auckland business centres like the North Shore and Manukau.

The list excludes sections, car parks and rural land sales, sales of $5 million and above, and suburbs with fewer than 20 sales during a six-month period.

But according to CoreLogic senior research analyst Nick Goodall, the Barfoot figures paint a very different picture to the property information company's own, based on the median value of more than 1500 properties in Mission Bay.

In February 2015 the median was $1,318,450, which changed to $1,472,700 in July last year and increased slightly to $1,487,850 in February 2016.

According to CoreLogic data, median July sales in Mission Bay were $1,617,200, showing a 10 per cent increase in a year and a 23 per cent increase in 18 months.

Goodall said this showed the effect a certain part of the market selling at any one time could have on sales data.

"It looks like it was the 'lower' part of the market in Mission Bay was selling throughout February to July 2015," he said.

This explained the median price of about $1m.

"More recently the top end has been selling for about $2.1m. This doesn't mean all property values in the area have grown by 100 per cent, just that different types and values of properties sold over the different periods," Goodall said.

Victoria University statistician Dr John Haywood said the Barfoot data were great as a snapshot of properties sold by the agency in particular areas at a particular time.

But he warned it was not necessarily a reliable indicator of what was happening in the dynamic and variable property market.

Haywood said sample sizes in the top five hot spot areas were all low (between 20 and 30 this year) and it was possible that a few high-value sales had caused the percentage increase.

Sales within the same suburb could vary.

Epsom, for example, was number five last time, with an increase of 38 per cent, but this time it was second-lowest, with a decrease of 10 per cent.

"The data is pretty volatile, especially when only viewed period to period over a relatively short time horizon," Haywood said.