$1m addresses on the increase

Paritai Drive. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The New Zealand Monopoly Board has a new Mayfair: Cremorne St in Auckland's Herne Bay is the country's most expensive street.

But the prestige of living on Millionaires' Lane might be losing its shine as figures show the number of streets where the average home is worth $1 million or more is on the up.

There are now 535 streets in New Zealand where the houses have a median value of $1m or more - and they are not necessarily in the avenued Remueras or the leafy Parnells of the nation.

Auckland City has 230 streets on the list: one in every 13. Nationwide, the figure is fewer than one in 100 streets.

Cremorne St, on the Waitemata waterfront, has a median house value of $5.6m, according to figures provided by QV.

Jonno Ingerson, research director at qv.co.nz, estimates that five years ago there were only 352 streets in the million-dollar category, and 10 years ago, as few as 15 such streets nationwide.

New Zealand's top 20 streets were all in the Auckland region except for Malaghans Ridge in Queenstown, which houses the exclusive Millbrook Resort.

Some of the locales with one or two streets making it on to the list included Hamilton, Hastings, Tasman, Whakatane, Kaipara, New Plymouth and Porirua.

Paritai Drive, touted as one of New Zealand's most expensive streets, came in at 67th nationwide.

The figures were calculated from the latest council valuations which date as far back as 2007.

Ingerson said the high number of streets was initially surprising: "The majority of them are in highly sought after areas of Auckland City and North Shore, such as the streets near to the coast on the North Shore, and the streets overlooking the Hauraki Gulf in Orakei, Parnell and Remuera."

"Similarly in the other areas it tends to be streets either on or near the coast or with impressive views, and typically very close to the city. In some of the smaller centres it is streets with large, high value houses or holiday homes."

Property investment specialist Olly Newland said million-dollar homes had been around for "20 years at least".

He said he has always told his clients there was no future in shoebox homes, and recommended they buy in a leafy suburb because the value would only go up.