Auckland heads for $2m suburb

The million-dollar suburb is now old hat in Auckland with an "average" home in five or six areas of the city above the seven-figure mark.

After the residential property boom that saw prices double in five years across the city, the sights are now on a target that would have seemed silly at the turn of the millennium: $2 million for an average home.

Average? Well, most people wouldn't see a sprawling old villa, Edwardian mansion or ultra-smart townhouse with 250sq m of living space as average. But in certain prime areas of Auckland average is very expensive indeed and, probably well within the next decade, will mean $2 million.

The latest edition of the Herald's quarterly Property Report looks at the suburbs that draw the seriously rich - and finds one of them scores a hat-trick for the quarter: highest median value (over $1.6 million), most expensive street (with a median rating value of $5.6 million) and highest individual sale ($8.048 million). And that's when times are tough and values are declining.

At the other end of the scale, Property Report (free with your Herald on Monday) pinpoints the North Island's cheapest street - in a down-on-its-luck town where house values on the main drag are just $16,000 and real estate agents don't waste their time trying to get a sale.

The special liftout features seven pages crammed with QV data tracking price movement in nearly 400 suburbs and towns across the North Island and helps homeowners to get an idea of how their property is holding up and answers the question: is now a good time to buy?