Auckland's 3 most affordable suburbs 10km from CBD -REINZ

The Real Estate Institute has revealed Auckland's three most affordable suburbs within a range of the central business district.

This comes as real estate sales sit in a month-long limbo, with around $125m worth of deals a day are being put on ice.

Bindi Norwell, REINZ chief executive, this month estimated sales of around $3.6b could be being lost. That's the total churn rate in a normal late-March/late-April period.

Despite this, there are still decent opportunities within 5-10km of Auckland around.

It turns out Avondale is Auckland's most affordable suburb if that criteria is used, followed by Northcote and Birkenhead.

"REINZ has undertaken some research to reveal Auckland's most affordable suburbs for first time buyers wanting to live close to the city," she said.

"For those wanting to live within 10km of the CBD, Avondale is the most affordable suburb with a median price of $800,000, followed by Northcote with a median price of $921,000 and Birkenhead with a median price of $950,000," Norwell said.

Avondale is only 1km further away from the Auckland CBD than Northcote, but house prices there are $121,000 cheaper than Northcote and $150,000 cheaper than Birkenhead, she said.

If you're prepared to live further out, buyers could find even more affordable properties. For example, Glen Eden is 15km from the CBD but with a median price of $698,000 it provides extremely good value for first-time buyers, REINZ said.

First-time buyers were now in a really difficult situation during Covid-19 with the portion of KiwiSaver fund able to be used for a first home purchase being at a much lower value than many had expected, Norwell said.

"Our analysis has shown that a couple of kilometres difference in where you live can save people hundreds of thousands of dollars on the purchase of a home, and when you look at this over the lifetime of a mortgage, this saving would be even greater. This information could be really helpful to those looking to get on the property ladder for the first time, especially as people potentially have more time on their hands to research properties," Norwell said.

This research could help those who found being locked down had reiterated their view that they don't like their house and want to move once lockdown is over.

The most affordable suburb in the 20km-25km bracket was Clover Park at a median price of $649,000. That was more expensive than the most affordable suburb in the 15-20km bracket with Otara with a median house price of $560,870.

Owen Vaughan, editor of NZME's OneRoof, said today a first home buyer survey would be published tomorrow and that would contain extensive information on that segment of the market.