Hawke's Bay's million dollar suburbs revealed

Waimarama is a million dollar suburb, according to new statisitcs from OneRoof. Photo / Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay now has two $1 million suburbs as house prices in the region move into a stratosphere never seen before.

The latest OneRoof Valocity figures show the average sale price of a home in the coastal Hastings village of Waimarama and semi-rural hillside settlement of Poraiti in Napier was more than $1 million in 2020.

The growth in the median house price of each area in the past five years is more than $500,000, according to the OneRoof statistics.

Waimarama's median house price is $1.2m and had a post Covid-19 price jump of 20.7 per cent.

The semi-rural Napier suburb, Poraiti's median house price is $1.01m, but has only seen a 2.7 per cent increase since Covid.

OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said the latest statistics show the median house price in Waimarama has increased by $650k from $550k five years ago to $1.2m, "and in the last year it's lifted by almost $300k".

There are other areas in Hawke's Bay that could be classed as $1 million suburbs but didn't have the pre-requisite number of sales in the last six months.

Those places are: Crownthorpe, Haumoana, Kahuranaki, Pakowhai, Poukawa, Puketapu, Pukahamamoamoa, Roys Hill and Tukituki.

Waimarama had 11 sales in the last six months worth a total of $14.824m.

There are currently no houses for sale in the beach side village of Waimarama and only a handful of plots for sale. Photo / Warren Buckland

Property Brokers residential sales consultants Adrian Cowie and Mark Walsh said the prices were due to supply and demand.

"Everywhere is more expensive and Waimarama is just one of those places that has stepped up with the market in general," said Cowie.

Walsh said the thing that spikes the prices for places like Waimarama is that it's a very small market.

"There prices are going to keep going because there's no more land out there.
Waimarama is landlocked by Māori land - there's nowhere else to expand," he said.

The last house that Property Brokers sold in the beachside location wasn't even officially on the market.

"The last one we sold was in Gillies Crescent for $825,000 (one of the cheaper roads in the village)," Walsh said. "They were the under bidders on the Harper Rd property that went to auction the week prior and sold for $1.67m."

Walsh added that the property was a lovely character home but needed work.

When asked whether house and bach owners should think about selling their Waimarama properties Walsh, who lives in the village, said no.

"Usually we say sell your properties but you might want to keep hold of them in Waimarama," he said.

"House prices will only increase as there is no other land to develop and a lot of people are after it."

Cowie said for those priced out of the beach house market in Waimarama, going south was the only option.

"Kairakau and Blackhead would probably be the only beachside places where you'd get something," he added.

Currently there are only building plots available in the beachside village, 27km south of Havelock North.

One of these is a 3ha lifestyle plot on Te Apiti Rd looking over the village and on to Te Motu-o-Kura (Bare Island) which is for sale with Bayleys for $895,000.

The OneRoof statistics show house prices in Hawke's Bay have increased by 19.5 per cent post Covid-19 lockdown with a current median value of $640K - up by $135k from a year ago.

Vaughan said there's been a lot of "heat" in the region's market.

"Our figures and figures from other property sites, they're all showing big 12-month-grows - especially the last quarter-month grows in Hawke's Bay," he said.

Eskdale and Havelock North are also both closing in on the $1m median value threshold.

The current median value of Eskdale is $955k with a post Covid-19 increase of 20.7 per cent and Havelock North's value is $910K with a post Covid-19 upturn of 27.3 per cent.