Manurewa

By ROBYN WELSH

Home-buying opportunities in the sprawling suburb of Manurewa are as wide as its geographical boundaries.

From the western seaboard overlooking Manukau Harbour to the elevated, upmarket housing estates east of the Southern Motorway, choices range from a simple three-bedroom home for less than $100,000 to prestigious $350,000 homes in areas such as Mahia Park, The Gardens, Totara Heights and Flamboro Heights.

It's an enviable choice in a market that has seen investors and home-buyers return to the market in droves in the past six months, with the resulting sales equalling and, in many cases, bettering those of the consistently good sales periods three or four years ago.

It's hard to believe that in 1874 Manurewa comprised 11 houses and three mud houses. Well-known for farming in the early days, the construction of the railway link from Auckland city the following year saw the population increase.

But it wasn't until the Southern Motorway link was built in the early 1950s that Manurewa began its greatest period of urbanisation. Now the area has grown well beyond its earliest subdivisions, such as Hill Park, near the historic Orford Park, and the Homai and Leabank areas.

Within the subsequent subdivisions of Weymouth village, Wattle Downs, Totara Heights and Randwick Park, pockets of new housing have continued to secure the interest of established buyers from throughout south Auckland, as well as young, professional, first-home buyers keen to settle in the area they grew up in.

Manurewa's coastal fringes include Clendon, which was developed in the early 1980s - about the time that Randwick Park, to the east, was built.

Once again, these are popular areas with first-home buyers and, in the case of Clendon, those who want a modest, three-bedroom home with a view of Manukau Harbour for a mere $140,000 to $160,000.

This is a fraction of the price of properties in other water's edge suburbs in Auckland. Without a view, a three-bedroom home on a half-site with a carport might fetch around $105,000, with others available for less than $100,000.

These low- to mid-priced areas within Manurewa are hugely popular with investors Auckland-wide, buoyed by returns that can yield as much as $250 a week on a $115,000 to $125,000 home.

New homes in the likes of the new Heron Point subdivision (off the Mahia Rd extension) include $200,000-plus properties, while quality brick-and-tile houses fetch between $280,000 and $350,000 in Mahia Park, and up to $250,000 close to Wattle Downs.

Mahia Park is the natural progression for buyers from Wattle Downs, a suburb so named because its farmer/owner, a Mr White, planted wattle trees with the intention of using the bark for tanning.

The venture failed because he planted the wrong trees, but the name has remained and so too its popularity for its coastal proximity and affordable homes - the key features of Manurewa's enduring appeal as a family suburb.