One Roof report: Top end of the market untroubled as Whanganui cracks $2m sale mark

Whanganui's property market recently cracked the $2 million sale mark. Photo / Bevan Conley

The top end of the residential real estate market in New Zealand is going strong, largely untroubled by factors like higher interest rates and inflation which are besetting those lower down the property rung - and Whanganui is no exception.

Whanganui's property market recently cracked the $2 million sale mark for the first time.

A lifestyle property at 30D Western Line in Brunswick in the exclusive Kingsford Estate was sold by Bayleys for $2.1m in October.

The home was billed as a contemporary modern masterpiece.

It has a 15m inground infinity pool, sculpted gardens and rolling lawns, and like all the properties in the estate is very private, set behind hedges and down driveways.

Homes fetching $2m-plus were a landmark for Whanganui, Bayleys agent Knud Bukholt said.

"Up until two or three years ago, there wasn't even anything to speak of over a million."

More prestigious homes are being built currently. "There are people with money building some pretty serious houses," Bukholt said.

Within the Whanganui city limits, St Johns Hill and Otamatea are the most sought-after suburbs, sporting some grand old English-style homes that would likely sell for $8m plus in the top streets of Auckland.

A property at Eaton Crescent, Otamatea sold by Property Brokers for more than $2m in early 2022 broke residential sale records.

Property Brokers agent Vicky Todd said at the time such prices had become more common.

"The first house to sell over a million was about five or six years ago," she said at the time.

"Then not a lot sold over a million dollars until the last two years... [and] only in the last 12 months has $1 million been common."

Meanwhile, Bukholt said it was not uncommon for Whanganui property owners to have second homes at the south end of Lake Taupō or Ohakune for skiing.

Another Bayleys agent, Karen Bukholt, said there was now enough retail in Whanganui to attract people to the city.

"We have Just Looking and Fifty Five that has a lot of designer [clothes] and we have Andersons For Men. For shoes we have Footloose and Posh Comfort," she said.

The growing arts had also become a drawcard for the city.

"Entrepreneurial people are seeing opportunities," Karen Bukholt said.

• For more see the 48-page One Roof Property Rich List in today's Chronicle