Wellington’s fastest rising suburb revealed

5 June 2019

New data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) reveals that Mt Cook has claimed the title as Wellington’s fastest-growing suburb when looking at median house prices, but there is a definite upward trend of property prices in the region.

For the 12 months ending April 2019, 53 houses were sold in Mt Cook at a median house price of $710,000 – up 33.3% on the same time last year, which saw 56 houses sold at an average price of $532,500.

Not far behind, was Wellington Central with a 25.1% rise, with a median price of $499,000, increasing by $100,000 since April 2018.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says “The Wellington region has been one of the country’s quiet achievers with an 11.6% growth in median price for the 12 months ending April 2019. This growth is an example of ongoing strength of the Capital’s property prices, which haven’t dipped since 2015 and don’t look set to anytime soon.

“The significant rise in property prices in Mt Cook has been influenced by two main factors - the increase in the number of property sales over the $750,000 mark (+14 percentage points) and also the decrease in the number of apartments sold in the suburb (-33 percentage points) which tend to have a lower price point than stand-alone properties,” she continues.

“Interestingly, Wellington Central actually saw the number of apartments sales rise, highlighting the current trend for inner city dwellings being towards apartments which are often purchased off plan,” continues Norwell.

Other suburbs with significant increases include Wallaceville which saw a 24.6% increase, followed by Lansdowne and Solway in Masterton with a 19.1% and 18.8% rise respectively.

Martinborough is another popular region with a significant growth rate of 18.4% over the past year. Anecdotally, many buyers are lifestyle purchasers and often have a city apartment, but it also indicates that first-time buyers are choosing to commute that much further.

“It appears that with the growing property prices in Wellington City, we’re also starting to see traditionally quieter areas rise in popularity with parts of the Hutt Valley, Masterton and South Wairarapa being amongst the fastest growing suburbs, especially for first-time buyers,” continues Norwell.

Interestingly, Thorndon saw a 7.7% drop in median price over the last year. This was a result of significant percentage point drop of -12% in the sale of homes over the $750,000 mark, whilst an increase of 13 percentage points for apartments.

“Over the past 10 years prices in Thorndon have increased by 55.5% showing, that this small decline in the last year is more about the mix of properties sold that an indication of a wider issue in the suburb,” points out Norwell.

Norwell says, “Average asking prices generally slow down as buyers and sellers retreat for the winter, but buyer demand is still very high in Wellington, despite the way prices in the region are going and the number of houses on the market is up 9% on this time last year.

It will be interesting to see what the winter Wellington property market looks like later this year. Every indication we’re seeing is that it will buck the seasonal trend and continue to grow, she concludes.”

ENDS

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