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Forget Auckland or Wellington, Lower Hutt is where the real estate market is really taking off.
On Monday, another 11-unit townhome development was pulled from the plans in less than 24 hours Monday. Developer Blair Chappell, managing director of The Williams Corporation, said she had 46 contracts on her table for the 11 properties.
“If we had another 100 in front of us, we could sell them tomorrow.”
The company has developments in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and Chappell said the Lower Hutt market is by far the most competitive, with a bias towards first-time home buyers rather than investors.
Williams Corporation / Stuff
All 11 townhomes on Williams Corporation’s Riverside Drive Development in Lower Hutt sold out within hours. The same thing happened in a different development on the same street in September.
The property takeover follows a similar situation last month when 14 townhomes in another development on Riverside Dr were offered in less than 24 hours. The city’s real estate agents say the highly competitive market is being driven by homelessness. There were only 154 houses in the city of 108,000 people for sale last week.
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* Only 154 homes for sale in a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants
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* New block of townhomes sold out for hours as prices skyrocketed in Hutt Valley
One-bedroom homes in the Riverside development started at $ 510,000 and two-bedroom units were priced at $ 630,000.
John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Blair Chappell (right), managing director of Williams Corporation, says Lower Hutt is the most contested market in the country. Here she is with her partner Matthew Horncastle (left).
Lower Hutt has become a popular market for buyers from neighboring areas such as Wellington and Porirua. Comparatively cheaper housing prices have resulted in high demand in previously low-cost working-class areas.
Figures from New Zealand’s Real Estate Institute show Lower Hutt was one of the fastest rising house prices in the country in the past year. In August, the median home price hit a record $ 670,000, up 22.5 percent in the 12 months to the end of August. This outpaced the capital Auckland and other regions with rapidly rising house prices such as Southland and Hawke’s Bay.
Homes in the once very affordable suburb of Wainuiomata, which had a median price of $ 230,000 five years ago, now sell for more than $ 500,000.
A three-bedroom house from the 1940s in a suburb of Alicetown sold this week for $ 1.13 million.
Supplied / Professionals
A home in the suburb of Alicetown, Lower Hutt, that sold for $ 1.13 million.
Buyer Catherine said she had been realistic, if not satisfied, about how much she would have to pay after spending a year looking for a new home for her growing family.
She and her husband had examined 30 to 40 properties and had submitted offers on six homes throughout the region, all of which were rejected, prior to their seventh successful offer.
It was the second time he had bought a house and he said there was something broken in the New Zealand housing system when it was difficult for people to buy a house.
Supplied / Professionals
The buyer of the three-bedroom home said they had been realistic, though not satisfied, about how much they spent.
Professionals sales agent Sean Heyman said 137 potential buyers had visited the Alicetown home for three weeks.
Just a few weeks earlier, another home in Alicetown had sold for $ 1.1 million.
Williams Corporation / Supplied
One-bedroom townhomes in the Riverside Drive development started at $ 510,000.
