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Lower Hutt is where houses change hands fastest, new data on Wellington’s hottest suburbs suggests.
Westpac Bank’s property report for the year to September ranks suburbs by the average cost of a three-bedroom house and the number of days a home is on the market.
Nine Lower Hutt suburbs feature in a list of the 20 fastest-selling areas, including Alicetown, Woburn, Waterloo and Fairfield.
Wellington’s inner city remains sought-after, and the highest prices can still be found in the usual places: central city, Seatoun, Khandallah, Kelburn, and the Lower Hutt suburb of Eastbourne.
Karori is in many ways Wellington’s typical suburb – houses sell for between $450,000 and $500,000, putting it right in the middle of the greater city’s price range.
For Timothy Wong, 27, an analyst with the Department of Internal Affairs, the opportunity to buy in Karori could not be turned down. He wanted to move out of a rented Mt Cook apartment, away from the noisy city life. Karori offered him the right fusion of location and affordability, he said.
The three-bedroom place he bought with partner Natasha Kearney cost $384,000.
“We wanted something to do up ourselves,” Mr Wong said. “Buying something cheaper, it won’t take up a large chunk of mortgage [and we can] do what we want with it . . . for us to buy something at $460,000 with current interest rates would be pretty damn tight.”
They had mortgage pre-approval before the Reserve Bank brought in restrictions on loan-to-value lending, but the move, in October, did make them speed up the house hunt.
“Our deposit was under the 20 per cent threshold,” he said. “We had a month left on pre-approval [when we bought].”
Most of the Westpac data conforms to real estate agent expectations. The cheapest suburbs are Cannons Creek, Waitangirua, Naenae, Taita, Wainuiomata, Stokes Valley and Totara Park.
The bank identified the suburbs where houses sold particularly quickly, based on the number of days properties were listed.
Hataitai is the fastest seller, followed by Alicetown, Lower Hutt.
Professionals Lower Hutt owner John Ross said Alicetown offered proximity to central Hutt and established homes. “It is not a very large suburb, so there’s always a shortage of supply, so stuff sells fast.”
Woburn’s place as the most expensive Lower Hutt suburb was not a surprise, as it also offered proximity, combined with larger houses and sections, he said.
Westpac also identified suburbs it called “hidden gems”, close to expensive areas, where houses were cheaper and mortgages easier to pay off.
For example, Kelburn houses sold for an average of $672,000, but neighbouring Northland averaged $497,000 – a 35 per cent difference. This could cut average mortgage repayment times by a decade, Westpac retail general manager Ian Blair said.
– © Fairfax NZ News
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