HERNE BAY WATERFRONT

PHOTO: HERNE BAY WATERFRONT

For the New Zealand real estate market, 2021 has been the year the government stepped in and regulatory pressures increased in an effort to curtail rapidly rising property prices.

Across the country the 12-month change in median values recorded jumps of between 6.7 per cent in Sunshine Bay, and a whopping 47.7 per cent in Woodville.

The figures, released in CoreLogic’s 2021 Best of the Best Report, show that the highest selling property was 73 Argyle St, Auckland, which fetched $22 million.

At the time, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said: In March, the government extended the Bright-line Test for existing properties and announced the phased removal of interest deductibility, unless investors were buying new builds, from October 1.

“Tax is neither the cause nor the solution to the housing problem, but it does have an influence, and this is part of the government’s overall response.”

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was also granted powers to use other lending restrictions such as caps on debt-to-income ratios, which are now being consulted and are already in force at some banks.

“The RBNZ themselves reinstated loan-to-value ratio rules on 1 March 2021, before ramping up investors’ required deposits to 40 per cent on 1 May 2021,” the report said.

“Then from 1 November 2021, owner-occupiers too have faced tighter limits, with the low deposit lending threshold cut from 20 per cent to 10 per cent.

“In other words, nobody has escaped the tightening credit environment, not least first home buyers, who are also facing additional pressures now in the form of limited (or no) pre-approvals.”

New Zealand’s ‘Best of the Best’ suburbs revealed

Source: CoreLogic

The key data

Herne Bay, in Auckland, recorded the highest median value for 2021, sitting at $3.5 million, while the lowest median price was $193,700 at Runanga in Grey.

Source: CoreLogic
Source: CoreLogic