The Kiwi Dream slips further away!
Auckland land prices per square metre have risen 350% over 20 years.
A house with a 1/4-acre yard (1,000 square metres) is the New Zealand dream, also known as the Kiwi Dream.
But as Auckland land prices continue to rise, the Kiwi Dream is slipping further away.
Data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) shows that, among Auckland's dozens of suburbs, only Greenhithe on the North Shore and Titirangi in the west fulfil the Kiwi Dream, with a median land area of 1012 square metres.
Auckland land prices per square metre have risen 350% over 20 years. The direct result is smaller homes and increasingly scarce luxury homes on large sections.
REINZ data shows that property sizes in Auckland have fallen 9%. In May 1995, the median land area was 745 square metres. By May this year, it had fallen to 675 square metres.
Among Auckland suburbs, Ponsonby, where land commands a premium, has the smallest residential sections, with a median area of 341 square metres, down 11% from 384 square metres in 1999.
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The largest decline, however, was in Papakura in the south, where residential land area fell from 749 square metres in 1999 to 523 square metres—a drop of 30%, to 523 square metres. Even Greenhithe, which fulfils the Kiwi Dream, has seen residential section sizes fall 28% compared with 20 years ago.
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell says high land prices, Auckland's Unitary Plan and changing attitudes towards higher-density housing such as apartments and townhouses have all reduced residential section sizes.
She says, “Of those who want to keep pursuing the 1/4-acre dream, many have chosen to move out of Auckland to places where land is much cheaper.”
Flat Bush recorded Auckland's largest rise in land prices over the past 20 years. Between May 1999 and May 2019, land prices per square metre rose from NZ$346 to NZ$3040, an increase of 779%.
Point Chevalier ranked next, rising from NZ$413 by 577% to NZ$2794. Beachlands rose from NZ$230 by 513% to NZ$1409.
Norwell says Pt Chevalier's land price growth has benefited from its proximity to central Auckland and amenities such as the zoo and West Spring park.
City Sales managing director Martin Dunn, however, believes a 1-acre yard is unrealistic.
Dunn says some visitors describe his garden as “huge”; his house sits on 500 square metres. “The place where I grew up was twice this size. A 1/4-acre section is a fantasy. I even think people no longer aspire to it.”
Martin Dunn also believes Auckland house prices have little room to fall. It is “absolutely inevitable” that Auckland's housing market will take off again, because new homes cannot fill the shortfall, immigration has not changed, and there are labour shortages in both skilled and unskilled occupations.
“This has nothing to do with LVR restrictions, the Reserve Bank or other restrictions. It is simply market forces at work.”
OneRoof's Catherine Smith says 1/4-acre sections are common in rural areas, but even there, only about half of properties are 1/4 of an acre or larger. The idea that everyone outside Auckland has 1/4 of an acre is just a dream.