Housing boom brewing

 

Mangawhai new dwelling permits have doubled, and most newcomers are permanent residents, says reporter Peter Nicholas.

The value of new dwelling permits for Mangawhai is on target to reach $28 million in 2014, almost double the value of residential build-ing permits issued by the Mangawhai District Council two years ago.

Figures obtained from the council show that Mangawhai is on target to grow by more than 100 new dwellings this year, a 38 percent increase on 2012, and a 12.5 percent increase on last year.

These figures are only for building consents for new or relocated dwellings and do not include renovations, house additions or garages.

More astounding is the value of individual permits issued month-on-month. In some months, they have increased by a massive 138 percent, indicating home owners are building bigger and more expensive houses.

In April 2012, 12 per-mits were issued with an average value of $147,910. In May 2013, 13 permits had an average value of $237,300. This year in August, 14 permits were issued with an average value of $352,500.

Year on year, the values are not so pro-nounced. In 2012 the average permit value was $200,000 and year-to-date 2014, the average permit value is $258,000, an in-crease of 29 percent.

The statistics show that in 2012, 78 residential building permits were issued with a total value of $15,583,200. In 2013, 96 permits had a combined value of $17,205,162.

Up until August 2014, 72 permits were issued with a combined value of $18,549,411.

Council says that in the four months until December this year it is likely nine new permits will be issued each month for the four months until De-cember 2014, meaning new dwelling permits for the year will probably to-tal 108 for 2014, with a combined value of $27.8 million, nearly double the $15.5m of permits issued in 2012.

July appears to be the month when more dwell-ing building permits are issued than any oth-er month of the year. In 2012, 10 permits were is-sued, in 2013 there were 13 permits and in July this year 14 permits were issued, more than any other month over the past three years.

Builders say this is be-cause most people who build plan to have proper-ties ready for the Christ-mas holidays.

Who are the newcomers?

Builders and real es-tate agents confirm that the newcomers to Man-gawhai generally fall into three categories; those who are retired or get-ting ready to retire and are selling out of Auck-land, young couples who commute to work daily to Warkworth, Albany or the upper North Shore, and holiday-makers.

But reversing a trend of several years ago, the majority of the newcomers are now permanent residents.

“It’s not so much holidaymakers now,” says Craig Matheson from Barfoot & Thompson who has been selling real estate for 14 years.

“The majority of the newcomers are permanent residents,” he says.

This was confirmed by Debbie Bedford, sales consultant for Westmor-land Homes, who says her company has sold 20 homes this year, has four permits currently before the council and will lodge another two this week.

“The inquiries are un-believable,” she says. “I have been here 10 years and I have never seen such interest in Man-gawhai.”

Many of the young couples commuted to

work in places such as Al-bany or the upper North Shore, she said. Those who were older were ei-ther retired or getting ready to retire.

“The older people sell up in Auckland and have spare cash for their retire-ment,” she says.

She said the aver-age value of homes sold, excluding the section, was about $300,000 to $350,000, which includ-ed an additional $50,000 over the permit cost for items such as water tanks, fences and land-scaping, she says.

Craig Matheson says that the growth is mainly focusing on Mangawhai Village which he says be-tween 2006 and 2013 has grown yearly by 7.92 percent compared to Man-gawhai Heads with a lower annual growth of 4 percent.

“A lot of newcomers are commuting to work. Every morning there is a constant stream of traffic leaving Mangawhai and heading south to work,” he said.

Kirsty Stevenson, the principal at Bayleys Real Estate, Mangawhai, says there appeared to be a trend of those who lived on the North Shore of Auckland to move to Mangawhai.

“Those who live over the bridge tend to move north; they are used to living near the water and enjoy water pursuits such as fishing and water sports,” she said.

“Lots of those who move here are ‘empty-nesters’ and they buy here mortgage-free, “she said.

Whether home prices had increased was somewhat anecdotal, she said.

“Sales volumes have definitely increased, but some prices have increased and some haven’t,” she said.

She was adamant that it was now impossible to stop the migration north from Auckland.

“Mangawhai’s accessibility from Auckland and the extension of the motorway to Warkworth and Wellsford means growth cannot be stopped,” she said.

Kaipara District Council commissioner, Mr John Robertson, said he had been following the growth in permits for some time and agreed most of the permitted properties were for new residents and not holidaymakers.

“Mangawhai has been getting the ‘spin-off’ from the increasing Auckland values,” he said. “It’s a very exciting time for Mangawhai. It’s also exciting because these new residents are arriving with freshness and are excited about the future without the burdens of the past.”

„ Next Issue: What does growth mean for Mangawhai? How does it affect our daily lives?

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