The housing affordability challenges in Auckland and Wellington’s limited options in high demand areas have seen them uproot to get on the property ladder or buy more of a house for their budget.
Drawcards for out-of-towners include less traffic congestion, accessible shopping and a range of good schools.
More first home buyer-friendly suburbs and pockets of affordable housing in others are another incentive for house hunters buoyed by lower interest rates who have saved up a deposit.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz) Canterbury ambassador Vanessa Golightly said a mix of first home buyers were arriving or returning to Christchurch.
She said it was hard to blame them as it was a great city with still reasonably affordable housing.
‘‘We have definitely noticed a lot of buyers coming through open homes who aren’t from Christchurch, but are either moving to Christchurch or are here now looking to purchase. I wouldn’t necessarily define them as young as I definitely think it’s across the spectrum, families included. And then I’ve had a few returning downsizers who maybe followed the Australian or North Island dream and are moving back.’’
The Ray White Papanui co-owner had noticed new arrivals are attracted to the quality of schools and easy access to workplaces and recreational amenities.
An international airport made it easy for them to return to their former address for meetings or family functions, she said.
Other attractions were a new city centre from the quake rebuild with a soon-to-be-opened new sports stadium.
She said the definition of first home buyers had changed from 20 years ago when they might be in their twenties.
‘‘We sold a home unconditionally yesterday to a first home buyer. Him and his wife had a teenage son starting at Canterbury University and they had immigrated to Christchurch years ago now, but by definition it is their first home and [the age group] is across the board.’’
The average age of first home buyers now is about 37-years-old.
Mrs Golightly said out-of-town buyers could get a lot of choice for their budget with a mixed range of housing in many suburbs or could consider Rolleston’s short commute compared with spending two or three hours in a car in other centres.
‘‘In Auckland you are looking at double the mortgage on average so you would have to have a good reason for living there. I think Christchurch offers everything a big city does, and it’s very easy to live here, but still not living in a small town and it has the best of both worlds. There’s a huge amount of growth happening here.’’
Last year Auckland’s median price was $1m and Wellington $790,000 with Canterbury at $685,000.
Canterbury Business chief executive Leeann Watson said the city was attracting ‘‘good talent’’ including university graduates who have opted to stay and ex-Kiwis setting up a new base.
‘‘A lot of it is internal net migration. People in Auckland and Wellington are looking bit further south going maybe it’s a bit easier here. I’ve had two staff who chose to come back to Christchurch the last few years. One of them has young children and they lived in Auckland in a tiny house with a massive mortgage and both had quite big jobs and moving children around wasn’t easy.
The other colleague based in Wellington wanted to buy their first house and actually it was too hard.’’
New arrivals moving for lifestyle decisions soon realised the city had a lot more to offer, she said.
The former Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce is about to set up a new event because there were so many outside people arriving.
Reinz put up figures this week showing the gap between the most and least expensive suburbs for asking prices last year.
For Christchurch the highest average asking price between suburbs was nearly $2 million for Kennedy’s Bush and more than $1.7m for Fendalton compared with the lowest of about $490,000 for Wainoni.
In contrast, Auckland’s Herne Bay was about $4.3m and Remuera $3.2m compared with central Auckland’s nearly $705,000. Wellington’s range went from coastal Seatoun’s more than $1.7m to the city centre’s nearly $630,000.
More affordable suburbs in the northern centres were often limited to apartments whereas first home buyers starting or growing a family were looking for something larger.
Christchurch’s five lowest suburbs of Wainoni, Phillipstown, Waltham, Aranui and Bromley were all in the $490,000 to $515,000 range.
Mrs Golightly said city newcomers with a budget under $500,00 were looking at a unit.
‘‘It might be a wee bit of a stretch, but for $5-something you can still buy a family home and if you can get a budget together of $600,000 and $800,000 you have actually got a lot of choice in Christchurch including new builds further out or the townhouse market in town. Versus in Auckland you can get what you can afford with that budget and an apartment with no carpark.’’
Reinz chief executive Jen Baird said buyer types were mixed in December sales with owner occupiers and investors leading activity in Christchurch.
Out-of-town buyers and investors led the way in Timaru and Ashburton had a mix of buyers, she said.
