OneRoof Reveals Price Difference Between New-builds And Existing Homes In New Zealand

A new study by New Zealand Media and Entertainment’s (NZME) OneRoof has revealed first home buyers in three of the country's biggest and most expensive cities could save hundreds of thousands of dollars by choosing to buy a newly built home.

OneRoof and its data partner Valocity, found that new homes were cheaper than existing properties in Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga, and Queenstown Lakes - sometimes by as much as $600,000.

The figures revealed in OneRoof’s latest Property Report show that while new-build homes are still a costlier option for much of the country, a surge in housebuilding is offering buyers more affordable options where it matters most.

"When it comes to the new-build housing market, the numbers point to three things: that new homes are often the cheapest entry points into the market, that they are growing in value and that New Zealand is building more of them – and fast,” said OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan.

"In the 24 months to June 2021, the number of consents issued for new residential buildings in New Zealand peaked at just over 80,000. In the first two quarters of this year alone, almost 23,000 consents were issued – that’s 281 per cent more than the total for the first two quarters of 2011,” said Vaughan.

The bulk of new dwellings consents are being issued in Auckland. The city's tally for the 12 months to June 2021 - 19,036 - was up almost 30 per cent on the same period the year before.

Consents for Canterbury have risen 12 per cent over the same period, while growth in Wellington has slowed to just one per cent.

The OneRoof-Valocity research compared the median value of all homes built since October 2019 to the median value of existing homes built prior to that date.

Wellington offered first home buyers the biggest savings, with the typical price of a new home in the city sitting at $972,000 - $248,000 lower than the cost of an existing home.

In Auckland, new homes are $119,000 cheaper than existing homes, although the median value for all new builds in the city is still a high $1.073m.

Other areas where big savings were identified were Tauranga, where the new-build median value is $966,000, $75,000 less than the median value of existing homes; and Queenstown-Lakes, where the new build median of $1.175m is $70,000 lower than the $1.245m median for all existing homes.

New builds were also found to be cheaper in Western Bay of Plenty (by $67,000); Selwyn (by $59,000) and Lower Hutt (by $14,000).

The research shows that the cheapest entry points to the housing market are new-build apartments and terrace houses. In Auckland, the median value of new apartments and terraces is $785,000 - $407,000 lower than the median of existing homes, although standalone new-build houses in the city are $169,000 more expensive than existing properties.

The biggest savings are in Queenstown-Lakes, where new-build apartment and terraces have a median value of $636,000 - $609,000 lower than the median value for existing homes.

NZME’s Head of OneRoof Paul Maher said the OneRoof Property Report research would support home buyers as they consider the purchasing options open to them.

“To buy new or buy an existing home is a common quandary facing home buyers. Knowing how much cheaper a new home could be and the sort of value growth a buyer can expect when compared to an existing home is all incredibly useful information,” said Maher.

See the full property report here - OneRoof Property Report October 2021

© Scoop Media