Northland house prices are finally starting to catch up to the rest of the country, according to a new property report released this week.

The OneRoof Property Report highlighted a range of national property statistics, including the most expensive and cheapest suburbs, the best and worst-performing suburbs and overall latest suburb property values.

Despite a slow start, the report showed Northland was starting to show an upswing in property price growth, similar to what the rest of the country had been experiencing in the last quarter.

OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said Northland had always had a tendency to lag behind other regions, but the market was on a trajectory heading towards positive growth.

“Northland has traditionally always been slower, but the pace of decline has now slowed considerably,” Vaughan said.

“In the last couple of weeks, Northland has started to feel the benefit the rest of the market has had due to a lack of stock, which is creating upward pressure on prices.

The beach at Mangawhai Heads. Despite Mangawhai Heads and Russell achieving high property sales in 2023, they also came in as the region’s weakest-performing suburbs.

“It won’t be rampant growth like we saw during the boom, though, and that’s mainly because interest rates are still high, so will provide a natural curb in huge growth in values and prices.”

As of Monday morning, Northland’s property prices had risen to 1 per cent- a marked increase from -0.5 per cent on August 20.

According to the report, the top settled sales for 2023 (up until end of October 2023) were in the Far North, Whangārei and Kaipara, with the top house selling for $4.1 million in Russell in January.

• 'Bounce back': Most suburbs saw average values increase over past three months
• 'Downturn is over': Analysts say housing crash over - find out just how much prices fell
• March house prices up but market cooling

The next most expensive was a property in Hihi/Mangōnui in March, which sold for $3.87m, followed by a property at One Tree Point which sold for $3.7m and a Mangawhai Heads property that went for $3.65m in January.

In terms of the most expensive suburbs, these were Langs Beach, Russell and Mangawhai Heads, with the average property values coming in at $2,167,000, $1,478,000 and $1,332,000 respectively.

Northland’s cheapest suburbs were Kaikohe, with an average property value of $398,000, followed by Kaitāia at $440,000 and Kawakawa at $500,000.

On the other end of the spectrum, Northland’s cheapest suburbs were Kaikohe, with an average property value of $398,000, followed by Kaitāia at $440,000 and Kawakawa at $500,000.

Despite Mangawhai Heads and Russell achieving high property sales in 2023, they also came in as the region’s weakest-performing suburbs, dropping 7.20 per cent and 6 per cent respectively in the past three months.

Kawakawa also took a knock, sinking 4.20 per cent in house prices between August and October.

Three Whangārei suburbs proved to have the strongest house price growth in the last quarter, with a growth of 2.3 per cent in Morningside and Riverside and 2 per cent in Raumanga.

Valocity Global senior research analyst Wayne Shum confirmed the housing market in most places in New Zealand had now hit (or were close to) the bottom, including Northland.

He said while the region as a whole had dropped around $100,000 from its peak of $925,000 in April 2022, it was still out-performing its pre-Covid average price of $614,000 by more than $100,000 ($827,000).

“In Northland it really depends where you are, because places like Whangārei have their own market which is doing well,” Shum said.

“The Far North is also performing well, but places like Kaipara are still lagging behind.

“The National Government has promised the new highway which will go further north, so the Auckland demand for a bach in Mangawhai or those working in the North Shore commuting once a week to the office will be strong.”

In terms of first-home buyers, Shum said most first-home buyers were already in the market.

He said house price increases plus changes with the incoming Government could make things potentially more difficult.

“The National Government has said they will likely bring back some of their former investment policies, so once investors are back, the market will start to pick up,” Shum said.

“The key issues for Northland is that flooding is definitely still a concern for people, so while there is a sense of a fear of missing out, first-home buyers and buyers in general are being a bit more careful and doing more homework than before.”

Myjanne Jensen is a part-time reporter for the Northern Advocate. She was previously the editor of the Northland Age, joining NZME in 2021 after moving to the region from Australia.