Wellsford Property Market
The new Rating Valuations for the entire Auckland Region are soon to be released. 

Under the former Rodney District Council the local RVs were set in 2007, which was near the peak of the real estate market. The much-publicised down-turn in the property market over recent years means that theoretically RVs in northern Rodney should generally decrease from the 2007 levels.

Wellsford has received news coverage recently when it was revealed that on average the Rating Valuations are likely to drop by approximately 18% in this area. According to our database there were 59 sales of residential houses in the Wellsford area in the first six months of 2007 with a median price of $285,000. For the first six months of 2011 there have been 18 sales with a median of $222,500.

This shows a drop in the median price of 22%, which generally supports the anticipated drop in RVs.  This is potentially good news for homeowners in Wellsford as it is likely that they will be required to pay less rates than their counterparts in other parts of the Auckland Super City where values have decreased by less, or even increased since the last round of valuations.

However, a worrying sign is the much lower volume of sales that is currently occurring.  There certainly seems to be fewer buyers in the market, but also fewer properties for sale.  During the property boom Wellsford was a popular place to buy rental properties, but due to the recession, the closure of Irwins and the change in tax laws Wellsford is no longer as attractive to investors, despite being one of the most affordable areas of the wider Auckland area.

Mangawhai, Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto Property Market
The Rating Valuations for Kaipara are also due to be released later this year.  The previous assessments were set in September 2008. So what can we expect?  In the Mangawhai area there were 30 sales of residential houses in the first half of 2008 with a median of $427,500. 

From January to June this year there were also 30 sales at a median of $381,000.  This equates a reduction of almost 11%. For vacant sections there were 52 sales at $144,000, compared to 33 sales at $127,500, which is also about an 11% drop.

For Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto and Paparoa there have not been enough recent sales in order to derive any meaningful comparisons, but from our observations of the market values have decreased significantly in these areas also.

Logically the Rating Valuations across the entire Kaipara District should generally decrease, but there can be wide variations between locations and property types.