Prices of lifestyle blocks in the Auckland area have rocketed in the past couple of months, with the median value now standing at an all-time high of $850,000.
According to Real Estate Institute figures, the median price for Auckland lifestyle blocks in the three months for August surpassed the previous record of $842,500, which was hit as long ago as June 2007.
The figures show that in the three months to June the median price was $793,750, surging to $830,000 in the three months to July and now to $850,000 in the three months to August.
The appetite for urban fringe land in Auckland is seemingly matching the activity going on in Auckland city's residential market.
Presumably at least some of the lifestyle block activity is so-called land-banking in anticipation of changes to Auckand's boundaries and ability to develop rural land.
The lifestyle block record price comes at a time when the spotlight is firmly on Auckland city's residential prices and efforts to improve housing supply and availability of land.
The Auckland Council has recently notified its new Unitary Plan, to take effect in three years, as well as signing up for a new Auckland Housing Accord with the Government. The accord is targeting the building of 39,000 new houses within three years.
A mixture of fast-tracked "greenfield" and "brownfield" new developments are promised.
The REINZ figures show that the Auckland lifestyle block median price as at August was some 21.5% higher than a year ago.
That's a bigger gain than the 11.5% rise in median house prices for Auckland (to $563,000) during the same period and also beats the 17.9% current rate of annual house price inflation in Auckland, as measured by REINZ's stratified house price index.
In the three months to August there were 372 lifestyle blocks sold in the Auckland area, which is up 31% on the number sold during the same time a year ago.
Elsewhere in the country, lifestyle block sales activity is much more subdued.
The national median price for the three months to August was $485,000, which is up 6.6% on a year ago, but slightly down on the figure recorded in July and well shy of the record $518,500 price seen in the three months to April.
Nationally there were 1676 lifestyle block sales in the three months to August, which was up 21% on the same time a year ago.
REINZ said that 11 regions recorded increases in sales compared with August 2012 while three (Wellington, West Coast and Manawatu/Wanganui) recorded small decreases in sales. Auckland recorded the largest increase (+88 sales), followed by Canterbury (+58 sales) and Northland (+32 sales). Compared with July 2013, only Gisborne recorded an increase in sales.
In terms of notable regional price movements in the past 12 months, Nelson - which has seen strong recent residential house price gains - saw its median lifestyle block price jump 35% to $526,250, but Canterbury's median dropped by 8% to $460,000.
Nationally, the number of days to sell for lifestyle properties eased by five days, from 72 days for the three months to the end of July to 77 days for the three months to the end of August. Compared with the three months ended August 2012 the number of days to sell improved by 11 days from 88 days to 77 days.
Taranaki recorded the shortest number of days to sell in August at 25 days, followed by Canterbury at 57 days and Auckland at 58 days. West Coast recorded the longest number of days to sell at 184 days, followed by Nelson at 153 days and Northland and Hawkes Bay at 117 days.
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