Top Auckland hotspots picked

FUZO Property director David Whitburn, a former president of APIA, said he picked the hotspots by looking at suburb data, migration trends, rental trends, supply from building consents, demand levels, the Unitary Plan, discussions with developers and bankers and council planning policies.

He said the Unitary Plan would create demand for properties near new and existing infrastructure, as the focus went on satellite CBDs. 

"A screamingly obvious hot spot that few identify successfully is Westgate Town Centre which is a 56 hectare, billion-dollar development on the northern side of SH16 to the current small Westgate shopping centre.  This is far larger than Sylvia Park and Botany Town Centre."

He said prices and rents in areas such as Massey, West Harbour, Royal Heights, Swanson, Ranui and Whenuapai would go up as more of the development was built. Hobsonville could experience the same, he said, although he warned about over-supply there.

"They will be in demand in terms of people wanting to spend less time commuting and be closer to work and all the things they need are at their doorsteps."

Birkenhead had become a bit rundown, he said, but had good prospects because of its views and the gentrification of the suburb. Papatoetoe looked good because it had more homeowners than some of its neighbouring suburbs and money was being invested in local infrastructure.

Whitburn said there were good reasons why Auckland's house price growth could be expected to be strong over 2015.

"With fixed interest rates low with little pressure to increase them, no ring-fencing of tax losses to restrict negative gearing, Labour finally learning that their great Finance Minister Sir Michael Cullen was not joking when he said 'it is political suicide to try to introduce a Capital Gains Tax in New Zealand', strong internal and external migration, supply constraints and a positive mood, it is hard to see Auckland house prices not rising at least 7% again this year.  Also I believe for these very strong demand and under-supply reasons that Auckland will be the top performing city in NZ as usual too. It is too hard to see anything different when the Auckland region's population is likely to grow by well over 30,000 new residents in 2015."