KERIKERI Increasing in sizeand bucking the downward trend

BY SANDYMHYRE

The 2018 Census putGreater Kerikeri’s populationat16,500. But amorerecent estimatebyFar North District Council demographers suggests the populationisupto20,000. It represents more than 26 percentofthe entire FarNorth district

Putanother way, it is six times the growth experiencedinKaitaia and100 times the growth in Kaikohe.InFebruarythis year the Government announced a56-lot development of amix betweenmedium and high-density housing betweenHallRoad, Ranui Avenue andMillLane whichwilladd afew more to the population.

According to the QV House PriceIndex issued in February this year,homevalues in the Kerikeri have managed to buck the downwardtrend felt around most of the rest of the country.Values herehaveincreased by an average of 3percent

Comparethat to otherNorthland districts such as Whangarei andKaipara wherevalues have fallen2.9 percentand 5.3 percent respectively

Themostaffordable suburb in the Far NorthisKaikohe with amedianhouse priceof $360,000 but the flipsideis, it is also reported as the fastest growing

According to One Roof,Kerikeriisthe most searched suburb not just in the FarNorth but in the whole of Northland. Yetitisalsothe most expensive. Thequarterlymedian house pricefor the three-month period November 2022–January2023 was $885,000. That’s higherthanthe Wellington region wherethe average value is $854,092.

Themajority of residential housing stock in Kerikeri is made up of approximately 77 percentresidential housing,20percent lifestyleproperties and twopercent investment housing That contrasts with Russellwhere an estimated 70 percent of houses areowned by what’s known as the “swallows”, the overseas owners whoarrive forthe southern summer and leavetheir houseslockedupduring our winter.It’sthe reasonwhy rental housingisso scarce on the peninsula.

SimonHartfromBarfoot and Thompson Kerikeri,sayshis buyers over thepast year are evenly split betweenlocalsand out-of-towners whoare relocating to Kerikeri (28 percent each).

Of the locals it is evenly split again between 14 percent whoboughtsecondaryholiday homes and 14 percentwho were downsizing Anotherevensplitcomeswith out-of-towners whowerebuying holidayhomes and those whowereoverseas buyers, both at seven percent.

He says what attractsbuyers to Kerikeri is the climate and theyare lookingfor a cosmopolitan lifestyleyet somewhereaway from the city. It’s also considered abetter place to raise afamilyand of the houses he sold over the past year the majority were within Kerikeri and surrounds.

Oneofhis out-of-townbuyers was Olivia Kennedy from Christchurch. She and her partner chose Kerikeri because herpartner’s whanau eitherlivethere or arefromthere They hadbeen looking foroverayear and theydid consider Christchurch.

“Pricesare notasexpensive there as they are in theBay of Islands,”she said.

“Itmakes it extremelyhardfor locals to purchase ahomeand my personalopinionis that it is fareasierand moreaffordabletolive in Christchurch.”

The upsideofpurchasing in Kerikeri,she says,isthat theycan have familyand friends over and she and herpartner can finallyhave their ownspace.The downsides arethat she thinks the roads area lot harder onthe car than down south and thenthereisthe rubbish collection system.