TopSpots: New Zealand's most affordable places
Housing affordability is a key issue facing homebuyers. Would you be better off in urban Auckland or in rural Canterbury? Should you be chasing high wages or lower housing costs? Where in New Zealand will you be left with the most disposable income after you've paid the rent or the mortgage?
We looked at more then 45 cities and districts with populations over 20,000 all across New Zealand to find out.
The most important measure of affordability is to compare house prices with income levels. That's how we created a short list of 20 top performing places. But what's the point of living in a highly affordable area if it's say crowded, deprived or has no jobs to speak of? In other words, some places are highly affordable because most people wouldn't want to live there.
So we took our top 20 performers and scored them against the primary measure of house price v. income levels. But then we also looked at each place and awarded further points based upon how well they ranked against:
- Rent / income levels
- % of people living in crowded dwellings
- Unemployment rates
- % of people living in owned homes
- % of people living in high deprivation deciles
The points were added up and enabled us to create a league table of the most affordable (and liveable) places in New Zealand.
The South Island took 7 of the top 10 spots, but it was Southland District itself that came top of the heap as the most affordable place in New Zealand.
Southland District - How did it score?
(including Winton, Riverton, Lumsden, Te Anau and Stewart Island)
Southland came first in four of the six affordability and living measures, including the critical house price / income test. Here the average home costs $207,000 which is less than 4 times the average household's annual income of $56,600. That's more than twice as affordable as in Tauranga, Auckland, Rodney and North Shore City.
In fact from a possible 800 points available for this study, Southland scored an impressive 675; more than 200 points higher than second place Selwyn District.
Southland doesn't just offer excellent value to house buyers; renters too are on to a good thing. Across New Zealand as a whole, the proportion of household income allocated to rent is 23%; it's almost half that in Southland.
Crowded houses (3%) and deprivation levels (6%) are not factors of significant concern for Southland residents and the unemployment rate of 2% is the lowest of all of the places we measured.
Congratulations to Southland District; not only New Zealand's most affordable place, but also one of the most liveable it appears.
Top 20 Most Affordable Places in New Zealand
| 1 | Southland District |
| 2 | Selwyn |
| 3 | Timaru |
| 4 | Waitaki |
| 5 | Ashburton |
| 6 | Waimakiriri |
| 7 | Manawatu |
| 8 | Invercargill |
| 9 | South Taranaki |
| 10 | Waikato |
| 11 | Masterton |
| 12 | Horowhenua |
| 13 | Waipa |
| 14 | Wanganui |
| 15 | Gisborne |
| 16 | Franklin |
| 17= | Upper Hutt |
| 17= | Rotorua |
| 19 | Palmerston North |
| 20 | Dunedin |
Snapshots:
| House price / income ratio | ||
| Best | Southland District | 3.6 times income |
| Worst | Tauranga | 8.1 times income |
| Rent payments / income ratio | ||
| Best | Southland District | 12% of income |
| Worst | Dunedin | 28% of income |
| % of people in crowded dwellings | ||
| Best | Southland District | 3% |
| Selwyn | 3% | |
| Worst | Manukau | 25% |
| % of people in the 3 highest deprivation deciles | ||
| Best | Selwyn | 1% |
| Worst | Far North | 63% |
| % of people unemployed | ||
| Best | Southland District | 2% |
| Queenstown | 2% | |
| Worst | Whakatane | 8% |
| Far North | 8% | |
| % of dwellings owned | ||
| Best | Waimakiriri | 71% |
| Worst | Auckland | 42% |
Highlights from the others
Tauranga's low showing in the house price / income score is partly a result of having a substantial population of retirees, although with an average house costing over $445,000 it is one of the most expensive places to buy. Only Queenstown, Auckland, North Shore, Rodney and Wellington are higher.
Dunedin's poor rent / income score may also be skewed slightly because of its low earning student residents, although the average household income of $53,000 p.a. is higher than that of say its neighbour city, Invercargill. The other most expensive rental places are Rodney and Waitakere City, requiring 26% of income.
On average, 10% of New Zealand's population are classified as living in crowded dwellings. Manukau City's score of 25% was the highest by far, followed by Auckland, Papakura and the Far North on 16%.
It had too few people and house sales to be included in this survey, but as a matter of interest, the prize for the absolute lowest unemployment rate in the country would go to the Chatham Islands. Only 6 of its 640 residents are out of work.
All About Southland District
Southland District comprises of the whole of the Southland region at the bottom of the South Island, but excludes Invercargill City and Gore District.
Its population of just over 28,000 is similar to that of say Horowhenua's but Southland District occupies 30 times the land area (over 30,000 sq km). Together with Westland and Mackenzie Country it has the lowest population density of any area in New Zealand; just 0.9 people per kilometre.
Typical summer daytime temperatures range from 16oC to 23oC, occasionally rising above 30oC. Snow falls infrequently in winter but frosts are common, especially in inland areas. Typical winter daytime temperatures range from 8oC to 12oC. On average there are about 1600 hours of bright sunshine annually. Prevailing winds are from the south-west.
Southland's average house-price is only $207,000 compared to the country's average of $391,000; however this is an increase of 11% on the previous year which is the highest annual growth of all of the districts in New Zealand.
Farming, forestry and horticulture are the region's economic mainstays however manufacturing for export and tourism are also significant.
Southland has over 70% of the country's recoverable coal and lignite reserves and is attracting interest from a number of companies who plan to convert the lignite to a high energy form of diesel. It also has significant mineral reserves, particularly of silicon, which is in high demand from the electronic and energy sectors.
This positive economic outlook is likely to translate into more jobs and even more disposable income for Southland residents.
| People | Southland | New Zealand |
| Population | 28,437 | 4,027,947 |
| Population density | 0.9 | 14.9 |
| Population change | -0.1% | 7.8% |
| Median age | 37 | 35 |
| Households | 10,625 | 1,454,175 |
| Household size | 2.57 | 2.68 |
| Male population | 52.3% | 48.8% |
| Female population | 47.7% | 51.2% |
| Married population | 59.6% | 43.5% |
| Single population | 40.4% |
51.4% |
| Estimated Total Population By Age | Southland | New Zealand |
| Age 0 to 4 | 7.1% | 6.9% |
| Age 5 to 9 | 7.3% | 6.9% |
| Age 10 to 14 | 7.8% | 7.2% |
| Age 15 to 19 | 6.9% | 7.6% |
| Age 20 to 24 | 4.5% | 6.9% |
| Age 25 to 29 | 5.4% | 6.3% |
| Age 30 to 34 | 6.5% | 6.6% |
| Age 35 to 39 | 7.3% | 7.4% |
| Age 40 to 44 | 8.1% | 7.5% |
| Age 45 to 49 | 8.3% | 7.4% |
| Age 50 to 54 | 7.3% | 6.4% |
| Age 55 to 59 | 6.7% | 5.7% |
| Age 60 to 64 | 5.0% | 4.7% |
| Age 65 to 69 | 4.4% | 3.9% |
| Age 70 to 74 | 3.0% | 2.9% |
| Age 75 to 79 | 2.3% | 2.5% |
| Age 80 to 84 | 1.4% | 1.8% |
| Age 85+ | 0.9% | 1.4% |
| Family | Southland | New Zealand |
| Percentage of couples with children | 45.5% | 42.0% |
| Percentage of couples without children | 45.9% | 39.9% |
| Single, with children | 8.7% | 18.1% |
| Divorced | 5.4% | 7.6% |
| Separated | 2.7% | 3.7% |
| Widowed | 5.0% | 6.0% |
| Now married | 59.6% | 48.6% |
| Never married | 27.3% | 34.1% |
|
Housing |
Southland | New Zealand |
 |
||
| Median home cost | $206,935 | $391,487 |
| Home appreciation | ||
| (1 year) | 11.0% | -4.5% |
| (5 years) | 121.1% | 80.5% |
| Homes owned | 68.7% | 62.7% |
| Homes rented | 26.9% | 31.1% |
All about Southland: Useful Links:
Southland District on Wikipedia
Sources:
- Statistics New Zealand
- Census data 2001and 2006
- Estimated Subnational Population by age 2007 - QV data August 2008
Our thanks to the various parties who helped and contributed to the data within the report, including:
Statistics New Zealand, QV.co.nz, University of Auckland School of Statistics, Auckland City Libraries.
Stephen Hart is the author of the best-selling homebuyer's books, 'Where to live in Auckland' and the 'The Streetwise Homebuyer' and co-presenter of TV2's 'House Call' programme. He also writes a regular homebuyers' column for 'Herald Homes'.
For more about TopSpot reports, click here
Click here, to read the June 2008 ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard which takes the latest quarterly regional statistics and ranks the economic performance of New Zealand's 16 Regional Council areas. Ratings are based on specific measures such as employment, construction, retail trade and house prices.
All rights reserved.
The content is considered accurate at the time of the publication, however Barbican Publishing nor ASB cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions.
Copyright: Barbican Publishing Ltd 2008
Categories:
Property Insight Reports
,
Top 5 Articles
,
News
