Urban apartment living now sought-after following Auckland’s latest Covid-19 lockdown

Auckland’s recent isolation from the rest of New Zealand under Covid-19 regional travel restrictions has created yet another aspect to the Ponsonby property market.

“There are so many sub-plots to what’s happening in the property market at the moment, from cashed up ex-pat’ New Zealanders returning home and buying $2million-plus dwellings, through to inner-city small apartment dwellers moving out to the suburbs where they can buy a house with a backyard. Added to this, a sector of the population is now looking to spend more time at their holiday home while not fully selling up their Auckland presence, and not wanting to get stuck in an inner-city shoebox either, should Auckland go back to a regional level-three confinement under Covid-19,” Blair Haddow said.

Haddow said the pattern was exemplified in several of his current listings in the Ponsonby News area.

Unit 2 at 55 Kelmarna Avenue in Herne Bay, for example, is a terraced freehold three-bedroom/two-bathroom townhouse which Blair Haddow expected to sell for around the $1.95 million mark. Units 1 and 3 in the same block have already sold off-plan to owner-occupiers with completion scheduled for December.

“With three-storeys, the Kelmarna Avenue home is big enough that if the new owners were forced to stay in Auckland in a resumption of regional Covid-19 travel isolations, then there’s enough space to convert one of the bedrooms into a functional office, along with enough living space to retain one’s sanity,” he said.

“Yet, it’s also functional enough to be utilised as a ‘lock and leave’ residence whose owners could choose to spend time at their holiday home outside of the city, without having to worry about body corporate fees or property maintenance on what will be a brand new home filled with top of the range appliances.”

A similar scenario was on offer through Blair Haddow’s listing at the SOMA apartment block at 12 Mackelvie Street in Grey Lynn, where an entry-level penthouse on his books was expected to sell in excess of $1.2million. The six-storey SOMA Apartments complex was built in 2018 and features two towers separated at right angles by a central stairwell and lift shift.

“For a single owner/occupier or couple, the 94-square metre two-bedroom/two-bathroom SOMA penthouse apartment with sizeable living room/dining room/balcony space could again be configured as a work-from-home entity, or an Auckland cornerstone residence which could be used during the week by its owners in conjunction with spending more time at their holiday home on the weekends,” said Blair Haddow.

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