- Hamilton homeowners are expected to see a 6% drop in their rating valuations.
- Some suburbs, like Grandview Heights and Silverdale, have seen property values increase by over 4%.
- Five suburbs, including Peacocke and Hamilton East, have experienced declines, with Peacocke down 21.4%.
Hamilton homeowners are likely to see their RVs tumble by around 6% when the council releases its new property valuations this week.
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The valuations were taken in September last year, but delays in sign-off mean they will be past their use-by date as guides to house prices in the city.
In fact, residents planning to put their properties on the market soon have a good chance of selling for more than their new RV, new OneRoof research suggests.
The last RVs were taken when Hamilton's housing market was rising fast and interest rates were below 3%. However, the housing landscape changed significantly for the worse in the years since.
Between September 2021 and last year's valuation date, Hamilton's average property value fell 6%. It remains to be seen if the new RVs follow this trend, but agents who have been monitoring the market since September 2024 have noticed an uptick in prices.
Separate analysis by OneRoof and its data partner Valocity found that Hamilton's average property value had grown by 1% in the last nine months, from $807,000 to $816,000.
Some suburbs have bounced back more strongly, with three enjoying lifts of more than 4% (between $30,000 and $40,000). These were Grandview Heights, Silverdale, and Western Heights. Homeowners in these suburbs may be in the best position to beat their new RVs if they choose to sell now.
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Even Hamilton's most expensive and cheapest suburbs have enjoyed above-average growth, with property values in Flagstaff up by 1.7% ($19,000) to $1.13m and property values in Bader up by 1.3% ($8000) to $586,000.
However, the OneRoof-Valocity analysis also found that property values in five suburbs were lower now than in September 2024, and that homeowners selling there might struggle to get a price above RV. The five "at-risk" suburbs are: St Andrews (-0.3%); Nawton (-1.3%); Frankton (-1.4%); Hamilton East (-2.4%); and Peacocke (-6.5%).
The analysis also points to the size of the RV drop that Hamilton homeowners can expect.
For each suburb, OneRoof and Valocity compared the average property value between the two assessment dates, September 2021 and September 2024. The smallest drop was 0.8%, in Beerescourt, with value drops in another 17 suburbs coming below the city average drop of 6%.
The analysis also found three suburbs where the value drop between RVs was more than 10%, with homeowners in Peacocke likely to suffer the biggest RV drop. Its average property fell 21.4% - more than $300,000.
Lodge agent Blair Pointon thought one of the reasons Beerescourt’s values had held strong between September 2021 and September 2024 was that buyers perceived it to be a “really solid” suburb.
He also believed properties that might escape a steep RV drop were first-home buyer homes in the city's more affordable suburbs, including Maeroa, Dinsdale, Nawton and Melville.
Properties in Melville had been undervalued in the 2021 RVs so were either selling at or even above RV right now, he said.
He also thought family and executive homes in Rototuna North and Flagstaff were likely to take a much bigger tumble.
This four-bedroom home on Diomede Glade, in Flagstaff, sold under the hammer this month for $980,000. Photo / Supplied
Pointon said those areas were in demand in 2021 when the market was hot, but they were also sluggish during the market downturn. However, since the new RVs were carried out, demand for these properties had risen, with prices climbing accordingly.
He just sold a property on Diomede Glade, in Flagstaff, for $980,000, just below its 2021 RV. “Just the sheer volume of people that went through that property has been quite mind-blowing for an auction property,” he said.
He did not think people should read too much into the potential drop in Peacocke, noting that the 2021 values in the new-build suburb were likely skewed by big land sales.
Other properties at risk of a big RV drop were those that could no longer be developed due to the wastewater restrictions introduced in 2023. Affected areas include south-west Hamilton (Bader, Melville, Deanwell, Glenview, Fitzroy), parts of Hamilton East, Claudelands, Fairfield and Hillcrest.
Ray White Hamilton director Mark Keesom said demand for properties in new subdivisions such as Peacocke had “washed out” in the last three years, which would have impacted what they were worth now.
He believed the properties that had held their values more than others in Hamilton were older three-bedroom homes on freehold sites in suburbs, including Chartwell, Dinsdale, and St Andrews.
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