Waikato’s “best-keep secret” is a rural town just 25 minutes' drive away that is covered in colourful cows and may be the only place in New Zealand where you can buy a sausage donut.
For those who live there, Morrinsville’s central location is one of its biggest selling points as it’s within an hour’s reach of the Coromandel, Waihi and Tauranga beaches.
It’s also an easy 25-minute traffic-free commute to Hamilton and a doable day trip for the many Aucklanders who have relocated there and need to head back to the big smoke a couple of days a week.
A new residential development on the northern-side of the town, Lockerbie Estate, is also set to transform the town with 1200 more homes, as well as a new retirement village freeing up existing houses in the town. New homes in the subdivision are priced from the high $900,000s.
Start your property search
Morrinsville’s lower house prices have also been a drawcard for out-of-towners as those with more than $1 million to spend can buy a high-end house in the town. An entry-level property on the right side of the town starts from mid-$600,000.
However, prices are increasing and the median house price for Matamata-Piako, which includes Morrinsville, Te Aroha and Matamata, the only Waikato district still showing a 4.5% increase, was $820,000 in May 2022 – up from $785,000 in April 2022, according to the latest REINZ monthly property report. Hauraki was the only other district in the Waikato to record a month-on-month jump in the median sales price.
The median sales price has also jumped a massive 31% in the last 12 months with agents saying the $500,000 home is now a thing of the past.
15 Breen Place, in Morrinsville, is for sale by deadline private treaty. Photo / Supplied
LJ Hooker Morrinsville branch manager Dave Young said prices had flattened out, but well-presented properties, lifestyle properties that ranged between $1m and $2.3m and higher-end properties priced over $1m were still selling well.
Houses in the mid-$700,000 to $900,000 price range appeared to be taking longer to shift, he said.
“I think we are Hamilton’s best-kept secret. Thirty minutes and you are in the middle of Hamilton and we are not Cambridge prices,” he said.
“We can get to Hillcrest probably quicker than people from Flagstaff can and vice versa.”
Young said people were starting to realise there was more to Morrinsville, including offering better value for money, than Cambridge and Hamilton.
“We have been saddled with, I guess ‘it’s just a cow town’. And it’s very much a service town, there’s no two ways about and I think we’ve got room for growth – there's no doubt about it.
“I think Morrinsville has a lot to offer. We don’t have McDonald’s and we don’t have KFC, but that’s not everything is it.”
Instead Morrinsville might be the only place in the country where you could find not only custard and cream-filled donuts called dub dubs, but also sausage donuts at the Wagon Wheel Bakery on the main street.
The bakery is also a favourite with local MP Tin van de Molen, who has posted several photos of himself in social media tucking into one of their donuts.
“They have something called a sausage donut which I’ve not seen anywhere else. If you’re not there early, you won’t get one. It’s a donut with a sausage in the middle – it's amazing.”
64 Fairway Drive, Morrinsville, has an asking price of $1.180m. Photo / Supplied
There were also several popular fish and chip shops in town, as well as good shops and cafes, he said.
“We do have The Warehouse, but Harry’s is a clothing shop and it’s as good as you will get in Hamilton. You don’t need to go to Hamilton if you don’t want to.”
Bayleys Hamilton real estate agent Wayne Robb, who predominantly sells properties in Morrinsville, said there had been a number of higher-end properties over $1m that sold in May which may have contributed to the rise in the median sales price.
But combined with sales in the higher end of the market, Aucklanders were also relocating there to be closer to their Coromandel holiday homes and to avoid any further lockdowns in Auckland.
Robb recently sold a four-bedroom, two-bathroom brick and tile house on Turnberry Crescent for $1.035m and another on Stirling Drive for $1.075m.
“There’s obviously a lot of people working from home so they can do their work from home, duck off to the beach or if they’ve got to go up to Auckland once or twice a week - well you’re only an hour-and-a-half from Auckland so it’s a pretty good drive up there.”
They also got a lot more bang for their buck.
“They are actually buying everything to be fair. I guess when you compare a house in Morrinsville to the same house that was up in Auckland, you are going from a $700,000 probably close to even a $1.7m house. I mean that’s on the far end of everything I suppose.”
This four-bedroom home at 4 Cedar Way, in Morrinsville, is priced at $1.2m. Photo / Supplied
At the higher end of the market, Robb is currently selling a large 303sqm Mediterranean-styled home at 15 Breen Place and a brand-new home at 64 Fairway Drive for $1.18m in the new Lockerbie Estate.
Morrinsville’s colourful cows had also been a welcome addition to the town increasing the number of visitors by 45% when the first cows in the herd were introduced in 2015.
Robb’s wife Nicki, another real estate agent, was behind bringing the now 72 colourful cows which are scattered around the town and form a cow trail. Each cow was sponsored by a local retailer or residents and painted on by an artist.
There’s also the 6.5m mega cow called Mable overlooking Morrinsville’s main street donated by local firm Power Farming that can’t be missed.
“It gave people a reason to come to Morrinsville. We were like the poorer cousin of the three towns within Matamata-Piako being Morrinsville, Matamata and Te Aroha, but now we’ve got the cows and the mega cow it has definitely brought a whole lot of people into town,” Robb said.
This near-new build home on Turnberry Crescent, in Morrinsville, recently sold for $1.35m. Photo / Supplied
Although some locals commuted to Hamilton, Morrinsville also had a raft of big employers including Power Farming, Greenlea Meats, Fonterra, Tatua Dairy Factory, Bowers Brothers Concrete and two big accounting firms CooperAitken and MBS Advisors.
Professionals Morrinsville owner Colin Fabish had also noticed a trickle of people moving in from Auckland and Hamilton.
“They can buy a nice place here for a lot less than they are going to get for their places in Auckland and it’s taken a long time to sort of realise that I think.”
Fabish said prices in town were holding steady and while the price gap between Hamilton and Morrinsville was closing, prices were still a bit cheaper in the town.
Along with Lockerbie Estate, the nearly completed Parkvale development had also helped bring people into town and that subdivision along with the more established Holmwood Park were favourites of his.
His agency is currently selling a property at 4 Cedar Way in Holmwood Park for $1.2m.
Fabish said houses were still selling across the board and Professionals Morrinsville had recently sold a property in the $700,000s and another for $1.2m.
