Hot in the Hutt

Just 15-minutes from the buzzing capital, Lower Hutt is a city on the move … upwards. As with the rest of the country, year-on-year house prices are soaring, with some popular suburbs looking at 20% (or close to) increases.
Located on the banks of Te Awa Kairangi (Hutt River) the area boasts many attractive outdoor lifestyle opportunities. There are beautiful local walking trails, food and wine galore, as well as retail, arts and cultural offerings. It’s been a popular place for home buyers wanting something cheaper than what’s on offer in Wellington, but lack of planning has led to significant shortfall in available land for development, and this has flowed on to a housing shortage that is driving prices ever higher.
But with new developments in the works, there are still opportunities for investors. And even though it’s hard to find a bargain in this red-hot market, there’s still investment potential to be found.

Only way is up

As a seasoned veteran of over 40 years, John Ross has experience all the ups and downs of the Lower Hutt market. But the owner of Professionals Redcoats in Lower Hutt says he’s never seen anything like the sky-rocketing prices experienced over the past few months.

“It’s unprecedented in the decades I have been working in the area,” he says of the prices. “It’s totally due to the lack of supply, which is something I’ve been predicting for years.”
Ross says that the lack of land available for property has been a perennial issue for Lower Hutt. He says that a report in 2020 revealed that the region was the worst performing in the country when it came to land supply. Nothing has changed.
“I’ve been predicting a housing crisis in Lower Hutt for over a decade,” he says. And it’s currently occurring.”
The figures from CoreLogic reflect this: the growth year-on-year is in double digits.
Alicetown (just north of Petone) experienced an astonishing 20% growth year-on-year in January, from $664,000 to $797,000. Stokes Valley is close behind, at 17.9% growth, from 509,100 to $600,300. Naenae is up 17.50% to $591,950 and the harbour-view suburb of Korokoro is soaring, up 17% to $930,150.
Ross says that the boom began in 2015, when Wainuiomata (a traditionally lower priced suburb) went up in value by $100,000 as buyers were pushed out of the Wellington market.