{"id":16646,"date":"2026-02-19T05:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16646"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T16:56:17","slug":"messy-neighbours-planes-overhead-what-drops-the-value-of-your-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16646","title":{"rendered":"Messy neighbours, planes overhead: What drops the value of your house?"},"content":{"rendered":"

House prices aren’t moving much in\u00a0many parts of the country<\/a>\u00a0– but what could cause the value of your place to drop?<\/p>\n

Property experts say there are a few things that can happen to influence a property’s value – some within the owner’s control and some not.<\/p>\n

Messy neighbours<\/h3>\n

Property economist Ed McKnight said having neighbours who did not look after their house could be a problem.<\/p>\n

“If your neighbour’s property looks like a mess – overgrown lawns, rubbish piling up, cars on the front lawn – that could make it harder to get a premium price for your property. It’s hard to quantify this in data.<\/p>\n

“But buyers tend to pay premium prices for the dream home. If next door makes it seem more like a nightmare, then the price premium will fall.”<\/p>\n

More neighbours<\/h3>\n

There has been a townhouse boom around parts of Auckland but work in neighbouring sections can make your house less valuable – at least in the short term.<\/p>\n

McKnight said he visited a house in \u014cr\u0101kei, Auckland, where the owner was grappling with this.<\/p>\n

“Just as this owner was trying to sell, the neighbour was bulldozing their house and knocking up a five-storey apartment building. It was hard to get someone to pay a premium price for a property when there’s going to be noise and disturbance next door for the following three years.<\/p>\n

“The tricky part is that most of this is outside your control. You can have the best-maintained property on the street, but if next door is a disaster, you’re wearing some of that cost.”<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

Property economist Ed McKnight.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Supplied \/ Ed McKnight<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said many people valued privacy and having sunlight.<\/p>\n

“Putting townhouses up next door potentially reduces that. But I think it’s just the world we’re in at the moment, the government is pushing hard on intensification, infill housing.”<\/p>\n

But Vanessa Williams, a spokesperson for Realestate.co.nz, said in an area with a lot of finished townhouses, having a place with a garden and garage could be worth more.<\/p>\n

Flooding<\/h3>\n

Recent weather events have drawn more attention to potential flooding, and properties that could be in a flood zone.<\/p>\n

About 20 percent of Auckland buildings are in areas that are prone to floods and it was reported last year that\u00a0new homes are still being built in flood zones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Williams said it was something that many buyers should research before they bought a house. A property in a risky area could have a lower value. Some owners might not realise they were affected until they went to sell.<\/p>\n

Power pylons<\/h3>\n

McKnight earlier said a house that was less than 250 metres from a power line could be\u00a0worth up to 20 percent less<\/a>\u00a0than the same property not near the lines.<\/p>\n

“The further away you are the less impact. Once you get over 250m away, there was no discernible difference.”<\/p>\n

But he said if they were blocking an otherwise nice view, that could cut a property’s price by 27 percent.<\/p>\n

McKnight said lamppost cell towers and simple monopole towers made no impact. But armed monopoles could add about a 10 percent discount for houses very close to them.<\/p>\n

Flight paths<\/h3>\n

Davidson said anywhere that had planes flying closely overhead at regular intervals could face challenges.<\/p>\n

But an Airways and Auckland Airport report in 2018 said a new flight path over parts of Auckland did not impact property prices, media reported at the time.<\/p>\n

An earlier study in Brisbane said aircraft noise only had a minimal impact on property prices.<\/p>\n

Davidson said homes next to correctional faciilties could also face a stigma.<\/p>\n

A UK survey showed 36 percent of people would live by a prison but half would expect a discount in price of almost a third to do so.<\/p>\n

Apartments near Auckland’s Mt Eden Correctional Facility are valued at about $860,000, a similar price to some a few streets away. But in areas where there is less employment, the arrival of a prison can mean more work.<\/p>\n

Sewage ponds<\/h3>\n

Davidson said problems with sewage ponds,\u00a0as seen recently in Christchurch<\/a>, could devalue a property.<\/p>\n

Offensive odours have been a problem for the city’s eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n

Recently, locals complained that it was making them unwell and they had had to stay indoors.<\/p>\n

But it was\u00a0reported earlier<\/a>\u00a0this month that there had not yet been an impact on property values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House prices aren’t moving much in\u00a0many parts of the country\u00a0– but what could cause the value of your place to drop? Property experts say there are a few things that can happen to influence a property’s value – some within the owner’s control and some not. Messy neighbours Property economist Ed McKnight said having neighbours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16648,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16646\/revisions\/16648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}