Home buyers looking for a good deal and house with hidden potential might want to keep an eye on Auckland suburb Ōtara.

That's according to new research by analysts CoreLogic showing almost 70 per cent of Ōtara homes were bought more than 20 years ago and are still owned by the same buyer.

That puts Ōtara among the top 10 New Zealand suburbs with the highest share of long-term owners.

By comparison, only 27 per cent of homes across the entire Auckland region were bought before the year 2000 and are still owned by the same buyers.

CoreLogic's chief economist Kelvin Davidson said "longer-held" homes may offer buyers good deals for a variety of reasons.

That includes the fact that - while most people care for their homes - there is potentially more chance the upkeep in "longer-held" houses may have fallen behind, giving new buyers the chance to add value through renovations and because the owners have had more than 20 years of price growth.

"The owner has already seen a large rise in their asset value and might be less concerned about extracting every last dollar out of a sale value – with the buyer potentially getting a 'bargain'," Davidson told today's edition of the OneRoof Property Report.

The new analysis comes as Auckland and New Zealand housing prices have plunged in 2022.

Auckland's average property value fell 4.3 per cent in the three months to August, hitting $1.45m. Photo / 123rf

The September OneRoof Property Report shows house prices fell even faster over the past three months as national prices dropped 3.7 per cent to an average value of $1.04 million.

That included falls in 15 of New Zealand's 16 regions, the OneRoof Valocity House Value Index showed.

Auckland's average property value, meanwhile, was down 4.3 per cent over the three months to the end of August, hitting $1.45m - its sixth successive quarterly decline since the end of March.

In addition to slumping house prices, there were 31 per cent fewer sales completed across New Zealand in the last quarter compared to the same period last year.

The slow market made it a good time for buyers to look at innovative ways of dissecting the market - such as through the data about which areas had the longest-held homes, CoreLogic's Davidson said.

He said the fact Ōtara homes had been owned for so long meant there was a chance more houses in the suburb would be listed for sale soon as previous owners become older and begin downsizing or selling up investments.

The suburb was also among the cheapest in Auckland with an average value of $872,000, OneRoof-Valocity data showed.

In August that meant there were almost 40 homes listed for sale for less than $1m in the suburb, according to OneRoof-Valocity.

Elsewhere across New Zealand, 27 per cent of all homes in the CoreLogic data were bought before the year 2000 and are still owned by the same owners, including 14 per cent purchased before 1980.

Close to 90 per cent of homes in Ruatoria in Gisborne were bought before the year 2000 and are still owned by the same owners. Photo / 123rf

Another 20 per cent were bought in the 2000s decade, while 53 per cent were bought since 2010, including 14 per cent since 2020.

Ruatoria in Gisborne was the New Zealand town or suburb with the longest-held homes with close to 90 per cent of properties being bought before the year 2000 and still owned by the same owners.

Te Kaha in Opotiki and Moerewa in the Far North were the next two towns with more than 70 per cent of homes having been owned for longer than 20 years.

Davidson said while might sound "mercenary" to keep an eye out for longer-held homes, it could help first-home buyers at a time when many are struggling.

Today's OneRoof Property Report noted 2022 has been difficult for first home buyers but there were signs they were now "waking" from their "slumber".

Rising interest rates, still high house prices and tough lending rules that made it harder to secure home loans all led to a drop off in first home buyers during 2022.

Almost 70 per cent of Ōtara homes in Auckland were bought more than 20 years ago, giving buyers the chance to find hidden gems. Photo / 123rf

The Government's Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act had, in particular, led banks to go through the expenses and bank statements of would-be borrowers with a "magnifying glass".

However, property pundits told OneRoof, buyers had since recalculated their finances to account for high interest rates and a loosening of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act had contributed to more "newbie" buyers dipping toes back into the market.

Rupert Gough, CEO and owner of the Mortgage Lab, said while higher interest rates were pushing up home loan repayments, falling prices and less buyer competition were making up for it.

"I think there was a lot of despair around 'I can't find a house' a year ago and now it's back to 'I can't afford the house I want'. That's a huge change," he said.