New Zealand: Property Values Ease Further
Quotable Value has released April’s figures for the New Zealand’s housing market. The average sale price of a house in New Zealand has decreased slightly to $388,465 (£152,339) from March’s $388,894 (£152,507). Property values have increased 4.9% over the calander year. New Zealand’s average house prices are not directly comparable with the UK’s because, unlike the UK, the average home in New Zealand is a detached bungalow.
QV spokesperson Blue Hancock said:
“Although the change in property values over the past 12 months is still positive at 4.9%, it’s interesting to look deeper into the figuresk. Most of this growth occurred in autumn last year, while values remained pretty flat through the second half of 2007. Over the first 3 months of 2008 we are beginning to see property values easing back over most areas of New Zealand. With property listings still high, buyer demand reducing and the typical slowdown through winter, we would expect this trend to continue and our monthly statistics will likely show declining values in the coming months.”
House Prices in New Zealand
Three Months Ending April 2008
| Location | Average House Price (NZ$) | Average House Price (£) | Comments |
| Auckland Region | $508,043 | £199,233 | Property values in the Auckland region grew by 4.7% over the past year down from 7.1% reported last month. Within Auckland City, quality properties in traditionally highly sought-after suburbs, such as Remuera, are taking longer to sell, but continue to achieve good prices. On the other hand well situated properties purchased as do-ups, and now renovated are unlikely to recover the project costs. Increasing building, compliance and finance costs have been impacting on the market for quite some time now. |
| Hamilton | $362,252 | £142,060 | Hamilton’s property values increased by 2.3% over the past year down from 3.4% reported last month. The Central City/North West area of Hamilton decreased to 2.0%, the South West 1.8%, Hamilton North East to 2.4% and South East Hamilton to 1.1%. |
| Wellington Region | $438,292 | £171,879 | Annual value increases are slowing significantly in all areas and the current growth of 5.6% is the lowest for three years and more than 10 percentage points less than the peak of 16.5% only eight months ago in August 2007. The highest growth in values is in Upper Hutt at 7.4%, and the lowest is in the Western Suburbs at 3.7% |
| Christchurch | $362,249 | £142,058 | The Property values in Christchurch increased by 4.6% over the past year, down from 5.8% reported last month. It is not all doom and gloom for the property market, while sales volumes are well down on a year ago and selling periods are longer, prices are showing resilience with many properties holding their own. The softening of the housing market is particularly affecting higher priced properties and ones with less attractive features. |
| Dunedin | $272,361 | £106,808 | Dunedin’s residential property values decreased 0.1% over the past year. There are still a significant number of listings providing good choice to prospective purchasers. Agents are reporting little interest in open homes, however there has been a significant increase in the use of the internet to assess the properties on the market. Properties that are realistically priced are still selling, with most activity in the $250,000 to $300,000 range. |
| Tauranga | $438,986 | £172,151 | Property values in Tauranga increased by 3.5% over the past year. The discounting of property asking prices is starting to become more prevalent. There is currently a genuine lack of interest in property in most locations and categories. While it is certainly not a sellers market; buyers still have to look at a number of homes before they find one that where the sellers price expectations are realistic. |
* Assumed exchange rate is £1 = NZ$2.55
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