The latest QV house price index showed residential property values increased in Dunedin by an average of 0.7% throughout the three months to the end of October. The city’s average home value was now $614,389, 5.5% lower than the same time last year.
In a statement, local QV registered valuer Rebecca Johnston said real estate agents were reporting increases in open home attendance and multi-offer situations.
The number of houses for sale on the market had also increased but there was still a tightening of supply versus demand overall and that was putting some upward pressure on prices, Miss Johnston said.
Residential property values were also up across the wider Otago region including Central Otago (0.9%), Clutha (0.6%) and Waitaki (0.5%).
In Queenstown, the average home value increased by 1% to $1.73 million in the October quarter, which was a fraction of a percentage point higher than last month’s quarterly rate of home value growth. The average home value was now 1.8% higher than the same time last year compared to a 4.6% average annual home value decline nationally.
In Invercargill, the average value increased by 0.4% in October to $469,812. That figure had now grown by 2.4% this quarter but still remained 0.8% lower than the same time last year.
Invercargill registered valuer Andrew Ronald said October marked the fourth consecutive month that home values had increased on average in the southern city.
“Values have stopped falling now and are beginning to strengthen, but there’s still less demand overall than there was at the start of the downturn, with only a limited number of investors active in the market since interest rates increased and tax deductibility rules changed,” Mr Ronald said.
Nationally, the average home increased in value by 2.1% over the three-month period — an improvement on the 0.9% quarterly home value increase reported at the end of September — and the national average now sat at $907,387. It followed three consecutive months of modest growth, including by 0.9% last month.
Just three of the 16 main urban centres monitored by QV recorded reductions this quarter: Whangarei (-0.4%), Hamilton (-0.2%) and New Plymouth (-2.8%). New Zealand’s largest centre experienced some of the largest gains: Auckland (2.7%), Wellington (2.5%) and Christchurch (1.8%).
QV operations manager James Wilson said the housing market was increasingly showing signs of recovery in the context of a low level of sales activity and challenging economic conditions.
Interest rates and credit constraints continued to act as a handbrake but there were increasing signs of life across much of the country.
The recovery had largely been fuelled by first-home buyers in the more affordable areas but that recovery was now starting to be seen spreading into the largest urban areas, up the property ladder and into some of the higher value brackets, he said.
— Staff reporter
