QV says house prices rose 3.2% in 2018

By Jenny Ruth

Jan. 16 (BusinessDesk) - Quotable Value says its house price index rose 3.2 percent in the year ended December, a slowdown from November’s 3.5 percent annual reading.

The average house price nationwide is now $682,938 while the average house price in the Auckland region fell 0.4 percent to $1.05 million.

The only other district with average prices in the millions is Queenstown Lakes. The average price there is $1,193,225, up 7.3 percent on a year ago.

At the other extreme, the average house price in Buller is $190,262, up 6.2 percent on a year ago.

“The data is in line with what we anticipated: the busy Christmas period can mean that people put off buying or selling until the quieter New Year period,” says QV general manager David Nagel. “As a result, we often don’t see any dramatic changes in market activity or value growth – which appears to have been the case early this year.”

Nevertheless, Nagel says the loosening of loan-to-valuation restrictions from Jan. 1 should mean new first-home buyers and investors will enter the market in coming months.

“I don’t anticipate this impact to be overly significant but it may help drive a busy property market in the early stages of 2019,” he says.

Within the Auckland region, North Shore values fell 1.1 percent from a year ago and the former Auckland City Council central suburbs fell 1 percent. Prices in Manukau rose 1.2 percent, those in Papakura gained 0.6 percent and prices in both Franklin and Rodney climbed 1.1 percent.

Prices in the Wellington region rose 7.8 percent on a year ago. Prices in the capital itself climbed 7.4 percent but prices in Upper Hutt jumped 12.1 percent

In Christchurch, prices are either holding or dropping slightly, with the average value in the city up 0.5 percent from a year ago at $496,562.

Prices in Dunedin jumped 11.2 percent to an average $434,903.

While QV says these figures are for December, its index is based on settled house sales and are prepared on a three-month rolling average basis, so its data can include house sales that went unconditional as long ago as September or even earlier.

It lags the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s figures which are based on unconditional sales and are therefore a more timely measure of housing market activity. The REINZ data for sales that went unconditional in December is due out on Thursday.

(BusinessDesk)

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