Lack of quality listings on the market

Jonno Ingerson, research director for QV, says "valuers, particularly in Auckland and Wellington, are reporting that there is a general lack of well-presented, quality properties on the market at present. Those that do come up are selling quickly and for good prices."

He says properties that are not well presented and lacking maintenance or have perceived flaws are either failing to sell or buyers are discounting their offers accordingly.

QV says the lack of sales in the market is due to some buyers choosing to hold back to see where the market will go, while others cannot find a suitable property. The other reason is possibly because of some financially secure vendors in the market, who are happy to hold out for their desired sale price rather than being tempted by low offers.

The majority of main urban areas throughout the country have remained stable in terms of value and are currently at or around the same value as this time last year, although activity and value is dependent on local market conditions.

Values in the Auckland area increased steadily through most of 2009 and early 2010 before falling slightly for a couple of months in April and May, and since then have remained relatively stable according to QV's latest data.

As a result, values are still 4.3% above the same time last year, but this gap is continuing to close.

In the Wellington area values have dropped 2.8% since April and are now only 0.3% above where they were the same time last year.

Values in Dunedin have been variable in recent months but have dropped since March and are now 1.5% above the same time last year.

Unlike the other main centres, Hamilton and Tauranga did not see a significant increase in values this time last year. In both cities values have been dropping for most of this year and are now below the same time last year by -1.4% in Hamilton and -1.8% in Tauranga.

In the provincial centres values have been more or less stable for the past few months and there are signs that values may have increased over the last month in many towns.

As a result, values in most of the provincial centres remain above the same time last year, although the gap continues to close:

The following towns' values remain above last year: Napier (2.6%), New Plymouth (2.5%), Wanganui (3%), Nelson (2.4%), Queenstown (2.6%) and Invercargill (2.3%) all remain above last year.

The following towns have values similar to last year: Rotorua (1.3%) and Hastings (0.7%) have, while Whangarei (-2.7%), Gisborne (-0.7%) and Palmerston North (-0.3%) have values lower than this time last year.