Auckland still driving national values up

QV’s monthly House Price Index shows the average residential property value in the Auckland region is now $918,153 - up from $896,676 in September.

Values in the Auckland market continue to rise rapidly.

They have increased 24.4% year on year, 7.3% over the past three months and they are now 68.0% higher than the 2007 market peak. 

Once adjusted for inflation, values went up 23.9% over the past year and are 42.8% more than in 2007.

QV national spokesperson Andrea Rush said high net migration and record low interest rates were fuelling the ongoing rises.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests that the market may have cooled somewhat in anticipation of regulatory measures being introduced by the Government and the Reserve Bank,” she said.

“But there is still no sign that this is having any impact on rising values in the Super City region.”

Activity in the Auckland region does appear to have eased slightly, QV’s Northern operations manager Jan O’Donoghue said

This could be due to uncertainty caused by the introduction of the new changes aimed at curbing investors in the Auckland market.

“The new policies seem to have taken the wind out of the sales of the Auckland housing market over recent weeks,” she said.

“However, values are still rising so it may take some time before we know if these moves will have any impact on values.”

While there are reports of auction clearance rates dropping to lower than 50%, O’Donoghue said sales volumes are 30.0% higher than this time last year.

“So, despite reports of fewer people attending open homes and auctions, realistically prices homes are still selling well across the city.”

Auckland’s continued rise in values also pushed nationwide residential property values up in October.

The average value nationwide is now $552,345 - up from $542,277 in September.

This is an increase of 14.0% over the past year and is the fastest rate of increase since March 2006.

Nationwide values rose 4.7% over the past three months, which leaves them 33.3% above the 2007 peak.

Once adjusted for inflation, the nationwide annual increase drops slightly to 13.6%, leaving values 13.3% more than in 2007.

Rush said that many upper North island centres including Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, the Waikato and Hauraki Districts, Whangarei and Rotorua are continuing to show significant increases in values.

For example, in Hamilton, the average value is now $429,829.

This is an increase of 10.2% over the past three months and 18.2% year on year, which leaves values 18.9% higher than in 2007.

The Wellington and Dunedin markets are also now starting to show a definite upward tick, while the Christchurch market is relatively flat in comparison, Rush said.

“There continues to be a shortage of listings in some areas while sales activity and demand has picked up in many parts of the country which is usual for the spring season.”