House prices rise again

It says average values increased 3.6% nationally over the three-month period to the end of September, up from the 3.3% quarterly growth in the three months til August.

The figures appear at first sight to end prospects that recent slowing of growth over several months would lead to a levelling out of house prices.  

That might allow affordability to start to slowly catch up. 

But the QV figures would appear to dent those hopes.  

The figures show the national average price of a house is $977,456.

In the Auckland region, the average value now sits at $1,391,598.

QV general manager David Nagel says the price rises are driven by a shortage of homes being offered and this has been made worse by the Covid lockdown in Auckland.

There might however be a change coming here – there are anecdotal stories of more agents being called in to do appraisals, which are a necessary precursor to a home being put on the market.

The strongest value gain for major urban areas came from Queenstown Lakes, which saw a 9.4% growth in value.

That was followed by Christchurch at 7.7%.

Not one urban area monitored by QV monitors had a decline but Rotorua grew by just 0.8%.

The latest quarterly increase is not enough to flow through to annual figures, though it comes close.  They show a 26.3% year-on-year growth level, down slightly from 26.6% in the annual rate til August.

The figures will need to be checked against the next values from REINZ, which uses slightly different methodology, to determine the trend once and for all.