House Prices

High end house prices push up averages

Strong demand for expensive houses is pushing up average prices, even as the market as a whole starts to ebb, according to Quotable Value New Zealand (QV).

Wednesday, December 08th 2021

They helped push national average house values to a record $1,029,820.

This happened despite an overall easing of the real estate market.

“While the November numbers look extremely bullish there are growing signs that this property growth cycle is starting to transition,” said QV general manager David Nagel.

“Real estate agents are reporting a significant upswing in listings, while open home attendance rates are falling. Some properties are being passed in at auctions, which was unheard of a few months ago.”
Nagel blamed this on rising interest rates, tougher rules on LVRs last month and a further tightening of credit rules with the CCCFA from December.

But offsetting this was a booming market in higher priced properties, where buyers with lots of equity are less affected by credit availability and affordability.

This meant the average value of a home increased 6.9% nationally over the three months til November, up from 5.3% quarterly growth in the three months til October.

The annual growth rate in the year til November was 28.4%, up from 27% in the year til October.

“We’ve broken the market down into quartiles to better understand which properties are showing the biggest increases in value,” Nagel said.

“In almost all cases the greatest price increases were occurring in the top 25% of properties by value.”

There have been anecdotal reports of wealthy expatriats returning from years in top paying jobs overseas because of Covid, and snapping up properties worth over $3 million. QV can't comment on that but says the wealthy end of the market is definitely where the price pressure is to be found.

This was the case in many parts of New Zealand.

In the Auckland region, the average value reached $1,482,005, with annual growth of 27.9% − even higher than October’s year-on-year growth of 24.8%.

Comments

No comments yet

Most Read

Unity First Home Buyer special 3.99
SBS FirstHome Combo 3.99
ICBC 4.25
TSB Special 4.39
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 4.39
SBS Bank Special 4.49
Unity Special 4.49
ANZ Special 4.49
Westpac Special 4.49
Kiwibank Special 4.49
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.49
Kainga Ora 4.49
ICBC 4.59
Nelson Building Society 4.67
Unity Special 4.69
ANZ Special 4.69
BNZ - Std 4.69
Wairarapa Building Society 4.79
Westpac Special 4.89
SBS Bank Special 4.89
Kiwibank Special 4.89
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.89
ICBC 4.99
Kainga Ora 5.15
Westpac Special 5.29
ASB Bank 5.69
TSB Special 5.69
BNZ - Std 5.69
SBS Bank Special 5.69
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.69
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.69
Kiwibank Special 5.79
Westpac 5.89
SBS FirstHome Combo 3.29
AIA - Back My Build 3.34
SBS Construction lending for FHB 3.74
CFML 321 Loans 3.95
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.99
Co-operative Bank - Standard 4.99
Heartland Bank - Online 5.30
ICBC 5.39
Kiwibank - Offset 5.65
Kiwibank 5.65
Kainga Ora 5.69

More Stories

Thursday, February 19th 2026

RBNZ expects slower house price growth in the current recovery

The Reserve Bank thinks house prices will rise at a much slower pace during the current recovery than they have in past cycles.

Wednesday, January 07th 2026

Queenstown not off the radar for first home buyers

First home buyers are not being deterred by Queenstown’s soaring house prices.

Record levels of first home buyers taking out low deposit loans

Tuesday, December 23rd 2025

Record levels of first home buyers taking out low deposit loans

About half of all first home buyer lending has been done at a less than 20% deposit in recent months.

Buyers sitting on the sidelines in best time to buy in a decade

Thursday, December 04th 2025

Buyers sitting on the sidelines in best time to buy in a decade

Stable house prices, low interest rates and plenty of houses to choose from are still not enticing buyers.