Steady demand makes for rising values

Not only is this the second month in a row this has happened but the average national value has grown strongly too, according to QV’s House Price Index.

It was up by 4.4% year-on-year to and is now $714,747. This represents an increase of 2.5% over the past quarter.

QV general manager David Nagel says that while the volumes of transactions was low in January, there’s still plenty of interest from potential buyers looking at the limited stock on offer.

“This steady demand from right across the spectrum of buyers, coupled with the shortage of listings has meant values are continuing rise”.

New listings started to increase toward the end of January around most of the country, he says.

“But overall listings are reported to be down on the same time last year, which suggests the current trend of steady price growth is likely to continue in the short term.”

QV’s data shows that, of the main centres, Dunedin continues to out-perform the rest with quarterly value growth of 8.4% and annual value growth of 20.8%, which left the city’s average value at $527,101.

Dunedin was followed by Hamilton and Wellington with quarterly growth of 4.1% (to $616,316) and 3.6% (to $756,076) respectively, while the Wellington region also saw 9.0% annual value growth.

Nagel says that what’s of more interest is the first significant quarterly growth observed in Christchurch, which left the city’s average value of $510,575 in January.

Building on the strong December data, it recorded 2.1% value growth in the past three months and 2.7% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the formerly dormant Auckland market continues to rally. QV’s data shows the average value in the Auckland region now sits at $1,049,383.

That’s an increase of 1.7% over the last quarter and it’s contributed to the first positive year-on-year growth (of 0.3%) for Auckland since late 2018.

Auckland QV senior consultant Rupert Yortt says the picture of the region’s market is similar to December with few listings fuelling good levels of competition, large open home attendances and steady to slightly increasing values.

“With the market taking a bit of a break in January, the bulk of listings are just beginning to come on which may ease the pressure slightly although we expect the positive sentiment to remain for the foreseeable future.”

Of the smaller cities, Gisborne and Whanganui are the top performers recording annual value growth of 25.7% and 23.7% respectively. 

Looking at the regions, in the North Island the central locations of Ruapehu, Rangitieki, Manawatu and Kawerau experienced annual value growth ranging between 20-30%. In the South Island Clutha District recorded the strongest annual value growth with 25.3%.