Residential property market declines in December

Thursday 13th January 2011

Residential property prices are 0.9% below a year ago and 5.8% below the market peak of 2007 in the December report of Quotable Value (QV).

The property market continued to decline in December but the latest survey carried out by QV.co.nz suggested some consumer confidence may be returning.

"There are now more people who think that house prices will rise in 2011 than those who believe they will fall," said QV.co.nz research director Jonno Ingerson.

The December report showed up differences between rural and urban areas.

Values of residential properties across all rural areas stayed relatively flat through until May last year before steadily dropping for the rest of the year. By the end the year values were 2.5% below the same time last year.

In major urban areas values rose through until April before starting to decline. The rate of decline slowed towards the end of the year, and values ended the year 1.1% below the same time last year.

Values in the Auckland area ended the year 0.6% above the same time last year, while values in Wellington ended the year 2.2% below the same time last year.

Values rose in Auckland between January and March then slid back until July, while Wellington region values increased by about 1 percent through until April before rapidly dropping away until October when they flattened, then rose slightly from November to December.

Ingerson expected an oversupply of property for sale to continue for the first half of this year.

At some stage in 2012 or so the lack of building activity over the last couple of years and a steadily increasing population was likely to increase demand for housing, he said.

QV did not publish updates for Christchurch City, Selwyn or Waimakariri, citing low volumes and a delay in sales activity after the Canterbury earthquake on September 4.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

No comments yet