House price growth ‘runs out of puff’ in cities

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Updated: 6:40am – The housing market is continuing to stall as people wait for political parties to form the next government.

Latest data from QV shows house price growth around the country slowing, with the national average climbing 4.3 percent in the year to September.

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In Auckland, though values had grown 0.8 percent over the year, they dropped back in the last three months to an average of $1,039,066.

Values fell in a number of Auckland suburbs, including the North Shore and Waitakere, while rising in Rodney and the city centre.

QV national spokesperson David Nagel said the usual spring surge in listings had not happened yet.

“The reductions in quarterly value growth have extended from just the main centres last month to almost all the 15 major urban areas we track with the exception of Rotorua, Palmerston North, Dunedin and Invercargill,” he said.

Year-on-year growth was showing double digit gains in many provincial towns, but the quarterly figures revealed a gradual slowing of the property market in almost all city locations, he said.

“Values are reflecting small decreases in all but a few isolated pockets of Auckland while Tauranga and Christchurch have also shown a small decline over the past quarter.”

“While the property markets appear to have run out of puff in the main urban areas, there’s still plenty of activity in the smaller provincial towns which were slower getting started.”

Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly

Mr Nagel said the market was keeping a watch on who would form the next government.

“What will be most interesting will be whether a new government supports the relaxing of the Reserve Bank’s LVR restrictions as well as what support policies get rolled out to help first-home buyers get on to the property escalator,” he said.

The national average price has risen from August to September to $646,378.

-RNZ

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