Hot property: Wellington house values up 21 percent in 2016

  • Updated
  • 01/03/2017
Real estate
(File)

The latest Quotable Value house price figures have come out, showing Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton and even Tauranga have dropped in value, but Wellington is on the rise.

Loan to value ratio (LVR) restrictions have had an impact on house prices around a number of cities, but nationwide property values are still heading up, QV National spokeswoman Andrea Rush says.

"We saw the same trend of negative growth seen in parts of the Auckland market this time last year following the introduction of the 30 percent LVR rules for investors."

  • Nationwide residential property values for February increased 13.5 percent over the past year;
  • Values rose by 1.1 percent over the past three months;
  • The average value nationwide is $631,349;
  • The average value across the wider Wellington region is now $589,784.

"Meanwhile, values in the Wellington region continue to accelerate with values up more than 21 percent over the past year and 4.3 percent over the past quarter."

Hastings, Rotorua and Queenstown Lakes District also saw values rise more than 20 percent.

Governments have failed New Zealand - economist

Leading economist Shamubeel Eaqub says the current and past governments have failed the country on rocketing house prices.

"There is not enough political spine in this country to actually do something about it. There is not enough leadership, there is not enough bravery, to implement the policies that we know very well exist," he told The AM Show.

"There is a reason for having rules and regulations, because there's a greater public good - that's the job of Government.

"It really frightens me because the reality is that we've had six or seven governments since the early '90s that have completely and utterly failed to get on top of this."

First home buyers who aren't affected by the LVR rules account for more than 30 percent of sales in the Wellington region currently, CoreLogic Buyer Classification data says.

QV figures
(qv.co.nz)

One area where open homes are getting crowded is Kapiti.

"The Kapiti market is also still buoyant with strong activity and demand for housing on the coast resulting in a rapid rise in home values over the past year although the rate of increase appears to have stabilised recently," QV homevalue Registered Valuer, David Cornford says.

"Currently the supply of properties for sale is not keeping up with demand and we can expect this imbalance to continue for some time as more people move into the region as transport links continue to improve."

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