09 Aug New Zealand Property Market – Sales | Values | Home Loans
Auckland law firm Quay Law offering Property law and conveyancing services shares this media report with you. New Zealand Property values continue to increase, yet property sales volume appears to be falling and home loans | funding appear to be harder to access.
Property values continued their upward march in July, rising 8.1 per cent in the past year, according to valuation service QV.
However, sales appeared to be falling off because home loans were getting harder to access.
House values are now up 7.5 per cent above the 2007 market peak, and 3.1 per cent in the last three months.
QV’s operations manager Kerry Stewart said the market was still primarily driven by shortages in Auckland and Christchurch, while other main centres were growing more slowly.
Many of the provincial towns had previously started to see some small gains but they had levelled off over the last month.
Nationally, property sales had fallen since May at a greater level than was usually due to winter, partly because of a drop-off in home loan approvals.
“Many main banks [are] already tightening their lending policy in anticipation of policy changes from the Reserve Bank,” Stewart said.
In Auckland overall prices were up nearly 13 per cent, with Waitakere growing the fastest at nearly 14 per cent.
Stewart said there was patchy growth across the city and central Auckland was generally flat, as were areas more than 10km out of the city.
“Once you move out of the central area, commute times for example become a deterrent.
“However, we are still seeing good money being paid for normally average listings due to the lack of stock.”
Winter had slowed Hamilton’s growth spurt but values were still 3.8 per cent over the past year.
Local QV valuer Richard Allen said prices were rising in the north-east of the city and around Flagstaff, where a lot of construction was going on.
But entry level homes below $300,000 were a struggle to find.
The Wellington market showed small signs of growth, with prices up 2.8 per cent on the same month last year.
July had been relatively quiet, partly due to school holidays and probably also because of the recent earthquakes, valuer Pieter Geill said.
“The latter may mean buyers will start to focus more on the quality of buildings and their level of earthquake proofing. We are also seeing insurance becoming a standard condition of purchase.”
Christchurch property values have risen 10.8 per cent in the last year, with Banks Peninsula and central and northern parts of the city seeing the most rapid increases.
QV Valuer Jonathon Dix said first home buyers were trying to get into the market in the $500,000 and under bracket before Reserve Bank lending changes came into play.
A steady influx of rebuild workers also continued to put pressure on the market, pushing up demand for rentals.
– Source Fairfax NZ News (9 August 2013)