The housing market appears to be picking up after the holiday season, with prices higher over the past three months and Auckland showing its strongest quarterly growth since November 2016.
The latest monthly QV House Price Index shows nationwide residential property values for January increased 6.4 per cent over the past year and 3.8 per cent over the past three months.
The nationwide average value is now $671,531. When adjusted for inflation, the annual increase drops slightly to 4.7 per cent.
Residential property value growth across the Auckland Region increased 0.7 per cent in the year to January and 1.6 per cent over the past three months, the highest rate of growth since November 2016.
The average value for the Auckland Region is now $1,054,974. When adjusted for inflation, Auckland values dropped 0.9 per cent over the past year.
“It's likely we can expect moderate value growth to continue during February and March
"Market activity across the nation appears to be picking up now that people have returned to work from the holiday season," said QV General Manager David Nagel.
He expects price growth to continue this month and next.
"The easing of the LVR restrictions for both investors and home buyers this month, along with continued strong net migration, low interest rates, and a shortage of housing supply means it's likely we can expect moderate value growth to continue during February and March which are annually the busiest months in the housing market," he said.
January has seen values continue to rise in many places around New Zealand but they've dropped in others and in general activity has been slower in many places over the holiday season, Mr Nagel said.
"Values in Auckland are now rising with quarterly growth up 1.6 per cent, which is a greater increase compared to the last quarter of 2017," he said.
The Wellington market continues to rise, however growth has slowed in the Hutt Valley, Mr Nagel said.
Values across the wider Wellington Region rose nine per cent over the past year to 634,811 last month. Values across the region rose four per cent over the past three months.
The Christchurch market remains flat while the Dunedin market continues to see a trend of steady value growth seen there throughout 2017, Mr Nagel said.
Christchurch City values have dropped slightly, down 0.6 per cent over the past year to $494,459. However, values have increased slightly by 0.8 per cent over the past quarter.
Dunedin City values rose 9.3 per cent over the past year to $392,512. Values also increased 2.6 per cent over the past three months.
Growth around the regions
Meanwhile the growth in values across many smaller provincial centres in the North Island continues. Over the past three months, there were notable value increases in Whanganui, South Waikato, Waitomo, Opotiki, Rangitikei and Carterton among others.
And it's been a strong year of growth north of Auckland, with Whangarei and Kaipara both experiencing annual increases of 10 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively.
In the South Island, regional centres including Grey, Waitaki, Clutha and Southland have experiencing notable increases over the past quarter.
Most notably, Mackenzie continues its significant growth up 10.3 percent over the past three months and 27.1 per cent since January 2017.
But growth in Queenstown Lakes has dropped slightly to 2.2 per cent over the last three months although growth remains very strong over the past year.
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