Average Dunedin home now over $330000

The average value of a New Zealand home rose 15 percent from the year earlier to $612,527 in August, still slower than the 16 percent gain in Auckland property values which took the average value in the region to $1,013,632, QV said in a statement.

“One thing’s for sure New Zealand’s housing market is set to soar for a while yet”, says Century 21 New Zealand National Manager Geoff Barnett.

ONE News’ political editor Corin Dann says people are rushing to get in ahead of new LVR lending restrictions.

The average value of a home country-wide is $612, 537-pushed up no doubt by those figures in Auckland, where prices have increased nearly 16 percent over the past year. Wellington, the national capital, saw the second-quickest increase, up 17.7 percent to an average sale price of NZD643,986.

Hamilton also continued to see quick growth, with an increase of 29.3 per cent.

The company recently announced their listings had seen a 97% jump for the month of July compared to the same time past year, a contrast to other industry figures which reported a drop in nationwide property listings.

Other main centres to see significant growth include Whangarei, Rotorua and Queenstown, with annual jumps of more than 25 per cent each.

The $24.4 million of funding will allow community housing providers to receive a grant worth 50 per cent of any new social housing they build, or a weekly grant of up to 50 per cent of a property’s market rent.

Christchurch’s housing market, however, remains “relatively flat with a shortage of listings” and values had increased by just 3.5 per cent since a year ago to an average of $492,766.

Values there were 85.5% higher than the previous peak of 2007, QV spokeswoman Andrea Rush said.

The Auckland market increased 15.9% in the year ended August and 6.1% in the past three months. From next month onwards, investors will generally need a 40 percent deposit for a mortgage loan, while owner-occupiers will generally require a deposit of 20 percent.

QV Auckland spokesperson Jan O’Donoghue agreed that the new lending restrictions have definitely made a difference.

As expected, the QV average value for Auckland topped $1 million for the first time.

“We saw a similar trend about this time past year when new LVRs of a 30 percent deposit were announced for investors in the Auckland region”, O’Donoghue said.

On Monday it reiterated it was raising deposit requirements for residential property investors to take some of the heat out of the housing market.