House prices continue to rise in the main centres but are falling in provincial centres according to QV’s latest stats.

Nationally, average house prices have risen 1.1% over the last three months and 2.7% over the year to sit 3.3% below the 2007 market peak with an average sales price of $396,958.

“While national values are continuing to increase, this is not universal across the country. While the combined main urban areas and combined rural areas have increased over the past few months, the combined provincial areas have begun to slide back again,” QV’s research director Jonno Ingerson says.

One of the reasons the provincial prices were starting to slide back was because of a slight price increase in the back-end of last year, which appears to have been a short lived thing driven by confidence and catch-up after the World Cup and election, Mr Ingerson says.

Auckland was the fastest increasing main centre with average prices up 2.1% over the last three months and 5.1% over the year. The average price across Auckland was $527,617, 1.9% above the 2007 market peak.

Auckland City was the strongest performer in the area, with an average price of $610,760 up 7.2% from a year ago and 4.4% above the 2007 peak. The North Shore had an average price of $579,246 up 4.1% and 0.9% above peak prices.

“There’s a feeling a lot of the increase in Auckland is driven by an artificial market where’s there not a lot of supply of good property and so those that come up are fought over. It’s the whole supply and demand thing, there’s not a lot of supply, a lot of demand and prices are getting pushed up,” Mr Ingerson says.

Wellington values recovered 0.3% on a year ago, after falling for most of last year to an average price of $500,063, 6.4% below peak prices.

The average house price was $377,040 in Christchurch, up 3.7% on a year ago and 0.3% below peaks.

The Waimakariri and Selwyn districts in the Canterbury region had the largest increases over the year, rising 10.5% and 8.7% respectively. Waimakariri average prices are 5.2% above peak prices to $363,549 and Selwyn prices are 5.3% above peaks to $420,348.

“It’s all due to earthquake, the moment the earthquake happened people were looking elsewhere and that drove prices up. There quite big council districts, we’re talking about the house in those areas and they tend to be in one or two main little towns.

“It's Rangiora in Waimakariri and its Rolleston and Lincoln in Selwyn that are pumping it up,” Mr Ingerson says.