Residential property market declines in December
Residential property prices are 0.9 percent below a year ago and 5.8 percent below the market peak of 2007 in the December report of Quotable Value (QV).
Residential property prices are 0.9 percent below a year ago and 5.8 percent below the market peak of 2007 in the December report of Quotable Value (QV).
The property market continued to decline in December but the latest survey carried out by QV.co.nz suggested some consumer confidence may be returning.
"There are now more people who think that house prices will rise in 2011 than those who believe they will fall," said QV.co.nz research director Jonno Ingerson.
The December report showed up differences between rural and urban areas.
Values of residential properties across all rural areas stayed relatively flat through until May last year before steadily dropping for the rest of the year. By the end the year values were 2.5 percent below the same time last year.
In major urban areas values rose through until April before starting to decline. The rate of decline slowed towards the end of the year, and values ended the year 1.1 percent below the same time last year.
Values in the Auckland area ended the year 0.6 percent above the same time last year, while values in Wellington ended the year 2.2 percent below the same time last year.
Values rose in Auckland between January and March then slid back until July, while Wellington region values increased by about 1 percent through until April before rapidly dropping away until October when they flattened, then rose slightly from November to December.
Mr Ingerson expected an oversupply of property for sale to continue for the first half of this year.
At some stage in 2012 or so the lack of building activity over the last couple of years and a steadily increasing population was likely to increase demand for housing, he said.
QV did not publish updates for Christchurch City, Selwyn or Waimakariri, citing low volumes and a delay in sales activity after the Canterbury earthquake on September 4.
NZPA
Thu, 13 Jan 2011
Thu, 13 Jan 2011
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Residential property market declines in December
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