Christchurch house market peaks interests of overseas buyers

The demand for mansions and large homes in Christchurch is growing, fuelled by wealthy people choosing to move to the city from other parts of New Zealand and from overseas.

The spike goes against the trends, as property prices for most Canterbury homes are flattening out.

Bayleys real estate agent Adam Heazlewood has several large homes currently listed on the market.

He had noticed a marked increase in the number of inquiries from people living out of town, as well as a lot of interest from people in Australia and the United Kingdom.

He believed progress on the rebuild, especially of the central city, had contributed to the interest.

"The things I'm hearing from day to day are a lot more positive about what Christchurch is going to offer," he said.

The property figures were released by Trade Me yesterday, and compare the average asking prices last month to those at the same time last year.

Property prices have risen significantly each year since the earthquakes, but the latest figures show the growth may be slowing.

They show the average price for medium-sized, three to four-bedroom homes in Christchurch rose less than one per cent in that time, to $491,650.

But the average price for large homes with five bedrooms or more rose more than 12 per cent, from about $650,000 to $732,450.

Harcourts Christchurch business development manager Mike Mullen said there had been a lot of interest in bigger or higher priced homes.

He said there had been a lot of inquiries from overseas buyers, and a tighter market with fewer properties available could also contribute.

"The pressure's certainly there, and anything that is a reasonable property certainly has a lot of interest in it."

He said the Harcourts sales figures also showed the rise in prices across the market were slowing, but it did not track the difference between larger and smaller homes.