Auckland house prices near 2007 peak

New Zealand has myriad property markets fuelled by a vast range of dynamics. Big cities, especially Auckland distort broad statistics. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Auckland City house values have continued to climb and will shortly break through the market peak of 2007 in real terms, the latest figures show.

Strong demand and a continued lack of listings last month saw property values in Greater Auckland jump 6.3 per cent in the past year, according to QV figures released yesterday.

Values have increased the most in Auckland City, up 7.1 per cent in the past year and up 3.2 per cent in the past three months.

When inflation is taken into account, Auckland City values remain 5.2 per cent below the peak, although at the current rate of increase they will soon surpass it.

"Auckland continues to be a sellers' market, with limited listings in most areas," said Jan O'Donohue, valuer for the Government-owned QV.

"Property investors and small developers are coming back into the market to the point whereby first-home buyers are struggling to match them and second-home buyers with equity."

Nationwide, residential values were up 4.6 per cent in the past year. That overall rise was driven by the Auckland and Christchurch markets. Values in Wellington remained flat over the past few months.

July figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show Auckland maintained its record median price of $500,000 for the third month in a row.

"In the Auckland real estate market it seems that winter has been cancelled, with strong demand right across the city," institute chief executive Helen O'Sullivan said, "although the inability of the median price to 'push on' indicates that buyers are still cautious about price."

There were 5907 unconditional sales nationwide last month - an increase of 19.9 per cent on last year, but a decline of 3.7 per cent compared with June.

"We are still seeing recovery, rather than boom conditions, when we compare the number of transactions in July with earlier years, such as July 2003 when over 10,000 transactions were recorded."

Demand outstripping listings in regions like Auckland was a long-term trend that was set to continue.