Annual growth in New Zealand house values slowed for the third straight month in April as the once-robust property market continued to cool, government agency Quotable Value (QV) said today.
The Quotable Value house price index rose 13.1 per cent per cent in April from a year earlier, easing from14.8 per cent annual growth in March and 15.3 per cent in February.
"The most recent activity over the past 2-3 months indicates that prices are beginning to level off, in comparison with the same period in 2005," QV spokesman Blue Hancock said in a statement.
"We expect to see the annual growth in values continue to flatten over the coming months."
The strength of the housing market was a key factor behind the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's nine interest rates rises since January 2004.
Last month, the central bank held its cash rate steady at 7.25 per cent and repeated that it expected to keep it there for the rest of this year because of persistent inflation concerns.
Annual growth in house values in the main centres eased in April, with the capital Wellington up 12 per cent from 12.6 per cent in March, and Christchurch in the South Island up 13.8 per cent from 15.9 per cent in March.
Residential property values in Auckland City rose an annual 8.9 per cent in April, down from 9.4 per cent in March.
The average national house sale price eased 0.3 per cent in April from March to $324,141, according to QV data. The monthly residential price report is based on sale prices of properties over the most recent three months compared with sales over the corresponding three-month period a year earlier. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.
The QV data compares with data from industry group, Real Institute of New Zealand, which last month reported a 7.7 per cent annual rise in the national median house price in March, but a 3 per cent decline in house sales.
