Top-end prices take battering in recession

Top-end homes throughout New Zealand have taken a price battering.

Only Wellington and Christchurch appear to have withstood the real estate storm which has seen prices fall by as much as 25 per cent.

Latest data from qv.co.nz show Queenstown Lakes District and Tauranga have been hit hardest.

"The power is with the buyers. It's a good time to upgrade if you can afford it," Jonno Ingerson, the research director of qv.co.nz, says.

Ingerson's figures from 2007 show prices for properties worth around $1.6 million have plunged 25 per cent in the Queenstown Lakes District.

Tauranga top-end houses - around $820,000 - have fallen 17.5 per cent, North Shore ($1.24m) 10 per cent, Auckland City ($1.5m) 6 per cent.

In Wellington the middle and bottom parts of the market had performed the worst, while Manukau's lower end got the biggest walloping.

Christchurch's top-end properties, valued around $720,000, have dropped just under 4 per cent, while Wellington's ($810,000) dropped 1.3 per cent.

Everyone had less disposable income now.