House prices fall in Auckland City and Nelson

Central Auckland is one of only two areas in the country where property values have fallen, bucking the national trend that has seen values rise 13.5 per cent in the last year.

Quotable Value released data today which showed house prices dipped only in Auckland City and Nelson in the year to January. In every other area, prices rose.

Quotable Value defines Auckland City as the CBD, Parnell, Ponsonby, Herne Bay, Arch Hill and Pt Chevalier and said the average sale price in those zones was $389,756.

The index showed values down 1.8 per cent in Auckland City and 3.1 per cent in Nelson.

But they rose 12.1 per cent in Waitakere, 9.6 per cent on the North Shore, 6.3 per cent in Auckland's eastern suburbs and 8.1 per cent in Manukau City.

Values were flat in previous hot spots Tasman and Queenstown.

Blue Hancock of QV Valuations said the Auckland and Nelson slowdown was predictable, although the areas had shown drops for the first time since the boom began.

Those areas which peaked first and had highest growth in property values were the first to slow, he said. Other areas which were slow to pick up were still showing good growth but would soon follow the trend towards a slowdown, he predicted.

"If this trend continues, we expect the areas which were initially slow to follow the cycle upward will begin to also slow down," Mr Hancock said.

The Quotable Value data on Auckland has been confirmed by earlier information supplied by an industry organisation and a real estate agency.

The Real Estate Institute said last month that fewer homes were sold in the Auckland region in December and the city's median price had dropped by $2000 to $350,000.

The city's largest realtor, Barfoot & Thompson, attributed an Auckland house price drop last month to seasonal fluctuations.

Barfoots sold 878 houses last month for an average price of $454,345, compared with 736 in December for an average $466,529.

QV uses an index rather than a median or average monthly sales figures to measure changes. The Real Estate Institute uses a median number and Barfoot & Thompson tracks trends using an average.

QV says it avoids collecting data in this way because of distortions by changes in the housing stock being sold. A decline in the number of high- value properties sold in any one month can artificially deflate figures, even though the prices or values are still rising.

QV's residential price movement index calculates the annual change in property values by using sales data and capital values to create a total index for an area. Data will be released monthly