North Shore's house prices surge

By ANNE GIBSON

The North Shore has become the most expensive region in which to buy an Auckland house as prices surged ahead by $72,000 in the past year.

Houses in the beachside suburbs rose by $655 a day last month to set a record of $379,000 compared with $360,000 in January this year and $307,000 a year back, according to the latest Real Estate Institute figures.

Although not all Auckland areas saw such price growth, the national median house price has risen. It was $229,000 in December and sank to $227,750 in January, but it recovered to $231,000 last month and institute president Graeme Woodley attributed the movements to seasonal fluctuations.

"The figures coming through for December and January gave the impression of a weaker market, but our advice at the time - not to read too much into those figures because of the interruptions of the holiday season - proved correct.

"In fact, the market is now looking as if it hasn't taken too much harm from deteriorating economic indicators and widespread predictions of a downturn," Mr Woodley said.

Increased medians were recorded in Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne, up from $188,000 in January to $192,500 in February, Manawatu/Wanganui, from $122,000 to $127,000, and Taranaki, up from $140,500 to $146,500.

The median in Canterbury/Westland was up from $185,000 to $200,000, Otago was up from $161,159 to $175,000 and Southland was up from $110,000 to $120,000.

Mr Woodley said Auckland prices were being affected by the number of low-priced apartments being built and sold.

The impact of apartment sales continued to make the city's property market hard to read and the medians were "continuing to jump about a bit", he said.

The Wellington median was unchanged for February at $255,000 while regions to experience a decline included Northland, down from $192,000 to $189,000, and Hawkes Bay, apparently having a breather after previous strong growth, with its median down from $190,000 to $185,000.

Medians in Nelson/Marlborough fell from $265,750 in January to $248,500 in February.

An annual comparison also saw Nelson/Marlborough conceding its previously strong lead, with growth over the past year of 24.25 per cent. Otago is now the strongest performing region, with median price growth of 48.3 per cent, according to the institute's figures.

Southland prices have grown by 39.53 per cent and Canterbury/Westland prices have risen by 35.13 per cent.

Auckland's growth on an annual basis is 10.92 per cent. Wellington is up 18.6 per cent, similar to the New Zealand total market price growth figure to February of 18.46 per cent.