FILE
Residential property values have dipped in Rotorua - but one real estate expert says the market is starting to pick up.
QuotableValue (QV) statistics for January showed the average property value for a house in Rotorua was $270,990 - 0.8 per cent down on January 2014.
Ian McDowell, managing director of McDowell Professionals, said the market was looking up despite a drop in value.
"Our market has been depressed for the past six or seven years but it started, in the last quarter of 2014, to pick up," he said. "[The increase] was steamed basically by out of town buyers and people coming back from Australia.
"This seems to be continuing into the new year so there has been a lot of activity in January."
Mr McDowell said property prices had experienced a lull but were starting to increase again.
"The lower priced investment properties have all dropped in value over the last six years and the middle investment properties have remained static, although some have come down a little bit.
"But certainly prices are starting to build back up again now."
Mr McDowell said in certain price ranges there was a sellers' market while in others there was a buyers' market.
"It has been very much a buyers' market for a good long time and it's starting to turn," he said.
"We have some people coming back from Australia who are looking at middle price range, the $350-$500,000 [range], and there is quite a strong demand for those properties so they are struggling to buy. In this price range it is a sellers' market," he said.
Bayleys Rotorua branch manager Beth Millard said despite the market being "super busy" prices wouldn't necessarily go up.
"[Prices] will rise in time, but not right now. It's all about supply and demand, there really needs to be a large population increase in Rotorua before there's any significant rise in price."
Ms Millard said she didn't put any stock in valuations, like those in the QV data, when it came to actually selling property.
"Twenty one years in real estate has taught me that a house is worth what someone will pay for it. [The QV statistics] reflect market confidence, based on current activity, a change in the market's activity shouldn't be confused with a change in actual value," she said.
Countrywide, residential property prices for January increased by 5.7 per cent over the past year.
Average residential property prices were 19.2 per cent above the previous market peak of late 2007.
QV national spokeswoman Andrea Rush said Auckland's property market played a big part in value increases throughout the country.
"The nationwide increase in values is mainly being driven by Auckland which has seen a continued acceleration in values," she said. "However, the other main cities and many provincial centres are now also showing more moderate increases in value as well."
Ms Rush said lowering interest rates would make things easier for home buyers.
"Interest rates have come down again and there have been suggestions a possible lowering of the Official Cash Rate this year could make borrowing even more affordable," she said.
"However, for first home buyers, the requirement for a 20 per cent deposit due to the Loan-to-Value Ratio restrictions is still too great a hurdle for many."