House prices: Taupō property values buck the trend

Taupō property prices have remained almost unchanged over the first quarter of 2023. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Taupō is a rare exception as home values around the country take their biggest first-quarter fall in more than 15 years.

Despite an ongoing downturn in the real estate market, the districts of Taupō and Thames-Coromandel were the only two Waikato districts to record value increases in Quotable Value’s latest quarterly QV House Price Index.

Property values in Taupō increased by a modest 0.3 per cent, with Thames-Coromandel up 0.1 per cent since January 1. Values decreased across the Waikato region by 2.6 per cent.

Nationally, the residential property downturn appeared to be gaining momentum, with home values making their largest first-quarter fall in more than 15 years.

The latest QV House Price Index for March showed property values decreased across the country by an average of 3.9 per cent since the start of the year – weakening further from the 2.7 per cent three-monthly decline in February, and the 1.7 per cent three-monthly decline recorded in January.

The average home value across the country is now $907,737, which is 13.3 per cent less than the same time last year.

It is a significantly larger first-quarter decline than at the same time last year, when residential property values dropped by an average of 0.6 per cent through the first three months of 2022.

In fact, QV reports the closest comparable start to a calendar year was in 2008, amid the Global Financial Crisis, when home values dropped by an average of 1.1 per cent, from January to March.

The latest QV figures show the rolling three-monthly rate of reduction increased last month in all but two of the country’s 16 largest urban areas, with the most significant quarterly home value reductions occurring, on average, in Whangārei at -6.6 per cent and Rotorua at -5.7 per cent.

Of the largest cities, Auckland at -5.2 per cent, Hamilton at -5.2 per cent and Wellington at -4.8 per cent led the decline. Christchurch at -1.2 per cent and Hastings at -2 per cent were the two exceptions – the former experiencing the smallest decline of the main centres.

QV national spokesperson Simon Petersen said it was unusual to see home value declines at this time of year, due to it being one of the busier periods for buying and selling real estate.

“But it’s obviously a tough time right now for prospective buyers, who are having to deal with very significant credit constraints amidst an ongoing cost of living crisis.”