House prices drop further

Wanganui City PHOTO/FILE

Wanganui property values have again dropped, as the growth rate slowed across the country last month, new figures reveal.

Average Wanganui values fell 1.8 per cent to $186,560 in the year to January. Across the region, values remained well down on the 2007 market peak.

Nationwide, values increased 9.6 per cent over the past 12 months to $467,499, and are up 12.8 per cent since 2007.

Property Brokers Wanganui manager Philip Kubiak said the drop in values was not significant and reflected the fact that more lower-priced properties had been selling.

January sales were a marked improvement on December, with an increase of about 15 sales across all suburbs and price ranges, he said.

QV research director Jonno Ingerson said growth had slowed in the first month of the year.

"The January index shows that nationwide values increased 0.3 per cent compared to December, while a month earlier the increase was 1.3 per cent.

"So while values are still increasing, the rate of this increase has slowed considerably.

"This pattern of slowing value increases is evident across Auckland also. Most of the other main centres have also slowed considerably to the point where values were either flat or slightly decreased in the past month."

Although it was the first month values appeared to have slowed, the timing was aligned with the effects of the Reserve Bank mortgage lending restrictions, brought in last October.

There was expectation the lending restrictions would slow increasing values, at least temporarily, Mr Ingerson said.

QV had expected provincial and rural areas to be hit harder by the restrictions but that did not appear to be the case yet.

The Reserve Bank is expected to start increasing interest rates from next month.