Wanganui house prices dip slightly

QV's March residential price movement index showed Wanganui values decreased slightly year-on-year to $180,541.

Wanganui's property market is looking healthy, despite a drop in house values and average asking prices.

That is the view of LJ Hooker Wanganui owner Steve Ellis, who said: "It's been a good March for us and it's shaping up to be a good April. We're getting multiple offers on lots of properties."

QV's March residential price movement index showed Wanganui values decreased slightly year-on-year to $180,541. That was also a small drop on the past three months and 19.4 per cent below the market peak of 2007.

Asking prices have also decreased in Wanganui/Manawatu, according to online listings site realestate.co.nz, with an average of $266,626.

But Mr Ellis said the figures did not show the whole picture.

"There's two markets out there - one made up of investors and first home buyers, and one which I'd call the real market of people buying good homes to live in," he said.

"There's lots of good sales in the real market."

LJ Hooker's average sale price was $240,000, he said, adding that far fewer properties were on the market than this time last year.

"There's about 650 properties at the moment, last year there was about 1000. A lot of people aren't prepared to drop their asking price to meet the market value."

About 70 per cent of sales were to Wanganui residents. The rest were to people from places such as Auckland, Christchurch, Manawatu, Taranaki and overseas. Nationally, residential property values increased 2.8 per cent over the past three months and 7.7 per cent year-on-year.