The annual growth of property in New Zealand has fallen below 10% for first time, according to New Zealand’s largest valuation and property information provider Quotable Value.
According to QV, property values have increased by 9.6% over the past year, calculated over the three months ending October 2006 in comparison to the same period last year.
The growth rate decreased from the 10.4% reported in September. The average New Zealand sale price was $345,007 for this period.
QV’s spokeperson Blue Hancock said this is the first month that the annual growth has dropped to below 10% since QV started reporting changes in residential property market on a monthly basis in February 2005.
“The last time QV reported the annual growth in single digits was in the Quarterly House Price Index of June 2002,” he added.
Hancock said although increases in property values have dropped below 10%, they remain positive with the national average sale price $33,448 above last year.
“However, the demand that has pushed prices up over the past four years is definitely slowing,” he added.
According to QV, all the main cities recorded growth rates beneath 10% with Hamilton at 9.9%, Wellington 9.8%, Christchurch 9.5%, Auckland 6.5%, and Dunedin 4.1%.
Most of the provincial cities showed consistent growth rates to last month with Rotorua’s growth at 21.1%, Gisborne 18.9%, Palmerston North 15.1%, and Hastings 4.1% and Queenstown 1.3%.
By Kathryn O’Meara