Tighter bank lending restrictions are cooling the Auckland housing market but the impact is expected to be short-lived, given recent history.
Residential property values across Auckland fell 0.7 percent over the over the past three months, to an average $1.04 million. Photo: 123rf.com
The Quotable Value national house price index rose 13.5 percent in the year ended February compared to the year earlier. It went up 1.1 percent in the past three months.
The national average value rose to $631,349 last month, which is 52 percent more than the previous market peak in late 2007.
Residential property values across the Auckland region rose almost 12.8 percent year-on-year but fell 0.7 percent over the over the past three months to an average $1,043,680.
QV national spokesperson Andrea Rush said the latest figures showed values dropped in Hamilton and Christchurch over the past quarter, while the rate of growth slowed in Tauranga.
She said the bank Loan to Value ratio (LVR) of 40 percent for investors and 20 percent home buyers, introduced in November to slow price growth in the housing market, had had some impact.
Prices in Wellington are accelerating. Photo: 123rf.com
Wellington, Dunedin markets buoyant
That did not apply in the Wellington region, however, where values accelerated by more than 21.5 percent over the past year and 4.3 percent over the past three months.
The Dunedin market was also buoyant, with strong levels of activity and demand.
Ms Rush expected price pressures to return within a few months as they did last year and in 2014.
"Come about April, following the measures being introduced in the October prior, you start to see values increasing again and it happened back in 2014 as well," she said.
"They tend to create a drop-back in the market for a few months and then what we've seen is the market has continued to rise after that."