New Zealand's love affair with housing continues unabated, as February residential property values rose nationally 6.4% on a year ago - or 20.3% above the market peak of late 2007.
Streams of recent data from a variety of sources builds on records being struck almost monthly.
Auckland average asking prices are now beyond $750,000, national average asking prices beyond $500,000, median January prices were up $24,000 to $426,000.
Auckland and Central Otago Lakes were up 16% and 11% respectively.
While Auckland continues to surge ahead in prices, which are often reflected in data around Central Otago and Queenstown, most of the country has been booking more conservative gains, Government agency Quotable Value (QV) revealed yesterday.
QV national spokeswoman Andrea Rush said the Auckland market has increased 13% year on year, 5% during the past three months and 43.8% since 2007.
''Values in Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin are all showing moderate increases, but nothing compared to the pace of Auckland values, which continue to surge ahead,'' she said.
Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler told a parliamentary committee last month Auckland had a shortfall of between 15,000 and 20,000 properties to meet population growth and the 7500 annual consents for new building permits lagged behind the 10,000 required, BusinessDesk reported.
All of the 19 Auckland areas reported by QV booked annual value gains and 12 areas were in a range from gains of 40.8% to 57.5%.
In the South Island, the areas showing the largest residential property increases during the past three months were Invercargill city, up 2.3%, Queenstown Lakes District up 2% and the Tasman District values, up 1.7%.
QV Dunedin registered valuer Duncan Jack said home values in Dunedin city as a whole had increased by 0.2% during the past three months, 1.2% year-on-year and values were now 2.1% higher than they were at the 2007 peak.
''The Dunedin market is fairly positive, with buyers appearing to show more confidence than in the previous 12 to 18 months.
''Generally there seems to be more sales activity around and there is good demand across most value ranges, particularly for those properties in the $200,000 to $300,000 range,'' Mr Jack said in a statement.
He said in taking a closer look at data for the past three months, Dunedin's peninsula and coastal values increased the most, rising 1.9%.
Dunedin-central and north values rose slightly, by 0.5%, Dunedin-Taieri values decreased by 0.2% and Dunedin-south values decreased slightly, down 0.1% since December.
''First-home buyers are particularly likely to be affected by the lower interest rates, and they have always been a large and important part of the residential market in Dunedin,'' Mr Jack said.
