House values in Otago towns and suburbs have grown only slightly for the quarter to December, new data from government agency Quotable Value (QV) shows.
While separate national house and asking price data is making records monthly, skewed largely by lack of supply and huge demand in Auckland and earthquake-hit Canterbury, regional centres have shown lacklustre gains.
Queenstown often vies with Auckland in leading monthly prices.
But even its quarterly gain for the three months to December was in negative territory, down 0.4%, with an average value at December of $630,300, according to the figures released yesterday.
QV national spokeswoman Andrea Rush said of Queenstown Lakes: ''After an extended period of relatively low listings levels, which had been hindering the market, there has now been a flow of properties coming on to the market for sale, although probably not enough to satisfy market demand.''
Ms Rush said Australian investors were normally ''fairly active'' in the Queenstown market, but are struggling with the higher New Zealand dollar.
Rural residential and lifestyle property sales remained slow.
Around Dunedin, many suburbs rose or fell just 1% during the past three months.
St Kilda was up the most at 4.1%, with an average December value of $236,600, while North Dunedin had the largest decline, down 1.7% to $388,800.
QV's Dunedin registered valuer Duncan Jack said the city's value estimates indicated only ''nominal changes'' during the past three to 12 months, with the majority positive.
The QV estimates show all areas in and around Dunedin city as having steady positive growth during the previous 24 months, mainly ranging between 1% and 6%, he said.
''North Dunedin is showing an increase of 14.3% during this time, which may be an indication of some increased confidence from investors,'' Mr Jack said.
The QV estimates show values increasing in most Dunedin locations since the peak of 2007.
The majority were between 0.8% and 5.4%, but there were slight growth declines for the suburbs of Caversham, Mornington, St Kilda and South Dunedin.
A large proportion of the housing stock within these areas was within the low- to mid-value range, which is a sector slower to show any value increases post-2010, Mr Jack said.
Around Queenstown, Ms Rush said residential building consents and land and build valuations appeared to be rising, notably Shotover Country and Jacks Point.
Section sales also ''appear to be booming all over the district'', perhaps driven by the fact that new builds are exempt from the Reserve Bank's loan-to-value restrictions on banks, she said.
''This trend is being seen around the country as the requirement for a 20% deposit does not apply to 'turn-key' [new build] home and land packages, making it easier to secure finance to a buy a new build than an existing home.''
Ms Rush noted that the Frankton Flats roading project had started, which is designed to increase access to the Glenda Dr industrial area, Remarkables Park and Five Mile developments.
