Central Otago Lakes, including Queenstown, remains the most unaffordable region in the country, median house prices there equating to 15 times the annual wage for the area.
Conversely, wider Otago is one of the most affordable regions, Southland and the Manawatu and Whanganui areas being the most affordable.
The latest Massey University Home Affordability Report, covering September through to November last year, showed median house prices increased in all New Zealand regions during the past 12 months.
For the quarter covered, prices grew in every region except Central Otago Lakes, which dipped by $3500.
Associate Prof Graham Squires from Massey’s School of Economics and Finance said the fall in house prices in many regions during the previous quarter had not continued.
"All the past and current data indicates the dip in prices was just a blip, and the longer-term trend is decreasing affordability.
"We’d argue that this trend — rising house prices and houses becoming more unaffordable — is actually business as usual," Prof Squires said.
REINZ data for December showed median prices had maintained their upward trend, three regions hitting records. Otago was up 12% at $396,000, but Central Otago dipped 9.7% to $418,000.
In data from Quotable Value, most of Otago had maintained double-digit growth in average house values in November, compared with a year earlier, while Queenstown lakes topped $1.1million.
Queenstown’s unaffordability can be linked to the high prices paid for housing by investors, while much of the workbase are younger people in lower paid jobs.
The only regional fall in the Massey data during the period was in Central Otago Lakes, where the median house price dropped $3500.
However, that small drop in price would not bring much relief to those looking to buy a house in the Central Otago Lakes region, Prof Squires says.
"Central Otago Lakes, which includes Queenstown, is still the most unaffordable region in New Zealand.
"It is 69% less affordable than the rest of the country and the median house price there is now 15 times annual wages[in the area]," he said.
In Auckland, the median house price is 13.5 times annual wages in the city, as is the Coromandel and Thames areas. Prof Squires said rising house prices had continued to impact Auckland’s affordability; the country’s largest city was now 53% less affordable than the rest of New Zealand.
All regions showed a decline in affordability during the past year and only Hawkes Bay and Nelson/Marlborough showed small improvements, during the most recent quarter.
