Property Market

Two reports out yesterday provided mixed views about New Zealand's property market, with neither report likely to give relief to new home buyers or existing property owners.

Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes recorded the highest lift in house prices nationally for the month of June - an 11.5% increase.

Yields in New Zealand's listed property sector remained attractive in a low interest rate environment, Forsyth Barr broker Haley Van Leeuwen said yesterday.

Residential property values in the South are continuing to increase modestly, the latest information from government valuer Quotable Value shows.

Median house prices in Otago have remained static in the past two years, but there are signs of life returning to the residential real estate market.

The national picture of gradually increasing property values is not being reflected in the South.

Residential property information for July shows "more of the same", southern Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) spokeswoman Liz Nidd said.

Auckland is set to dominate the New Zealand housing market statistics this year after missing out somewhat on the boom in the early 2000s, BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander says.

The Christchurch property market is in a "holding pattern" and may take two years to return to normal, Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) director and Christchurch spokesman David Rankin says.

An "unexpectedly low" number of sales were recorded in Queenstown for January - a theme that was common across most regions in New Zealand, Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Queenstown spokesman Adrian Snow said.

Queenstown houses are slightly more affordable, thanks to a slide in prices in December, according to the Roost Home Loan Affordability report.

Potential holiday home purchasers appear to be spoilt for choice in popular South Island holiday towns, with so many properties on the market it will realistically take several years to clear the listings.

Queenstown's property market is lifting on the back of strong pre-Christmas residential sales and the most inquiries since the credit crunch sparked the global recession in 2007, says REINZ Queenstown spokesman Adrian Snow.

From a $7000 doer-upper in Mataura to a $15 million Auckland mansion - welcome to the highs and lows of the New Zealand property market.

The southern housing market remains fickle even as the rate of decline for property values nationally appears to have stabilised, valuer QV's November price index suggests.