Big drop in prices for Shore houses

North Shore houses are selling for much less than they did three years ago.

A firm of valuers has studied Shore house prices and found a big drop from sales recorded in the last few months.

Gary Brunsdon of Sheldon & Partners said price dives had particularly shown up in recent sales data the firm had compiled.

"If you bought after 2006, today you'd be lucky to get your money back," he said.

Sheldon has also criticised statistics from the Real Estate Institute and QV, claiming these do not reflect the real value drops the housing market has suffered.

"The use of average house price sales and median sales compared to previous periods is the most commonly quoted statistic.

"However, these can misrepresent the actual situation.

"The only true gauge of market movement is the resale of the same or very similar property over a period of time where there has been no physical change affecting value.

"For this reason Sheldon periodically analyses property resales to accurately assess market movements," the firm said.

A list was compiled to show re-sales and Sheldon said there had been little physical change to these properties between the transaction.

Some of the price drops included a house in Kitchener Rd at Milford which sold for $2.2 million in February 2007 but fetched $1.9 million last month, a Northcote house in Queen St which went for $1,065,000 in 2006 but re-sold last year for $940,000, a Murrays Bay house in Churchill Rd which went for $2.1 million in 2006 but $1.7 million in February and a Torbay house in Emlyn Place which sold in 2007 for $709,000 and fetched $550,000 last November.