QV House Price Index: How have house prices in your city moved?

Sydney house values have dropped 9.5 per cent and Melbourne's 5.8 per cent annually but major New Zealand city and provincial values have held up and even though Auckland remains flat, declines are yet to hit this market.

The latest annual CoreLogic QV House Price Index information out today shows:

• Auckland values rising at 0.4 per cent to reach an average $1,050,647;

• Hamilton up 4 per cent, average $565,859;

• Tauranga up 3.9 per cent, average $713,859;

• Wellington up 8.1 per cent, average $685,387;

• Christchurch up 0.4 per cent, average $495,742;

• Dunedin up 11.7 per cent, average $431,665.

Nick Goodall, CoreLogic head of research, said he did not expect to see New Zealand house prices falling like in Sydney or Melbourne.

"There are two key reasons why it's different here: the first is there's a potential oversupply of places in Sydney and Melbourne, mainly apartments and properties worth less on settlement than what people agreed to pay. The second is the banking or the credit situation and interest rates. In Australia, there's a tightening of credit because of the [financial services] royal commission and they feel the impact of international markets more than we do," Goodall said.

Around 80 per cent of New Zealand home mortgages were on fixed rates while in Australia, around 80 per cent were floating which led to a more volatile situation with the housing market across the Tasman he said.

"I don't expect to see decreases in New Zealand in the short [term] because the fundamentals are still relatively strong here," he said.

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Across the provincial centres annual value growth continues to hover around 8 per cent with Whanganui seeing the greatest value change over the last year at 18.1, the CoreLogic QV information showed.

Value growth in Invercargill has started to slow, although annual growth of 12.2 per cent remains relatively high. The rate of value change in Whangārei has picked up in the
lead-up to summer with 6 per cent quarterly growth taking the annual rate to 12.7 per cent. Investors, many cashed up, have been an increasing influence so far this quarter, with 41.1 per cent of sales going to this group, the data showed.

Reports of the foreign buyer ban hitting Queenstown Lakes District values via reduced asking prices could also be showing through in the house price index slowing from 8 per cent to 6.2 per cent in November.

Goodall said the data showed the ongoing strength of provincial house value growth, especially in the more affordable areas and some main centres too.

The market was now hitting its usual holiday slow-down and he expects little action till February "when we can get a good feel of how the year is shaping up."

The Government would continue its influence next year, particularly with KiwiBuild which would hit its first target of 1000 homes by July 1, Goodall said. The Government influence could also show through "by their acceptance or otherwise of the Tax Working Group's final recommendations in February."