The average house price in the Hastings district has slipped below $1 million. Pictured is Te Mata Peak, which is visible across the district. Photo / Warren Buckland
The average house price in the Hastings district has slipped below $1 million. Pictured is Te Mata Peak, which is visible across the district. Photo / Warren Buckland
The Hastings district has dropped out of the $1 million club for average house values as prices continue to decline, according to a new property report.
The latest OneRoof-Valocity real estate report features data from house sales throughout May.
Rising interest rates as well as tough lending restrictions have continuedto cool off the housing market in Hawke's Bay.
The latest data shows average house values have gone down in Napier and the wider Hastings district during the past three months (from the end of February to the end of May).
OneRoof-Valocity takes into consideration a wide range of data to come up with its average house values, with one factor being the latest house sale data.
"Napier's average property value dropped 1.2 per cent to $939,000 [during the past three months] and Hastings' fell 1.5 per cent to $994,000, pushing it out of the $1 million club," the report reads.
"High-value suburbs in both cities fell hardest, with Westshore's average property value down 3.1 per cent (down $40,000) to $1.232m and Havelock North's down 3.6 per cent (down $52,000) to $1.384m."
A graphic from the report showing house price trends for the past three months.Image / Supplied
OneRoof-Valocity reported back in February that Hastings district had cracked the $1 million mark for average house values.
That was largely due to sought-after suburbs like Tuki Tuki, Kahuranaki, Havelock North and Waimarama affecting the district's average house value.
OneRoof-Valocity's average house values are different to some other real estate reports. REINZ, for example, uses different calculations including the median price of house sales in a region to track trends.
Meanwhile, according to OneRoof-Valocity, Wairoa district (average house value of $494,000) and Central Hawke's Bay (average house value of $757,000) bucked the trend and saw a rise in average house values over the past three months, of 5.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.
"The beach community of Mahia, in Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, recorded the country's biggest three-month value growth," the report read.
"Its average property value rose 12.9 per cent (up $104,000) to $910,000."
Valocity head of valuations James Wilson said the number of homes being sold in Hawke's Bay had certainly slowed down a lot this year.
He said because very low volumes of homes were being sold in a place like Mahia, its impressive figures should be seen as a "spike rather than a long-term trend" as the figures can change quickly.
He said first-home buyers and "movers" - those people who own a home but are upsizing or downsizing - were still active in the market but there were not many investors buying.
