KEY POINTS:
Property prices in the main urban areas are stabilising, while some provincial cities continue to have strong growth.
Quotable Value (QV) figures released last night showed an average 12.7 per cent growth in national property values over the three months ending July compared with the same period last year.
Over this period the average sale price was $381,298.
"However, the trends differ within cities and between regions," said QV spokesman Blue Hancock.
"There are clear signs the property market is slowing, with feedback of fewer listings and buyers resulting in fewer sales.
"However, as the number of buyers is dropping along with the number of listings, this is not putting significant downward pressure on prices," said Mr Hancock.
Values in the Auckland region grew more slowly than the national average and average prices dropped.
Greater activity at the lower end of the Auckland market resulted in the average sale price dropping from $492,857 to $490,818 last month.
When QV compared a property's base value to its sale price, this showed property values rose by 11.9 per cent over the past year, up from 11.2 per cent reported last month.
Mr Hancock said prices seemed to be flattening off in the main urban areas because values showed little difference in growth rates.
Auckland City's growth in values was 10.2 per cent compared with 9.9 per cent.
Hamilton and Wellington were static at 13.6 per cent and 14.7 per cent respectively. Christchurch remained flat at 13.4 per cent and Dunedin eased slightly from 11.4 per cent to 10.8 per cent.
Traditionally, the winter months have lower market activity.
"If the spring market does not provide a surge, then we could expect to see annual growth in property values dropping back to single figures in coming months," Mr Hancock said.
Signs of an easing market showed in drops in annual value growth rates for Rotorua to 8.9 per cent, Queenstown (11.5 per cent) and New Plymouth (10.3 per cent).
In Gisborne and Invercargill values grew by 25 per cent and 30.9 per cent respectively.
QV Auckland valuation manager Glenda Whitehead said that on the whole, activity appeared lighter than it had been for a number of years and houses were taking longer to sell.
In Hamilton, QV manager Richard Allen said higher mortgage interest rates were expected to slow sales but the general feeling was that prices were likely to be static.
The Tauranga market seemed to be on a plateau, said QV manager Christopher Boyd.
Buyers were more cautious and the lag between a property's listing and sale was longer.
