Room for prices to grow outside Auckland

Photo / Doug Sherring.

The latest QV House Price Index shows residential property values in Auckland City, Waitakere City, North Shore City and Manukau City decreased in January. This also led the Auckland regional figure index to show a downward tick dropping by 0.5 per cent -- the first monthly drop since 2011.

Though sales are often down over the Christmas and holiday period, the decreases are likely to be a continuation of the easing in the Auckland market.

QV valuers are seeing most of the price drops occurring in investor-type housing stock, which could further be an impact of the new government and RBNZ rules.

You have to put it into context though as home values rose on average by 19.8 per cent last year across Auckland -- the average value is more than $900,000. So just because prices are not still rising in some places doesn't mean buying a home will be more affordable. It's just house prices are no longer increasing at the same rate.

What is of interest is that we are seeing the continued ripple effect of value increases moving further away from the city centre. Rodney and Franklin continued to rise over the past month. As did Papakura, but at a slightly slower rate than last year when it really took off.

Rodney saw the greatest increases over the past three months, which is likely to be a bit of a catch-up as values there have been slower to rise than other parts of the Super City.

Rodney-Hibiscus Coast which includes Waiwera, Hatfield Beach, Orewa, Red Beach, Stanmore Bay, Stillwater, Manly, Tindalls Bay, Army Bay, Gulf Harbour, Silverdale, Albany Heights and and the Whangaparoa shops precinct saw values rise 4.6 per cent over the past three months. The average value is now $805,596.

While Rodney -- North which includes Wellsford, Warkworth, Matheson's Bay, Leigh, Pakiri, Matakana, Snells Beach, Omaha, Mahurangi East and West, Kawau Island, Helensville Rural, Kumeu Rural, Dairy Flat, Parakai, Riverhead and Huapai rose 5 per cent over the same period and the average value is now $839,796. However, look back to the previous peak of 2007 just prior to the GFC and you can see how much Rodney is lagging behind. Home values there are now are 40 per cent higher than they were just before the GFC.

This compares to the former Auckland City Council suburbs which is 75.5 per cent higher than 2007; and Waitakere which is 73.8 per cent higher; Manukau is 73.1 per cent higher; North Shore City is 67.3 per cent higher; Papakura is 69 per cent higher and Franklin is 47.7 per cent higher. Rodney still has some room to catch up.

The ripple effect also continues to the south of Auckland's urban boundary with values in the Waikato district rising 9.2 per cent over the past three months.

Values there are now just 16.6 per cent higher than 2007. Even Hamilton is still only 23.9 per cent higher than 2007, while Tauranga just 15.7 per cent higher and Whangarei home values are still 2.4 per cent below the previous peak of 2007. So these areas arguably still have a lot of room to grow before they catch up to Auckland.