According to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, the average price of a house in New Zealand rose to $324,000 in October from $313,000 in September. Prices are almost 10 percent higher than one year ago.

REINZ Vice President Mr Mike Elford commented, “Clearly there has been a lot of pent up demand over recent months and this has manifested itself in October, driven by increasing buyer demand, a shortage of listings, plus more confidence among vendors.

“The extent of the increase especially in some regions has come as pleasant surprise. But the supporting statistics of sales volumes and days to sell lends weight to the view that particular market supply-demand circumstances have caused the increases in prices and as such this may be something of a one-off seasonal occurrence.

“Apart from the arrival of fine weather, which always spurs the market, other external factors such as a temporary easing in interest rates in October may also have some bearing. The Reserve Bank has held the OCR steady for some time and this coupled with recent inter-bank competition for mortgage interest rates which saw a 7.99 per cent ‘billboard’ two year fixed mortgage rate offered last month, may have encouraged those contemplating a purchase to take advantage of what has certainly turned out to be only a temporary weakness in interest rates”.

Ten out of the New Zealand’s twelve regions reported price rises in October.

House Price Changes