The average house price in New Zealand rose from $345,500 to $350,000 between July and August 2007.

• House prices are 12.9 percent higher than a year ago, when New Zealand’s median house price was $310,000.
• Sales of properties fell from 8,556 in August 2006 to 6,394 in August 2007. This was the lowest number of August sales for seven years.
• The average number of days to sell a house was unchanged from 33 in August 2006.

REINZ National President Mr. Murray Cleland commented:

“There has been an almost excessive amount of speculation concerning the residential property market and it is certainly too early to say that it has shrugged off major confidence considerations such as interest rates.

“The further back you go the more positive the market has looked, but even though the year on year percentage [house price increase] was up from 10.40 per cent in July to 12.90 per cent in August, there is no doubt that the rate of price growth continues to slow and has been doing so for a while.

“The real issue is that demand for housing in New Zealand continues to exceed supply and while that situation continues, prices will always be firm. But on such low turnovers it is difficult to say from month to month that the market is good, bad, or indifferent.

“There is always going to be an element of distortion in prices when sales volumes are this low and we believe it is probably still at least a month too early to make predictions about the overall direction of the market.

“The market in August showed signs of pausing to absorb interest rate issues and that would have applied to both buyers and sellers contemplating another, or bigger, purchase. By the end of September we will have a much better feel for the long term trend in property prices.

Eight out of the New Zealand’s twelve regions reported price rises in August, three reported falls and one was unchanged compared with July

Annual NZ House Price Changes