The average house price in New Zealand rose slightly from $350,000 to $351,500 between August and September 2007.

• House prices are 12.3 percent higher than a year ago, when New Zealand’s median house price was $313,000.
• Sales of properties fell from 8,658 in September 2006 to 5,894 in September 2007. This was the lowest number of sales in September for six years.
• The average number of days to sell a house was 32, compared with 31 in September 2006.

REINZ National President Mr. Murray Cleland commented:

“Most commentators have been predicting a slowdown in annual housing price growth, and while that is the long term trend, the fact is that it is still sitting at 12.3 per cent, a little lower than August on 12.9 per cent but up on July which was 10.4 per cent.”

Mr Cleland said that escalating building costs and the fall in building consent numbers also helped underwrite the residential property market.

“People are constantly making comparisons between the cost of buying land and building a new home and existing properties and I think we have reached that cross-over point now where that comparison might start to favour existing properties.

“It’s the old story, land subdivision costs and timeframes imposed by local authorities plus building consent costs for new construction have risen at such a pace that the price of existing houses is now not looking at all excessive.

“That’s a key factor supporting the housing market at present, plus interest costs, although they have risen steeply in the last year or so, seem to be plateauing and homeowners are shouldering the increased mortgage burden.”

Compared with prices in August, seven out of New Zealand’s twelve regions reported price rises in September, and five reported falls.

Annual NZ House Price Changes