1 Jun 2021

Average house price tops $1 million in Wellington

6:29 pm on 1 June 2021

Average house values in the Wellington region have topped $1 million but the latest CoreLogic House Price Index shows some slowdown in the growth of those values.

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Wellington city. Photo: 123rf

Nationally, values increased 2.2 percent in May, a slight reduction on April's 3.1 percent growth rate.

CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said that reflected the impact of both the Reserve Bank's tightening of loan-to-value ratios and the government's changes to the interest deductibility rules for residential investment properties.

"While these changes have caused some investors to sit back and take stock of their portfolio, it appears this pull-back in demand has been mostly made up for by other investors, likely with less debt, and owner occupiers who had previously missed out while competing in a very heated market," he said.

Property values in Tauranga increased by 5.1 percent in May. In Wellington the figure was 3.1 percent and in Hamilton it was 3.7 percent.

In those three centres, the quarterly increases were still strong, around the 10 percent mark.

The average property value in Wellington is now just over $1m, while in Tauranga it's close to $970,000.

CoreLogic said growth in values in Auckland was slowing, at 1.4 percent monthly and 5.5 percent quarterly.

That put the average house value for the region over $1.25m.

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