WELLINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's residential property downturn continues to decelerate, with the country's three-month rolling rate of decline reducing for the fourth straight month, according to the government property market valuations company Quotable Value Limited (QV) on Tuesday.
The QV House Price Index for July 2023 shows the average home decreased in value by 1.5 percent nationally this quarter, which is a smaller rate of decline than the 1.8 percent change experienced back in June, and considerably lower than the 3.5 percent and 3.4 percent quarterly declines experienced back in April and May respectively.
New Zealand's national average of residential property now sits at 888,999 New Zealand dollars (538,857.85 U.S. dollars), said a QV statement.
That figure is now 10.2 percent less than the same time last year, but just 0.3 percent lower than at the end of June, it said, adding four of the 16 main urban areas recorded small amounts of positive home value growth in the three months to the end of July nationwide.
QV operations manager James Wilson said it wouldn't be unusual to see home values continue to yo-yo across the motu for the foreseeable future, largely as a result of reduced sales activity.
"The longer-term trend is pretty clearly a residential property market that is bottoming out after some very significant home value reductions over the last 18 months or so," Wilson said.
First-home buyers remained most active in the market at present, but investors were beginning to show some renewed interest generally, he said.
New building consent numbers are forecast to remain suppressed throughout the year, as interest rates, build rates and overall demand continue to hamper demand, he added. ■
