Home values still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels

That's despite a 12.6% average drop in the last 12 months, and a 2.7% average decline this quarter.

QV national spokesman Simon Petersen says if residential property values continue to fall at their current rate, it could still take up to two years to hit their pre-pandemic level nationally. “That’s a pretty big ‘if’, with the market expected to stabilise before then.

“While not strictly comparing apples with apples because of the high inflationary environment, it does illustrate a housing market transformed by Covid and the economics surrounding the management of it,” he says.

On a more localised, regional level, Petersen says Wellington had been the hardest hit of the main urban centres by the residential property market’s downturn to date.