More evidence of a housing market slowdown

There are further signs that the property market is starting to ease and that prices may begin falling soon.
Last week Barfoot and Thompson's monthly Auckland sales stats showed a significant slowdown in the residential property market. Today QV has released its September statistics which also show a slowdown, albeit smaller than Barfoots.

QV says that property values, in the year to September were 13.2% compared to 13.3% in the 12-month period to August.

"We may be seeing the first signs that the rate of increase in property values is flattening," said QV spokesperson Blue Hancock. "Residential sales volumes have been easing for several months and that trend can only continue for so long before it starts to impact prices".

"2007 has seen the value of New Zealand properties increase at a higher and higher rate, but our September figures show a marginal drop. Although it’s only a very minor slowdown, this is the first time since January 2007 that our statistics have shown the rate of growth in values to be slowing," Hancock says.