Wellington's property sale price average continues to climb

Tuesday, 13 February 2024

More properties are being listed and sold as confidence returns to housing market.

The Wellington region continues to experience relatively steady home value growth, with only Porirua dragging the chain.

The latest QV House Price Index for January 2024 shows the average Wellington home increased in value by almost 3% in the three months to January to $868,120.

This compared to house prices nationally growing by 2% this quarter to $925,461.

Hutt City and Kāpiti Coast recorded the largest quarterly home value gains on average at 3.8% and 3.5% respectively.

QV House Price Index January 2024 shows Wellington’s quarterly gains are above national averages.

On average home values across the wider region increased by 2.8% throughout the three months to the end of January 2024, with all local districts recording upward growth except in Porirua which was down 0.2%.

QV valuer Blake Ngarimu said the average home value across the region was now just 0.2% lower than at the same time last year.

“The market is still currently dominated by first-home buyers trying to get into the market before values increase any further, which means they are having to take on higher interest rates in the meantime.

“Listings have also significantly increased across the region, which is also likely to put a damper on major value growth, with prospective buyers having more options to choose from.”

Craig Lowe said with clear upward trend over a sustained period, confidence had returned to the market.

Wellington saw an increase in new listings in line with the national average of 10%, they were quickly snapped up which meant the total number of homes for sale ‒ 1315 ‒ was still 20% lower year-on-year compared to the previous January.

“Though interest rates appear to have peaked, we’re unlikely to see any major home value increase until interest rates start to ease, which is speculated to be towards the end of 2024,” Ngarimu said.

Craig Lowe of real estate firm Lowe & Co said they were seeing a 25% lift in the number of their listings compared to the same time last year.

“There’s definitely a lot more confidence in the market.

“There are more listings and also more buyers. We’ve had a firming of prices over the last few months and people have realised that we’re past the bottom so people are coming out of the woodwork.”

The national average value was now just 1% less than at the same time last year, with the year-on-year averages soon predicted to move into the positives.

QV’s house price index tracks sales figures each month shows a slightly different trend to asking price data which recently showed a dip in the Wellington region.

The QV figures use a rolling three month collection of sales data, based on sales agreement dates.

Realestate.co.nz published data last week showing that average asking prices in Wellington dropped 1.4% to $854,155 month-on-month from December 2023 to January 2024.