House prices up by a third

Press, 16 September 1987, Page 9

House prices up by a third

Christchurch house prices have increased by nearly a third in the last two years, says the Valuation Department To buy an “average” Christchurch house would cost $82,680, according to its statistics to June 30 this year.

Buying sucb a bouse would require a deposit of $20,670 with repayments at tbe rate of $298 a week, Trustbank Canterbury said. Those figures are based on the minimum deposit of 25 per cent and a mortgage of $62,000 for 25 years at interest of between 21 and 21.75 per cent The repayments cover interest and premium.

The department today released data on property prices throughout the country. A breakdown of Christchurch houses show a big leap in value between June, 1985, and June this year. Two years ago an average house sold within greater Christchurch fetched $62,352. Less than three months ago that same house could have cost $20,000 more — a 32.6 per cent price leap. Going back further the difference is even greater.

Six years ago,' at the end of March, 1981, the average house cost just $28,893. Today’s value is 186 per cent more than that. Mr. Peter Cook, the president of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, said the big jump in Christchurch house values occurred in 1982 when the average price doubled.

The department’s breakdown of the Christchurch real estate market for the last six months showed that central city houses had increased nearly 48 per cent. However, Mr Bryce Hodcroft, a valuer with the Christchurch department, said, “average prices do not always tell the full story as the average may be influenced by a greater proportion of the higher or lower quality houses selling in each six month period.”

In two suburbs house values dropped on the last six monthly figure. Westmorland, in Paparua County, dropped 3.7* per cent and Templeton, in Paparua County, dropped 9.7 per cent. The most expensive area to buy a home in Christchurch today is Fendalton where the average house sells for $177,162. The least expensive areas are Addington, Sydenham and Waltham where the average house sells for $48,500. Heathcote County is the most costly local authority region to live in. The average price of a house there is $126,271, an increase of 26.5 per cent in the last year and 12.9 per cent in the last six months to June. In Christchurch the average house price has risen to $71,403 — a 13.9 per cent jump in the last year and 8.4 per cent

since December, 1986. Waimairi District’s houses average at $109,770 each. They have increased 13.6 per cent and 11.2 per cent. The over-all increase for greater Christchurch for the last six months has been 8.5 per cent and for the last year, 14.3 per cent. Mr Cook said the increases were good and remained in line with previous years. The more than 8 per cent rise for the last half year indicated that Christchurch was a “good, sound market during 1987 but has fluctuated because of people’s perception of interest rates.” The General Election also affected prices, he said. But price increases would not top 20 per cent as long as they were adversely affected by high interest rates with no sign of them coming down.