QV operations manager James Wilson said it was the market's flattest summer in six years. Photo: Unsplash / Blake Wheeler
House market values have seen little changed over the summer despite a drop in interest rates.
The latest QV House Price Index indicates residential property values rose an average of just 0.5 percent in the three months to the end of February.
The average home value fell 1.4 percent to $912,904, over the year earlier and down 14 percent on the peak market reached in late 2021.
QV operations manager James Wilson said it was the market's flattest summer in six years.
"After some pretty significant volatility throughout the past half-decade, the housing market now appears to have well and truly stabilised," he said.
"We're no longer seeing so many significant shifts up or down, with home values staying 'steady as she goes' over the summer, despite falling interest rates and a spreading expectation that we're now through the worst of it.
He said affordability issues were still evident in the main urban areas in particular, with unemployment a major concern.
"As for investors, anecdotal evidence from across the country suggests that growing numbers are looking to re-enter the market in 2025, but it's still going to take a while before interest rate relief fully phases through and debt-to-income ratio limits will undoubtedly be a barrier for many of them."
Wilson said first-home buyers were still a growing market segment.
"Although economic conditions have been remarkably tough on everyone, first-home buyers have benefited in recent times from there being far less competition with investors," he said.
In the meantime, he said the outlook for autumn was for more of the same, ahead of the typically quiet winter period.
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