QV's October statistics for the residential property market report a 6.8% decline in national property values over the past year (calculated over the three months ending October 2008 in comparison to the same period last year), down on the 5.8% decline reported in September. The average New Zealand sale price for October remained steady at $379,290.

"Property values have declined further in most parts of the country.  Activity levels remain unusually low, especially considering that spring usually brings an upsurge in the number of house sales.  Poor weather across most of the country, plus the school holidays, probably contributed to this" said Blue Hancock of QV Valuations. 

"There appears to be uncertainty in the market, with many buyers and sellers waiting to see any impact from the financial crisis, dropping interest rates and the election before committing to property transactions" said Hancock.

Most of the main centres are showing further slight declines in property values. Across the Auckland area property values are down 7.7% compared to the same time last year, declining slightly from the -7.0% reported last month.  Hamilton City's values have also dipped slightly further to -9.0%, Tauranga to -7.9%, the Wellington area to -6.1% and Christchurch to -7.8%. Dunedin improved slightly to -8.2% compared to the -8.5% reported last month.

There is more variability in the change in property values across the main provincial centres.  Whangarei (-8.5%), Rotorua (-9.4%), New Plymouth (-8.1%), Queenstown Lakes (-8.1%) and Invercargill (-4.6%) are all showing year on year declines greater than those reported last month.  Wanganui (-6.0%), Palmerston North (-9.5%) and Nelson (-4.9%) also declined further, but only slightly.  The year on year change in Gisborne remains unchanged at -10.1%, while Napier (-4.3%) and Hastings (-5.0%) have both recovered slightly.