National average house price went up nearly 30% in 2021

PHOTO: Houses in Christchurch. (Source: RNZ / Nate McKinnon)

The national average house price rose nearly 30 per cent last year. Figures from QV show the average house price went up 28.2 per cent in 2021, with the new national average hitting $1,053,315.

‘Realistic pricing’ likely to prevail in 2022 with single-digit value growth

Christchurch saw the strongest growth. The city’s average price rose 40.2 per cent. The average price is now $785,000. In January 2021 the average price was $560,000.

QV operations manager Paul McCorry said he did not expect prices to keep rising so much.

“It’s a huge, a huge increase for a year. Still a very good supply of homes in Christchurch, and probably in the wider Canterbury area, I don’t think it’s sustainable into 2022 at that level, so we would expect that to reduce.”

Average asking price hits 14-year high

McCorry said historically low interest rates were driving the growth, and with the Official Cash Rate possibly rising again next year that may not continue.

“There was a point at the beginning of the year where you had a two-year rate that was dipping below 2 per cent. That meant money was very, very cheap, so what seemed like a big mortgage might have had a reasonably affordable repayment.