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PHOTO: Jacinda Ardern. FILE

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she wants to see house prices fall back from their record heights next year.

Ardern has previously declined to advocate for a drop in prices, instead describing the Government’s goal as “sustained moderation”.

Speaking to RNZ for an extended end-of-year interview, Ardern said she hoped 2022 would halt the recent “runaway increases in house price growth”.

Asked directly whether she wanted prices to come back, Ardern said: “Yes.”

“We need [the market] to stop heading in the direction it is,” she said. “Even if you saw [prices] come away, in many cases it would be bringing [them] back to levels that we were at only a year or two ago.”

Ardern stressed she did not want the market to collapse.

“The reason that we cannot afford to have a housing market collapse is because, of course, this is the most significant asset that most New Zealanders have.

“But I think everyone would agree we cannot continue to see what we’re seeing at the moment.”

The latest QV figures put the average national house price at $1.03 million, up more than 50 percent since the 2017 election.

New National leader Christopher Luxon recently came under pressure after revelations his housing portfolio had increased in value by an estimated $4.3m since the start of the year.

Christopher Luxon

Luxon unaware his $7m Remuera home increased in value by $2.3m over one year

Ardern’s Sandringham home has increased about $600,000 in the same time and is now valued at $2.7m. The valuations have been sourced from the mid-range estimates on the property website homes.co.nz.

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