Sellers get big ideas from valuations

''The rating valuations are based on sales history, they're catching up to what has already happened with prices." The Real Estate Institute director Jim Davis

Christchurch’s recent rating revaluations have pushed up selling homeowners’ price expectations.

The Real Estate Institute’s latest report shows the median sale price in the city during November 2015 was $465,500, an annual rise of 4.5 per cent.

Institute director Jim Davis said that in the past fortnight, as happened every three years when new rating valuations were announced, some owners had ‘‘got big ideas’’ about prices.

Christchurch City Council revaluations released on November 29 put the average home value at just over $500,000, a rise of 7.3 per cent in three years.

‘‘People think ’my property has jumped up in value’,’’ Davis said.

‘‘But that’s been happening gradually. The rating valuations are based on sales history, they’re catching up to what has already happened with prices.’’

Rating valuations were also a broadbrush measure not intended to give an accurate market value, he said.

Davis said real-estate agents ‘‘would be having a few of these discussions with sellers’’ and things would settle down again quickly.

The institute’s figures show the city’s real estate market is one of the country’s steadiest, with post-earthquake housing development putting the brakes on high housing inflation. The November median price was a record, up from a previous high of $459,000 in September.

Regardless of the excitement over revaluations, Davis said the market was well balanced between buyers and sellers. Homes were selling well and there were plenty for sale, he said. Firsthome buyers were becoming more active as they understood lending rules reworked by the Reserve Bank earlier this year.

The institute’s report said the median November sales price for Canterbury Westland was also a record at $440,000, up 4.5 per cent in a year. Median prices within the region included North Canterbury country $390,000, Mid-Canterbury $326,500, Timaru $353,350, South Canterbury country $297,000, and West Coast $170,000.

The number of sales in both Christchurch and the region were down slightly from a year ago.

Listings were already slowing in the lead-up to Christmas and he expected house-hunting to slow down next week. The market would likely pick up again quickly between early and mid-January.

The report showed homes in the region were taking an average of 32 days to sell.

Many parts of the country recorded annual price rises in double figures with the Queenstown Lakes area showing the biggest jump. The national median sales price in November was $520,000.