An old house with a view of Auckland's city centre skyline. [Photo Credit: RNZ]

New figures show house valuations in half of New Zealand’s suburbs are now in decline, as three Auckland suburbs see median values fall by more than $90,000.

A new Mapping the Market report from CoreLogic NZ, released on Thursday, showed over 400 suburbs had entered a “downswing” in median value since March. Just under 300 suburbs still saw median house valuations increase by at least 1%, however.

CoreLogic NZ’s chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said “the signs of weakness” in the housing market were now “very clear”.

“In dollar terms, the largest drop in the last three months has been in Auckland’s Point Chevalier where the median value fell $104,400 (4.6% fall).”

In the company’s data, 11 suburbs declined in median value by 5% or more, including suburbs in Auckland, Dunedin, Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, and Porirua.

Meanwhile, 23 suburbs saw their value increase by more than 5%

“The larger gains of 5% or more tend to be in our smaller areas, including parts of Waikato district, Far North, Southland district, Central Otago district, but also a handful in main centres,” Davidson said.

“There’s certainly evidence of volatility across the New Zealand market, and we’ll have a clearer picture of which suburbs have been impacted the most in the coming months. But what is clear today is that value falls are now fairly broad-based, both geographically and by value band/tier.”

In Auckland, only 24 out of 206 suburbs saw median values rise above 1% since March, with 119 instead seeing drops of at least 1%, according to CoreLogic.

There were 36 suburbs in Auckland with median value drops of less than 1%.

“Along with Point Chevalier, Pakuranga Heights and New Windsor also saw median values fall by at least $90,000 in the past three months. Herne Bay is still Auckland’s most expensive suburb, albeit values have dipped 1% since March.”

In contrast, CoreLogic said Christchurch’s housing market had “generally been resilient” in the past three months with only four out of 85 suburbs seeing a drop of 1% or more since March. In contrast, 31 suburbs continued to grow by at least 1%.

But in Wellington, Davidson said there was an “emerging weakness” in the market.

“Only Lyall Bay and Wellington central have recorded gains of 1% or more since March. By contrast, 64 out of 97 suburbs saw falls of at least 1%, with five having drops of at least 5%, including Petone and Alicetown,” the economist said.

Hamilton has also seen more than 50% of its suburbs drop in value by 1% or more. Hamilton Lake, Hillcrest, and Flagstaff were down by more than 4%. But prime suburbs of Beerescourt and Baverstock have seen increases of more than 5%.

Meanwhile, Davidson said Tauranga’s housing market was holding up “a bit better than elsewhere”.

“Only Parkvale and Gate Pa have seen falls of 1% or more since March. Indeed, areas such as Tauranga (suburb) and Papamoa have continued to rise by 2% in the past three months.”

But Dunedin’s market had “definitely turned down”, according to CoreLogic, with 45 out of 62 suburbs seeing median values dropping by 1% or more.