By James Glynn
SYDNEY--New Zealand house prices continued to retreat in September despite interest-rate cuts in recent months and growing expectations that the cost of borrowing will tumble before the end of the year.
House values were down by a further 0.5% in September from August, the seventh monthly fall in a row, according to property research group CoreLogic NZ.
The weakness in house prices comes amid a wave of economists forecasting that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will sharply accelerate its pace of interest-rate cuts from next week, with many expecting the official cash rate to fall by 100 basis points by November.
Since February, house prices have fallen 4.7% to NZ$805,426, equivalent to US$505,888, the data showed. Still, house values are around 16% higher than prepandemic levels.
CoreLogic NZ's chief property economist, Kelvin Davidson, said the latest home value data remains patchy and generally sluggish across the country.
"There are signs that lower mortgage rates have started to boost sentiment in the housing market, but this is yet to meaningfully flow through to hard pricing indicators," he added.
Write to James Glynn at james.glynn@wsj.com; @JamesGlynnWSJ
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-02-24 0815ET
