Prices of residential properties have started to bounce back, despite the low sales figures, as has been confirmed by the latest numbers released. Over 2009, house prices across New Zealand recorded a 2.8% rise, which brought them to within the 5% range of the pre-2007 peak.

"This ends a year that showed a dramatic and somewhat unexpected level of turnaround in house values", Quotable Value valuation manager Glenda Whitehead said, while stressing that the increase in the main centers was mostly due to shortage of properties.

"Despite house values increasing again, the volume of house sales during 2009 was still at similar levels to when the market was last stagnant in the 1998 to 2001 period, and in 2009 were only around two-thirds of the levels seen during the boom", she pointed out.

For the month of December, the average home price hiked to $404,671, from November's rate of $393,373. Values across all the main centers have managed to rise by 6.5% since April 2009.

Values of properties in Christchurch hiked by 4.6% during 2009, and Auckland homes rose by 5.1%, while properties in Wellington and Dunedin surged by 4.6% and 4.9%, respectively.