National average home values were up more than 8% on a year ago, but Otago's are well behind at less than half that gain.
Dunedin continued to show limited gains, values having increased 0.3% to $285,200 in the past three months, leaving the city 3.4% above last year, data released yesterday by Quotable Value showed.
The national average value is up 8.5% on a year ago at $448,900.
QV research director Jonno Ingerson said, other than Christchurch and Auckland, main cities were experiencing ''limited growth'', while in provincial areas prices were ''slowly increasing'', but tended to be more variable.
''In the last couple of months, however, values have flattened or even declined in many provincial areas,'' he said in a statement.
Queenstown continued to top Otago in average price, having gained 4.4% on last year at $643,900; Central Otago was up 3.8% at $303,600; while Waitaki was the only subregion in Otago with a decline in average price, down 3.1% at $209,700.
The Auckland average price was up 13.1% at $652,100 and Christchurch was up 11.4% at $436,250.
Mr Ingerson said the Reserve Bank's tougher loan-to-value-ratio (LVR) rules
would ''definitely limit'' the number of first-home buyers and investors wanting loans of more than 80% of a property's value.
Rising prices in Christchurch and Auckland were not just because of demand from potential buyers, but also because of housing shortages in those cities, Mr Ingerson said.
''So while the LVR limits may have some dampening effect on values, we should still expect them to increase for some time yet,'' he said.
Elsewhere around the South Island, Nelson, Marlborough and Kaikoura joined Queenstown in being up more than 4%, although Kaikoura has had a 3.3% drop in the past three months. Southland and Gore had some of the most noticeable declines, each down more than 4% in the past three months.
