Tauranga City property values are experiencing a 4.8 per cent rise in the last year, mirroring increasing national figures after a brief flat period.

Quotable Value's latest monthly figures for April show the city's property market also increasing 2.1 per cent in the last three months – sitting at an average current value of $449,331.

But this figure remains 6.7 per cent below the peak of 2007.

In the Western Bay of Plenty, average house prices are at $412,729, jumping 4.2 per cent on last April and 2.6 per cent in the last quarter.

QV national spokesperson Andrea Rush says nationwide property values are starting to increase after taking a downward turn in March, which was opposite to predictions of values levelling out.

Nationwide, residential values jumped 8.4 per cent since April, and 0.2 per cent during the last three months.

This means values are now 13 per cent above the previous market peak of late-2007.

When adjusted for inflation, the nationwide annual increase drops slightly to 6.8 per cent and values remain below the 2007 peak by minus 2.9 per cent.

Andrea believes the figures show the LVR changes are resulting in small changes to the number of sales made by first-home buyers, indicating alternative ways to finance property are being explored.

'The nationwide index for April shows values accelerating at a similar rate to last year; and Auckland values have also risen across all five main former territorial authority areas after a few months of slowing earlier this year,” says Andrea.

'First-home buyer numbers picked up in the month of March at a New Zealand-wide level and across all regional markets according to CoreLogic NZ data.”