Despite claims of cooling Auckland house prices, median prices there have pushed to a record high of $820,000, and the Central Otago Lakes region has booked a more than 25% gain on a year ago to $702,000.
More than one in three Auckland houses are now valued above $1 million.
The effectiveness of last year's changes to investor taxes by the Government and the Reserve Bank's loan-to-value (LVR) ratio, specifically to cool the Auckland market, are
coming under increasing scrutiny. ASB economist Kim Mundy said the Auckland housing market appeared to be ‘‘well and truly back in the game''.
‘‘This suggests that the impacts of the policy changes introduced by the Reserve Bank and Government last year have peaked. Further, March's REINZ data continue to paint a picture of a housing market which is heating up outside of Auckland.''
Labour's housing spokesman, Phil Twyford, said the record prices in Auckland and other major centres last month showed the Government's ‘‘half-hearted attempt to cool the housing market'' had failed.
‘‘These figures show that despite the Government's new bright line test and tax information requirements for offshore speculators coming into effect last October, the housing market has rebounded and is as hot as ever,'' he said.
He said the new Auckland high of $820,000 meant a $70,000 increase in one month, almost one and a-half times the median income in Auckland.
He said the Government must embark on a massive state-backed building programme to flood the market with affordable homes, ban offshore speculators from pushing prices beyond the reach of families, and genuinely reform restrictive planning rules.
Central Otago Lakes' sales numbers were the strongest for March in 14 years, rising from 147 homes to 155, according to data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
March sales volumes across Otago rose 39% on a year ago, with North Otago up 55%, South Otago up 52% and Dunedin up 33%.
Record prices eluded Otago but records were set in Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Nelson/Marlborough, Canterbury/Westland, and Central Otago Lakes, which is separate from Otago data.
Nationally, the median price rose $20,000, or 4.2%, on a year ago, to $495,000.
REINZ regional commentator Liz Nidd, of Dunedin, said the Otago market was ‘‘robust'' at present with a ‘‘significant influx of out-of-town buyers'' during the the past year.
‘‘Not just from Auckland but from other parts of New Zealand, and offshore buyers becoming more noticeable. From an investor's perspective, the market is described as one of the country's best-kept secrets,'' she said.
Otago prices rose 8% to $280,000, Dunedin rose 8.9% to $305,000, North Otago dipped $3000 to $212,000 and South Otago rose 45.4% to $196,250. Queenstown rose 27.3% to $815,000 and Central Otago was up 21.2% to $525,000.
REINZ chief executive Colleen Milne said the ‘‘halo effect'', where Aucklanders cast further afield for better deals or higher rental yields, was ‘‘gaining in strength''.
‘‘Right across the country regional markets have been strong with a large number of record medians and the strongest sales for nine years for most regions,'' she said.
There was a noticeable surge in sales of higher-priced properties in March, with the number of sales over more than $1 million increasing by more than 90% on February, she said.
‘‘This is especially true in Auckland, where one in three properties that sell are valued at more than $1 million - a record 35% of the market,'' Ms Milne said.
