A scramble for houses has driven the number of residential properties sold to the highest level in any April month over the past five years.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand's house price index rose nearly 26.8 per cent in April to 3775, over the year earlier.
While Auckland had the busiest April with 2591 properties sold, Canterbury stood out with 1076 properties sold, the region's busiest April month in 14 years.
The West Coast also saw a boom with 46 properties sold, the strongest sales volume for the month of April in 15 years.
Excluding April 2020, Otago had the lowest April sales volume since April 2008.
The national median price for residential property rose a seasonally-adjusted 25.6 per cent to $810,000, a gain of $130,000 on last year's $680,000. Marlborough had a notable 46.1 per cent increase from $460,000 in April 2020 to $672,000 in April this year.
April also saw the highest percentage of properties sold by auction for the month ever. In Canterbury, 32.9 per cent (354) of properties were sold under the hammer - the highest percentage of auctions since records began.
REINZ acting chief executive Wendy Alexander said there were signs the reintroduction of loan to value bank lending restrictions (LVRs) were having some effect.
"As we predicted last month, the ongoing lack of supply continues to put upwards pressure on house prices. However, we have seen some regions start to show signs of prices easing and the rate of growth slowing down a little which will be welcome news to those looking to get on the property market," she said.
The total number of properties available for sale fell 19.6 per cent on the year before, which was the lowest for an April month since records began.
"However, we were still surprised by the strength of some of the rises in places such as Gisborne, Manawatū/Whanganui, Marlborough and Otago, which have all seen annual price rises in excess of 45 per cent."
Alexander said it was also surprising that the Auckland region reached another record median price for a third month in a row, with a seasonally-adjusted rise of 21.2 per cent on the year earlier to more than $1.1 million.
Houses sold five days faster with a seasonally-adjusted 13.3 per cent increase on the year earlier to 7218, but down 13.3 per cent on March.
Nine out of 16 regions reached record median prices, along with 21 districts - well down on 32 districts last month.
The number of homes sold for less than $500,000 fell to 15.6 per cent of the market, with those above $1m accounting for a third of all sales.
-RNZ and Star News
