Central's property asking price at record high

The highest regional asking mean price for property - $642,251 - was reached in the Central Otago-Lakes district last month, rising 16% on the January asking price and 21% for the year ended January.

Realestate.co.nz figures showed the mean asking prices in New Zealand reached $443,734 and two regions reached record highs - Central Otago-Lakes and Wellington, which rose to $453,220. The Auckland asking price rose 0.6% to $603,781.

In contrast, the asking price in Otago fell 7.2% in February to $278,240. In Southland, the price rose 4.6% to $235,939 and in Canterbury, it rose 0.7% to $405,436.

Reinz Queenstown spokesman Kelvin Collins said the high asking mean for February was not a reflection of the market in the area, more a result of the small market size. It would take only two to three sales in the higher price sector to cause an anomaly.

''We certainly haven't seen a lift in the market, unfortunately.''

Realestate.co.nz marketing manager Paul McKenzie said that following seasonal listing expectations, February delivered a healthy start to the year with 13,145 new listings coming to the market, down only 2%.

While up significantly from both December and January figures, the flow of new listings was not enough to meet the buyer demand in the main cities where inventory fell to between 14 weeks and 17 weeks - measured by the number of weeks of equivalent sales.

''The increase of new listings came with a higher asking price expectation from sellers, who are eager to capitalise on the demand they are seeing in the property market.''

As had been seen for the last year, the pressure in the market caused by a shortage of listings was very focused in the main cities. Provincial New Zealand still had not seen anything like the level of buyer demand or activity in the main cities, Mr McKenzie said.

Listings in Auckland were down 4.2% year-on-year in February while sales in January rose 26.7% on last year.

The trend continued to show strength in seller expectation on the back of low listings and strong demand in main centres, he said.

As forecasted, new listings increased substantially in February. The 13,145 new listings were a 49% increase on 8849 in January. But that still represented a fall of 2% on last year.

On a 12-month moving average basis, a total of 132,236 new listings had come on to the market since February 2012, compared with 127,054 in the previous 12-month period.

The number of unsold houses on the market at the end of February (44,698) was up slightly compared with January (43,056).

Mr McKenzie said the market remained firmly a sellers' market, with 13 of the 19 New Zealand regions showing inventory levels that were well below their long-term averages.

ASB senior economist Jane Turner said there was yet to be a ''meaningful'' increase in new house listings to alleviate the supply constraints in the Auckland and Canterbury housing markets. As housing demand continued to gradually recover, the imbalance between buyers and sellers would continue to drive prices higher in those regions.

The recent lift in building consents was an encouraging sign that new supply was in the pipeline, she said. However, a larger and more sustained increase in new house building this year was required in order to have a meaningful impact on Auckland and Canterbury constraints. Outside those regions, the housing market appeared more balanced. Supply quickly lifted, in response to stronger demand, over the second half of last year.

The Reserve Bank had become increasingly wary of housing market developments, particularly in light of the recent acceleration in credit growth.

''The Reserve Bank will continue to balance the pick-up in housing and credit demand against the elevated New Zealand dollar, the gradual pace of economic recovery and subdued inflation pressures.''

Ms Turner continued to expect the Reserve Bank to leave the official cash rate at 2.5% until March next year.

dene.mackenzie@odt.co.nz