Auckland house listings fall but rise in other parts NZ

Asking prices in Auckland fell 0.6 per cent in March to $955,577. Picture / Michael Craig

New house listings in Auckland fell almost 5 per cent in April compared to the same time last year but were buttressed by homes hitting the market in other parts of country, according to realestate.co.nz.

New listings across New Zealand were up 1.9 per cent to 9899 in April - the first year-on-year rise since last November.

Auckland listings during the month fell 4.6 per cent to 3380 and asking prices remained static, falling 0.6 per cent since March to $955,577.

Realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said that while the national increase looked modest, it was a case of several regions offsetting Auckland.

"Typically, when Auckland gets cold, the rest of the country also suffers, but this time when it came to new property listings the rest of the country made up the numbers, led by Canterbury and Wellington," Taylor said.

As listings in the country's biggest city fell, Aucklanders were continuing to head elsewhere and hunting for property in Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, the Central North Island, Taranaki, Gisborne, Nelson and Bays and Marlborough regions.

Both listings and asking prices were up in Canterbury, with volumes rising 30.4 per cent from April last year to 1654 and prices up 2.4 per cent to $499,792.

Listings in the tightly-held market of Wellington were also up - rising by 13.6 per cent to 754.

"This is good news for the region which has been relatively starved of new listings," Taylor said.

"The Hawke's Bay had a significant lift in new listings in April, up 34 per cent on April 2017 to 313, and seemed to have broad-based appeal.

"Not only are the locals fans of the region, but it seems many people in the rest of the country are as well."

She said Aucklanders were dominating searches for property in Hawke's Bay.