"The combination of rising demand, easing supply, and sellers holding the power suggests little other than prices rising - hence a net 41.1 per cent of agents reporting that is exactly what they are observing," he said.
All of the eight measures tracked in the monthly survey saw increases in the past month, except for one.
The percentage of agents who said they were receiving more requests for appraisals has decreased from a net negative 0.8 per cent in June to negative 13 per cent in July.
"That means decreasing supply at the same time as measures of demand are rising," Alexander said.
A record net 27.9 per cent of agents said they were noticing more investors in the market, probably reflecting the falls in interest rates, Alexander said.
A net 44 per cent of agents responded that they were seeing more first home buyers.
"This indicator has been at strong levels since the start of the year and is likely to remain high as awareness grows of rental property shortages in some areas," Alexander said.
"With interest rates set to stay low for this year and perhaps all of next while economic growth continues at a reasonable if unexciting pace, New Zealand's residential property market is likely to remain in its seller's market phase at least well into 2014."
The BNZ-REINZ Market Survey, usually run on the first Tuesday of the month, is conducted through an email sent to REINZ members. Respondents are asked to click on a URL which takes them to a survey site.
There were 333 responses this month.
- HERALD ONLINE
