First home buyers are increasingly buying more of the houses that are up for sale, but are often paying a small fortune to do so.
Twenty-three per cent of all homes sold in New Zealand last year went to a first-time buyer - a level not seen since the Global Financial Crisis in 2007, according to a new report by analysts CoreLogic.
In Auckland, 25 per cent of all homes were snapped up by first-time buyers.
![Auckland first home buyers snapped up one in four homes sold last year. Photo / Michael Craig](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/Z34YZ5VZWZRJ2BN6L7YF7TME24.jpg?auth=cc98b303929a6347e1a51d4d6970d5f185bf10c88c339fba825a9af984405fee&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
However, Auckland buyers had to fork out an average price of $856,467 for their homes - only 18 per cent less than the city-wide average house value at January of $1.045m.