New house price records have been set, with national prices up 19.1 per cent in the year to April and Auckland outstripping that, rising 21.6 per cent.
Real Estate Institute data out today showed the national median house price last April of $680,000 jumped to $810,000 in the year to April 2021.
Auckland's median leapt from $925,000 to $1.12 million last month, setting a new record. New records were also set in two parts of the city: Manukau City at $1.07m and Franklin at $838,000.
"However, we were still surprised by the strength of some of the rises in places such as Gisborne, Manawatū-Wanganui, Marlborough and Otago which have all seen annual price rises in excess of 45 per cent.
"We were surprised that the Auckland region reached another record median price – the third in a row," she said.
New Plymouth District, at a median $620,000, has had six record median price rises in a row and Tauranga City at $937,500 has had four median price records in a row.
Gisborne district at $690,000 and Marlborough district at $672,000 have had three median price records in a row.
Queenstown Lakes District, at a median $1.2m last month, had its second consecutive month of a record median price.
Alexander doesn't expect the rises to continue at this rate.
"As we head further into the cooler months of the year and the second tranche of loan-to-value ratio restrictions comes into effect, we would expect to see further stabilisation of the market in the coming months – as long as we see a solid level of new listings come to the market," she said.
In April, the median number of days to sell a property nationally decreased by five days from 34 to 29 annually.
Auckland houses took only 31 days to sell last month, down from 34 days previously and the shortest period of time to sell in an April in six years.
Nearly a third of all properties or 30 per cent sold by auction, the highest percentage of auctions for an April month since records began around the 1960s.
Auckland had the highest percentage of auctions in New Zealand with 48 per cent or 1246 properties sold under the hammer, the highest percentage of auctions for an April month since records began.
Gisborne was second-highest for auctions in New Zealand.
Jeremy Couchman, a Kiwibank economist, said if April sales volumes were seasonally adjusted, they actually fell nearly 6 per cent. He calculated a 5.9 per cent drop from March to April and said volumes only rose 0.1 per cent from February to March.
"We think it will take a few months to see if recent policy changes, such as the extension of the bright-line test, have had a measurable impact on the market. Like a massive container ship, it can take time to slow the momentum of a runaway housing market," Couchman said.
REINZ said its House Price Index, which measures the changing value of property in the market, increased 26.8 per cent annually to 3775, a new high on the index.
This is the highest annual percentage increase in the HPI seen since records began and is the 11th consecutive month of a new high.
The HPI for New Zealand excluding Auckland showed house price values increased 28.6 per cent annually to 3804.
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