Wellington house prices jump nearly 25 per cent in a year

Wellington's house prices have jumped nearly 25 per cent since March 2020. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington's house prices have jumped nearly 25 per cent since March 2020.

Figures from the latest monthly REINZ report, released today, showed Wellington's median house price to be $882,700 for the month of March.

This is an increase of 24.9 per cent since March 2020, but a decrease of 1.4 per cent since February 2021.

Across the country median house prices for residential property reached a record high of $826,300 in March, up 24.3 per cent from $665,000 during the same month last year.

Record highs were also reached around the Wellington region, with Kāpiti Coast up 35.4 per cent and Upper Hutt City up 33.9 per cent year-on-year.

Wellington also had the lowest available housing stock across New Zealand, with six weeks of housing inventory available for sale.

There was a massive demand for homes in New Zealand throughout the month of March.

The number of residential properties sold in March across New Zealand increased by 31.2 per cent when compared to the same time last year (from 7,408 to 9,721) – the highest for the month of March in 14 years and the highest annual percentage change in three months.

In Wellington, March had the highest sales count in four years, with 911 properties sold – up 17.2 per cent from last year.

Across New Zealand, the percentage of properties sold for $1 million or more increased from 20.0 per cent (1485 properties) in March 2020 to 34.8 per cent (3386 properties) in March 2021 – the highest percentage of million-dollar plus properties ever sold.

At the other end of the market, the number of homes sold for less than $500,000 across New Zealand fell from 27.9 per cent of the market (2065 properties) in March 2020 to 15.3 per cent of the market (1489 properties) in March 2021 – the lowest percentage of properties sold in the sub-$500,000 bracket ever.