House prices rising in New Zealand

A chronic lack of supply is fuelling a regional growth in house prices and sales volumes in New Zealand, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institution of New Zealand.Record median prices were reached in Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Canterbury/Westland and Otago.

The report explains that this shows the growing halo effect of rising prices around New Zealand - strengthening in the regions where it is already present and moving on to new regions, driven by a chronic lack of supply. The availability of properties for sale has fallen by over one third over the past 12 months, with a number of regions seeing declines of more than half.