One in 10 home hunters waiting for crash

Buyers in Auckland and Canterbury in particular were put off by house prices, says a Canstar Blue survey. Photo / Doug Sherring.

One in ten Kiwi house hunters are holding off on buying in the hope that the property market will crash, a new survey has found.

Buyers in Auckland and Canterbury in particular were "put off" by house prices, with about 15 per cent of them deciding against purchasing, according to a Canstar Blue survey of 1059 New Zealanders.

"After years of seeing record rates of house price increases, in some areas there have been signs of the market slowing down," said Canstar Blue general manager Jose George.

"What we need to bear in mind is that we have experienced a prolonged period of falling mortgage rates and although OCR is at a record low, banks and other lenders are facing an increase in their funding costs."

This meant there are less likely to be further reductions in mortgage rates.

"Together with the more recent changes to LVR restrictions, some of the one in ten people holding out for the bubble to burst might start to see property market changes in their favour. Not so much a 'crash', more a levelling and we might see the odd bump in the road."

The survey also found that 52 per cent of people reported moving at least once in the last three years.

Among "Gen Y", 43 per cent of movers were renters, up from 38 per cent in last year's survey.

That contrasts to just 7 per cent of the "Baby Boomers" who were renting a property, down from 8 per cent last year.