Cooking the Books podcast: Why smaller houses are suddenly hot property

House prices are starting to flatten out, except for in the affordable end of the market. Photo / Chris Loufte

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, why affordable homes are bucking the trend in a property market that's going flat. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Audio from this video podcast is available on podcast apps, one week after its release on Herald Premium. You can subscribe on Apple podcasts app, iHeartRadio, or Spotify, to make sure you never miss an episode.

The property market seems to finally be slowing down.

Fewer listings are coming on to the market, those that are there are staying for longer, and in Auckland at least, the latest QV figures show prices have fallen 1.5 per cent.

It's far from a crash, but levelling off and some breathing space will be welcome news to many people at this point.

There's one very important exception though, and that's the smaller, cheaper end of the market.

OneRoof data shows that most of the activity is for houses under $1 million.

If a house is under $500,000 then QV says there's actually a shortage, with more buyers than sellers.

Anecdotally, real estate agents say the places getting the most interest are those with one or two bedrooms.

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to OneRoof property commentator Ashley Church.

We discussed why smaller houses are bucking the trend, and whether a smaller home is a good bet for your monetary future.

For the interview, watch the podcast video.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.