Bay leads surge in home listings

The average asking price for a New Zealand home broke the $500,000 barrier in November for the first time in market history. Photo / NZME.

House buyers in Hawke's Bay have more choice, thanks to an increase in the number of houses listed for sale.

November listing figures from Trade Me showed the number of properties for sale in Hawke's Bay increased by 24.1 per cent from November 2013 - the biggest increase nationwide.

Owner of real-estate business Tremains, Simon Tremain, said his company had noticed the rise. "We have definitely seen an increase in listing activity. The post-election market has been good and spring coming into Christmas seems to be a good time for people to be making decisions about buying and selling homes.

"There is good buyer demands so sellers are getting good prices for their properties. We are hoping it might tip towards a sellers' market but at the moment there is good interest and we are seeing some good volumes."

The property market was expected to continue rising into 2015, said Mr Tremain.

"We see it really busy right up until Christmas and obviously there is this massive migration into Auckland which is starting to have a flow-on effect through the regions. We are looking forward to a busy market in early 2015."

The average asking price for a New Zealand home broke the $500,000 barrier in November for the first time in market history.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said the new record high asking prices signalled ongoing confidence.

"The November data echoes the lift we saw in October, meaning sellers have continued to raise their price expectations to land at a new high-water mark of $509,750.

"There has been a resounding resurgence in the property market after a pretty subdued winter and that all adds up to good news for sellers and a bitter pill for buyers to swallow. "

Mr Jeffries said only the West Coast had reported a fall in price expectation. Everywhere else it was steadily increasing.

The average asking price for a small 1-2 bedroom house nationwide was approximately $334,700, a 15.4 per cent rise from November 2013.