Hawke's Bay houses flood on to the market in April

For sale signs were a regular sight in Hawke's Bay last month. Photo / File

More than 300 houses were dropped on to the Hawke's Bay property market last month, latest figures show.

Data from realestate.co.nz show that there were 537 houses listed for sale on the company's website in April, following a big hike in new listings.

"Hawke's Bay had a significant lift in new listings in April, up 34 per cent on April 2017 to 313, and seemed to have broad-based appeal," Realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said.

"Not only are the locals fans of the region, but it seems many people in the rest of the country are as well.

"The largest number of people searching for property in the Hawke's Bay region come from the Hawke's Bay, which is a move from the region being dominated by Auckland buyers.

"They appear to be realistic and know their region well, including what they would expect to pay for a property."

When Hawke's Bay people looked for property on realestate.co.nz, their top search price was in the $0-$500,000 bracket.

Top places searched in the region were Havelock North, Taradale, Napier Hill and Waipukurau.

Nationally, new online property listings rose year on year for the first time since November 2017, and were up 1.9 per cent on the same period last year.

"On the face of it this increase looks relatively modest, but it's a case of several smaller regions offsetting a volume drop in Auckland," Taylor said.

Tremains managing director Simon Tremain said although there were more houses coming on to the market, there was no sign of the market becoming saturated.

"Obviously current owners are seeing it as a good opportunity to sell, with the movement in price. However, we still have a lot of buyers in the market, there's certainly no over-supply of stock.

"We are heading into winter, which is normally, traditionally, a slower period but we still have a very active buyer market. All it will ultimately mean is that houses may take a little longer to sell."

Property Brokers regional manager Paul Whitaker said with clearance times now up to about 11 weeks, an increase in stock would make for a more "balanced" market.

"Also, typically, people try to get in before winter. So, historically, we see a bit of a surge at the end of the summer season."

Real estate agents were seeing a mix of properties coming on to the market, as well as astute investors taking the opportunity to rearrange portfolios, with an aim of concentrating on certain areas, he said.

Harcourts Hawke's Bay general manager James Cooper said the increase in online listings was definitely in line with what agents were seeing.

"More and more we are hearing that buyers are looking at property online first and this is driving great inquiry. The numbers of buyers looking at property through our Harcourts site has grown substantially over the last quarter and this is great for our vendors."

There had been an increase in property listings "across the range", and that meant more choice for buyers, he said.