Property Institute chief executive Ashley Church said these results indicated housing policy could be a "vote clincher" for many.
"Overall, nearly one in 10 Kiwis are saying that housing policy will decide their vote."
Of those who said a good property policy would determine their vote, the biggest proportion were in Wellington and Christchurch (11 per cent); followed by the provincial cities (8 per cent) and Auckland (7 per cent).
In terms of political affiliation, Labour Party supporters appeared most likely to view property as a pertinent issue, making up 12 per cent of those who said it would determine their vote; followed by the Greens (10 per cent) and National and NZ First (5 per cent).
Church said parties were evidently "acutely aware" of the importance of housing policies and were all spending a lot of time and effort packaging up their housing policies.
However, he cautioned Kiwis against believing in any quick-fix solution.
"Solving the supply shortage requires massive involvement by the private sector - and the policies I've seen to date either don't acknowledge this need, or propose ideas that will actually make the problem worse.
"Getting people building houses is the Holy Grail solution - and no party has yet come close to anything which will achieve it".
What the politicians said
The survey, which was published in the institute's Property Professional publication, was accompanied with each of the major party's views on the issues.
Here is a summary of what the politicians said about the issue of housing in the latest edition of Property Professional.
For the full version go here
Minister for Building and Construction National MP Nick Smith acknowledged there was a "significant shortage of housing, particularly in Auckland".
He blamed bad planning laws that "held back the development of new homes".
Smith said the Government was working to address this with a wide range of initiatives, including moves to free up land for development, the allocation of $1 billion into an infrastructure fund to support the increase in housing and its plans to build thousands of new homes.
Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford said the housing crisis was a "moral issue" that needed to be fixed "for the sake of the next generation".
He said its plans included bringing in changes to the urban growth boundary to provide more options for development and intensification, looking to more innovative ways of funding infrastructure and allowing for more ambitious private sector-led developments.
Green Party housing spokeswoman Metiria Turei said the next Government would need to "hit the ground running to fix the housing crisis".
She said all New Zealanders deserve a warm, dry, safe place to call home.
To address this she called for state-led home building at a much greater scale than what was currently happening, more support for the homeless and community and social housing sectors, better schemes to help those who cannot afford to buy on to the property ladder and a capital gains tax.
Act Party leader David Seymour also blamed the housing crisis on a shortage of stock caused by "bad planning laws that have held back the development of new homes".
He said reducing the red-tape around the housing market to allow private developers to build and bring in additional stock to the market would help ease the pressure on the market.
Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said "everyone, no matter where they are in the country, no matter what their ethnicity, should live in a safe, healthy, affordable home".
He said to move towards this vision the party called for all rentals to undergo a regular warrant of fitness, more social and affordable housing, pathways to help those into home ownership, more funding for emergency housing and greater co-operation between government and social service agencies to help house the vulnerable.
NZ First Housing spokesman Denis O'Rourke said the party's principal objective was to increase housing supply and provide more home-ownership models.
To do this the party wanted to establish a new housing commission that would develop a national strategy to address issues of supply, affordability, development and infrastructure.
United Future leader Peter Dunne called for a national housing summit that would see representatives from the private and public sectors come together to develop a plan to address the key issues of affordability, supply, social houses and the quality of rentals.
He also suggested allowing families to withdraw their annual Working for Families entitlement to cover the costs of a home deposit.
The Opportunities Party leader Gareth Morgan called for owners to "pay a minimum level of tax on the equity in all assets, similar to what they would pay on a bank deposit" and for rentals to be of a good quality.
