Asking prices up 17pc, says Trade Me

The average asking price for houses increased 17 per cent year on year last month to reach a record $820,950, Trade Me says.

Trade Me property sales director Gavin Lloyd said May was usually when the property market began to cool off ahead of the winter months, but that didn’t seem to be the case this year.

‘‘New Zealand house prices continued their record-breaking streak, hitting an all-time high for the ninth consecutive month.’’

Increased demand and the lack of available properties were driving the increases, with website traffic up 2 per cent nationwide last month compared with April. Supply was down 3 per cent.

The data showed it was still a sellers’ market and buyers could face a winter of ‘‘red hot’’ prices, unless demand eased or housing stock increased. Fear of overpaying was not stopping buyers forking out big bucks to get on the property ladder, Lloyd said.

He said every region had recorded a yearly increase in the average asking price, with nine regions reaching a new record.

Auckland ($1.08 million), Bay of Plenty ($830,000), Canterbury ($552,750), Hawke’s Bay ($700,750), Manawatu¯ /Whanganui ($552,700), Nelson/tasman ($760,250), Southland ($430,650), Taranaki ($544,550), Waikato ($720,450), and Wellington ($857,950) all saw record high average asking prices in May, he said.

The biggest increases were in Manawatu¯ /Whanganui at 25 per cent and Wellington at 22 per cent.

Website traffic increased in 12 of 15 regions in May compared with April. Only Otago and Wellington did not experience increased demand.

Hawke’s Bay stood out with the second-largest increase in demand of all regions, at 7 per cent, and the number of listings was up 7 per cent month on month.

‘‘The average asking price in the region entered the $700,000 bracket for the first time at $700,750,’’ Lloyd said.

Wellington region asking prices were up 22 per cent in the past year to reach an average of $857,950, the biggest year-on-year increase the region had ever experienced.

Central Wellington asking prices reached a record of $940,200 in May, 13 per cent higher than the year before. This was the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year increases of more than 10 per cent.

‘‘The most popular house in the country in May [on the website] was a three-bedroom house on Frobisher St in Island Bay. It had an asking price of $650,000 and received 400 watchlists in its first two days.’’

Central Auckland house prices also had a record-breaking month in May, with the average asking price increasing 13 per cent compared on the year before. The average house price hit $1.2m, a 10 per cent increase on the year before.

Many mortgage-holders who put their repayments on hold during last year’s Covid-19 lockdown have struggled to pick them up again, new data show.

Credit reporting bureau Centrix analysed the data in its credit files to reveal that while the bank mortgage deferral scheme had been an overall success, many households had not been able to resume repayments successfully.

More than one in four mortgages that were part of the deferral scheme had either been closed, dealt with under bank hardship provisions, or moved to interestonly repayments.

‘‘The closure of the mortgage accounts indicates that the home was likely sold, and the mortgage