Otago had a rush of new property listings in December, an increase of 22.1% compared with December last year, and the second-highest increase in the country behind Wellington.
Realestate.co.nz figures released yesterday showed there were 326 new listings in Otago in December.
The average price for houses in Otago increased 3.3% from November to $299,246.
In the Central Otago-Lakes district, new listings rose 3.1% from December last year to 304 and the asking price fell 9.8% to $674,872.
The district maintained the second-highest price in the country, behind Auckland on $731,083.
Realestate.co.nz chief executive Brendon Skipper said the asking price of houses for sale in December remained high across the country, while inventory of available homes for sale fell, reaching record lows in Auckland.
The national average asking price for December of $480,815 was slightly down on November but was still up 7% from the same time last year.
''The more dramatic index in December was the shrinking inventory of homes for sale across the country, which fell to the lowest level since November 2013.''
Inventory was expressed as a theoretical measure of the number of weeks it would take to sell all unsold housing stock on the market at a given point of time.
The long-term national average was 36 weeks. In December, inventory fell to 24.5 weeks of stock and 15 of 19 regions experienced falls in available property levels.
Mr Skipper said Auckland drove the fall in inventory, registering a record low of 10.8 weeks of stock in December - a 21% fall on November and a 13% drop on the same month in 2013.
Bay of Plenty also had a record low of 31 weeks.
''The shortage in the number of homes for sale, especially in the three main centres, underlines the favourable environment house sellers enjoy as they seek to maximise the value of their homes on the property market.''
There were only 37,537 homes for sale in New Zealand, the lowest since September 2013.
December was a quiet month for new listings. Only 8283 new homes came on the market across the country, 39% down on November but up 3.4% on the same month in 2013.
The total number of homes listed for sale in 2014 was 128,049, down 2.8% on 2013.
The number of new listings tended to remain low through January, Mr Skipper said.
