Auckland's housing market may be showing some signs of cooling, but elsewhere regional areas are hitting record average asking prices, with pressure coming from new listings nationally being down 5.6% from November last year.
Auckland may be just starting to adjust to new tax and banking regulations introduced during the past eight weeks.
In a familiar tale of Auckland, and then the rest of New Zealand, Auckland's asking price slipped slightly to $849,882 while Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Coromandel reached new record prices, of $413,067, $487,025 and $554,303 respectively.
Otago asking prices eased 1.6%, down to $315,985, while the national asking prices rose 1.4% from October to $547,515, according to realestate.co.nz, an agency of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
Separate data yesterday from Government agency Quotable Value (QV) showed the average national valuation was $555,729, up 15% on a year ago or 34% above the previous housing peak in 2007.
QV national spokeswoman Andrea Rush said Auckland home values were still increasing but at a slower rate than the previous month and it appeared new rules to curb investors, along with restrictions on the capital flow out of China, had led to an easing in the market.
Over October and November, tax regulations were imposed on investors to stop them selling homes within less than two years of purchase and loan to value (LVR) lending was raised for investors, while LVR's for home buyers beyond Auckland was relaxed, to encourage growth.
''Meanwhile, the Wellington market is showing a definite upward tick in values along with Dunedin, which is also on the rise, as investors look to new markets around the country,'' she said.
Dunedin values were up 5.1% on a year ago, and 7.1% above the previous 2007 peak - at $306,614.
Dunedin Central and North values were up the most, rising 4.0% over the past three months and 7.5% year on year, now at respectively QV's Dunedin registered valuer Duncan Jack said listing numbers for the city continued to be low, and had further reduced during the past week, possibly with sellers deciding to wait until after the holiday season to put their properties on the market.
''However, there is still very good demand from buyers across the board in all value ranges, particularly in the entry level price bracket of the market, between $200,000 and $250,000,'' he said in a statement yesterday.
He said out of town investors continued ''to be active'' in the market, attracted by the relatively good rental yields Dunedin offered, compared with other major centres around the country which have much higher average home values.
''Properties continue to sell quickly with minimal marketing periods and multi-offer scenarios continue to be common and in general value growth remains steady with some renovated properties showing good capital gain,'' Mr Jack said.
Elsewhere in the South Island, values in many centres also showed value increases with the MacKenzie District increasing the most, up 18.1% on a year ago, followed by Queenstown Lakes District where values rose 9.3%.
The Auckland market had increased 24.4% on a year ago, 6.5% during the past three months and was now 70.5% higher than the previous peak of 2007.
ASB economist Kim Mundy said seasonally adjusted new listings fell in November, which suggested low supply was driving the overall tightening in the housing market.
''However, the picture emerging in Auckland differs from the nationwide trend,'' Ms Mundy said.
Nationally, low interest rates were continuing to support demand for houses and the tightening in the nationwide housing market pointed to continued pressure on house prices.
''Auckland is bucking the trend and if inventory levels continue to increase this may reduce some of the pressure on Auckland house prices.''
