By the end of November, the real estate sector had processed just less than 71,000 deals, nominally down from the prior year when 72,746 properties were sold, annual numbers from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) show.
While overall numbers were off, the average sale price climbed on a national basis to $586,000 from $555,000 in 2018.
Regional numbers continued to underpin average price growth, Southland spiking by 20% to an average of $300,000 from $250,000 and Otago up by an average $53,250 per deal to $490,000.
Across the Otago region there were a combined $2.55 billion worth of housing transactions across 4129 sales.
Regional pricing was led by Clutha which moved up 20.4% to $270,800, Dunedin, up 13.3% at $453,000 and Waitaki, which climbed 9.7% to $328,000.
Queenstown-Lakes district showed a more modest growth rate albeit off a higher level, moving up a nominal 2.6% to an average price of $955,000.
Bayleys Metro Dunedin sales manager Adam Gain said the greater Dunedin market was demonstrating "a lot of urgency", with a continued shortage of supply driving price gains.
"The average time to sell is a telling number, which is officially 23 but is probably closer to 10 days."
He said the current market was tough on people trying to get a toehold in the city.
"There are a lot of people still at auctions, at open homes, so a lot of them are missing out."
He said the challenge for the real estate agent was to get good quality listings and to market them well.
"It is a buyer’s market; most subdivisions in newer areas have now been snapped up."
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said outside of regional growth, a major influence was the record low bank lending rates which had made housing more accessible for first-time buyers.
She said while the foreign buyer ban had affected sales volumes, "it had not had the intended flow-on effect for sales prices".
This was " another interesting year for the real estate industry — we’ve seen record median prices reached in many parts of the country, with November itself seeing 10 new regional records and one record equal".
While the strengthening prices had the potential to affect sales volumes, total value of property sold showed the overall spend across New Zealand in the property market throughout the year is remaining rather steady.
“We are expecting 2020 to be another good year for the industry, with regional growth continuing and Auckland potentially starting to see some uplift in the year to come."
