Over the past year New Zealand's house prices have set a new record, growing by 8.2 per cent from a median $561,500 to $607,500.

The latest Real Estate Institute data showed that this was the first time New Zealand's median house price had gone above $600,000.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ spoketo WILLIAMS MEDIA.

“While strong price increases might be welcomed by those selling their homes, the reality is that a stable market is more beneficial for all players in the market,” said Ms Norwell.

"Rising prices certainly make it more difficult for first time buyers to get onto the market, however, lending to first time buyers for the first 9 months of 2018 vs the first 9 months of 2019 increased 12.2 per cent suggesting that lending conditions for this group still remain favourable, despite rising prices."

Auckland house prices rose by a median $7000 annually, from $861,000 a year ago to $868,000 last month which REINZ said was the highest median price for that city in 19 months.

The fast growing areas, according to REINZ, include:

• Northland with a 9.4% increase to $525,000 up from $480,000 at the same time last year
• Waikato with a 9.6% increase to $570,000 up from $520,000 at the same time last year
• Bay of Plenty with a 7.8% increase to $620,000 up from $575,000 at the same time last year
• Hawke’s Bay with a 16.3% increase to $535,000 up from $460,000 at the same time last year
• Manawatu/Wanganui with a 20.9% increase to $407,500 up from $337,000 at the same time last year
• Otago with a 15.8% increase to $550,000 up from $475,000 at the same time last year.
• Gisborne with a 37.1% increase in median price year-on-year to $425,000 – the strongest price rise across the country

Ms Norwell said October was a strong month for record median prices and the new national record median.

"This is the highest number of regional record prices we've seen for the country in 23 months," said Ms Norwell.

In relation to the recently introduced foreign buyer ban to New Zealand Ms Norwell was not surprised at the results in the September 2019 compared to last year.

“Given the foreign buyer ban has been in place since the end of October last year, it’s little surprise that home transfers to overseas buyers for the September 2019 quarter has fallen to 0.5% from 2.0% for the September 2018 quarter" said Ms Norwell.

“This indicates that the foreign buyer ban may have had a larger impact on the number of properties sold than the median price, but we cannot know what those figures would have been if the ban had not been put in place."

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