Asking prices increased while sale prices were down | Trade Me REPORT

PHOTO: Trade Me spokesperson Casey Wylde

The tail end of Summer saw the country’s housing market continue to warm, with property prices up on February, and demand at a more than four year high.

Trade Me Property’s Property Pulse Report shows in March 2025 the average asking price increased by $10,000 (+1.2%) from February to $861,900. Year-on-year prices remain down 2.6 per cent.

Metro centres bounce back

Trade Me Property’s Customer Director Gavin Lloyd said the average asking price in Auckland continues to grow and in March hit a 10-month high, up 1.2 per cent on February to $1,057,300.

“Not since May of last year have we seen Tāmaki Makaurau prices where they are at currently. It was just six months ago the average asking price in Auckland dipped below one million,” says Mr Lloyd.

“While a $60-thousand dollar increase since September isn’t to be sniffed at, prices in Auckland remain 2.4 per cent off where they were at the same time last year.”

The average asking price in Wellington also hit a 10-month high in March of $821,600. The seventh consecutive month of increases in Pōneke. In Canterbury prices hit a four month high of $714,800.

“Canterbury is the only one of the three big cities to show both month-on-month (+0.6%) and year-on-year (+0.2%) growth in March.

“While the increases in average asking prices in Canterbury are modest, they are in contrast to both Auckland where prices are down more than two per cent on last March, and Wellington which sits at 3.7 per cent behind the same month last year.”

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Supply and demand on the rise

The number of listings on Trade Me Property, which hit a decade high in February, continued to climb, up six per cent in March, and 12 per cent on the same month last year.

Gisborne (+31%), the West Coast (+26%), Otago (+24%) and Canterbury (+20%) led the way with the largest year-on-year increases in supply. While Southland listings are up 14 per cent on March 2024, it’s the only region of the 15 monitored by Trade Me Property to show a decline in supply from February (-2%).

Mr  Lloyd says since the start of the year, demand is also trending upwards.

“We’ve seen a fairly persistent imbalance between supply and demand in more recent times, with more homes available than demand suppressing the big pricing gains we saw back in 2021.

“While it’s great to see demand momentum gaining, and we saw highs in March not seen since mid-2020, the current market still offers buyers a huge amount of choice.”

Price increases for big properties in Wellington

The price of larger sized properties continues to soften with homes of five or more bedrooms down 5.5 per cent year-on-year.

“These more substantial-sized homes fell more than 14 per cent in Auckland with an average asking price just shy of $2.4 million, while Wellington stands in stark contrast, recording a 7 per cent increase in the prices of bigger properties.”