Areas and regions continue to respond differently across New Zealand. While the headline numbers are generally provided on the overall sales, the regions with the highest average increase in asking price were the Bay of Plenty, Marlborough and Canterbury.

It is crucial to focus on the active market and competing listings. While buyers value location and build quality, comparison properties and pricing are even more important due to the high volume of properties available.

Great importance for the success of your property is our real-time database, which is one of the most active and successful in New Zealand.

We have adopted our practices in support of the Red Light and Phase 3 framework. Each of our Ray White offices and licensee salespeople are aligned to the industry guidelines through the Real Estate Authority and the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

January sales were down 9% in value and 24% in volume compared to last year, reflecting property value increases over the past 12 months. More details are in our report.

In November, the real estate market stayed strong despite rising listings and interest rates. The Ray White group recorded $2.33 billion in sales, up 24.6% from last year, with sales numbers increasing by 2.6%, driven by a 25.5% average price rise.

Ten out of 16 regions measured by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand reached median price records, and one had an equal price record — the most since March 2021.

A key factor in the real estate market is inventory. The number of houses for sale dropped 23.7% year on year, from 17,576 to 13,407, following a 9.5% decrease in August.

While house prices are an important consideration for interest-rate movements, sustainability also plays a role in how the Reserve Bank sets its monetary policy decisions.

Supply and demand are still a major part of the price stability and our auctions continue to have a strong depth of buyer registration and buyer bidding activity. The