There's been another rapid property price boom across New Zealand, with nine out of 10 regions seeing an increase in sales and volume last month, new data has revealed.
February had its highest number of home sales in 14 years - up 14 percent year-on-year, the latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) data shows.
The median house price in Auckland has skyrocketed to $1.1 million - up a staggering 24 percent.
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell is calling on the Government to address unaffordability issues.
Norwell says the REINZ data is likely to cause more havoc for first-home buyers hoping to get on the property ladder.
"February was certainly an extraordinary month, with a new record median price for the country and 12 regions and 37 districts all reaching new or equal records.
"Wellington, Manukau, and Waitakere Cities now all have median prices of $1 million or more, meaning that seven districts across the country now have reached or exceeded the million-dollar threshold."
New Zealand's overall median house price is now $780,000 - a 22.8 percent year-on-year spike.
Excluding Auckland, median house prices rose by 19.1 percent year-on-year - up from $550,000 in February 2020 to $655,000 last month.
Among regions that saw the biggest annual increases in house sale volumes included the West Coast (up 58 percent), Taranaki (up 31.4 percent), and Northland (up 22.5 percent).
Norwell said it's hoped the re-introduction of loan-to-value restrictions, which returned last week, would ease the current rate of growth.
"Now more than ever, we need our political parties to work together and to work closely with key industry players in order to start addressing the unaffordability issues and to address the housing shortages the country faces."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Newshub Nation last week no decisions had been made about potential housing policy changes.
"I'm not going to get into hypotheticals about what we will or won't do until we've actually made some considered decisions," she told host Tova O'Brien.
