Southland region has reached another record median house price, hitting $415,000 in March. 

Stats released today by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) show 217 residential properties sold across the region last month. 

That's up by 21.2% from last March, when 179 properties sold, for a media price of $370,000.

Houses are also selling quickly, with 21 days being the median days-to-sell. That's the lowest for a March month in 14 years, and six days quicker than they were selling last March.

Wendy Alexander, Acting Chief Executive at REINZ, says: "Purchasers are acting quickly when they find a property they want to secure.

"Activity is expected to remain steady in the Southland region over the coming months, although investor interest may ease slightly with the reintroduction of LVRs and the new bright line and tax deductibility changes announced in late March.”

In Invercargill, the median house price shot up to $430,000 last month, up 19.4% from $360,000 March 2020 and 10.8% from $388,200 in February 2021. There were 141 houses sold, compared with 124 and 120 respectively.   

Both Gore and Southland District came down slightly from last March. Gore median was $336,000, compared to $369,000 in March 2020 and $379,000 in Feb 2021. Southland District was $405,000, compared with $415,000 and $396,000.

Nationally, median prices increased by 24.3% from $665,000 in March 2020 to $826,300 in March 2021, a new record high for the country.

Alexander says March was "another incredibly strong month from a price perspective".

"The national median also reached a new record, increasing by $46,300 since last month, showing just how much pressure has been placed on house prices and how we desperately need more supply to come to the market.

"The Manawatu/Wanganui region has now had 9 record median prices in a row, 10 of the last 12 months were record or equal record prices for the Waikato region, 7 of the last 8 months were records for the Canterbury region and the Auckland region has hit another record median price. 

"These sorts of price rises are unsustainable and show just why New Zealand continues to top the league tables of most unaffordable nations in international studies.

"Additionally, we’re seeing houses sell at their fastest pace in a March month ever and we’ve seen the highest percentage of auctions the country has ever seen since REINZ began keeping records showing just how quickly the market is moving.

"Looking forward over the next couple of months, we would expect house prices to continue rising, but we hope this will be at a slower pace than we’ve seen over the last 6 to 12 months.

"Hopefully the re-implementation of the LVRs, changes in government policy and the move towards winter will slow the rate of growth down a little, but only time will tell what effect they will have."