The property market reached new heights last month with the average residential home value topping a million dollars for the first time.

The property market reached new heights last month with the average residential home value topping a million dollars for the first time.

Last month's national average house value was $1,002,153, which was 27 percent up year-on-year. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon

The average value rose 5.3 percent in the three months ended in October, from a 3.6 percent gain in the September quarter, according to Quotable Value (QV).

"There's certainly still buyers out there who are keen to commit to property transactions despite ongoing uncertainty around Covid-19 and the impacts this is likely to have on the economic recovery," QV general manager David Nagel said.

Last month's national average house value was $1,002,153, which was 27 percent up year-on-year.

Auckland region average value rose 5.6 percent to $1,427,896.

"A continued lack of supply has resulted in a resurgence in prices across all 16 metro locations we monitor," Nagel said.

"With interest rates rising faster than most initially expected, there appears to be an element of panic buying from those who have been in the market for a property for some time, keen to lock in a mortgage rate that's still at historically low levels," he said.

None of the 16 major urban areas monitored by QV saw a decline in average value.

Among the main centres, Christchurch and Queenstown Lakes District saw 10 percent growth.

The Manawatū-Whanganui region continued to be the strongest growing region with 35 percent growth over the past year, closely followed by the Canterbury and Hawke's Bay regions at 34 percent and West Coast slightly behind at 33 percent.

The three lowest annual growth rates were in the South Island, with Southland up more than 20 percent, Tasman up 22 percent and Otago up 24 percent.

Despite the increases, Nagel said the market was trending down, given the rising interest rates and potential for the introduction of debt to income lending restrictions affecting the ability of some buyers to get credit.

"I think we'll continue to see the gradual slowing of the rate of growth and particularly with anecdotal reports of increases in the number of listings that are coming on market as we head into the summer months."