Barfoot is Auckland's biggest agency.

The three women sold more than 300 homes with an average asking price of $721,000 over the past year.

Fifteen of the agency's top 25 agents were women this year, managing director Peter Thompson said.

Number-one ranked agent Court is based in Mairangi Bay.

New agent Kelly Zhang was named the rookie of the year after selling more than 70 properties in her first financial year. She set a record in the Mt Albert office for 19 properties in one month.

Another 35.4% of Aucklanders are paying off mortgages compared to 36.6% of the rest of New Zealand.

In Wellington, 35.2% of residents are paying off a home and the same number again are paying one off.

Auckland has the most renters – 32.3%, compared to 29.6% in Wellington and under 25% in the rest of New Zealand.

Auckland houses are also far more likely to have more people living in them. Almost a quarter have five or more inhabitants, compared to 29.6% in Wellington and 24.7% in the rest of the country.

High household density is most widespread in South Auckland, where families tend to be larger and the average socio-economic status lower. There, 12% of households have three or more children, considerably more than the national average of 7.3%.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research, said: “Although the Government is trying to address this situation with strategies such as the Auckland Housing Accord and the New Auckland Unitary Plan, it will be some time before the balance is restored. Many thousands of new homes are needed to meet the demand, and in the meantime, property prices show no sign of declining.”

Levine said with more people than homes available, it was inevitable that prices would keep rising.

“Auckland’s sizeable Maori and Pacific Islanders populations must also be considered: with many of them falling into the lower socio-economic quintiles, they are at a distinct disadvantage in what is already an uneven playing field.”

The IRD has been directing more resources towards taxing property investors since 2010. Revenue Minister Peter Dunne estimates about $110 million has been raised.

Janet Xuccoa, a partner at Gilligan Rowe and Associates, said the chance of property investors having their tax affairs looked at by the IRD had increased due to the Budget's cash injection.

“No one should play the fool and avoid their obligations by being selective in the advice they implement. If a battle royale commences with the IRD and the war is lost it costs the taxpayer in question lots of dollars.  Far better to obtain qualified independent advice and be compliant in the first instance.”

Some commentators have been critical of the IRD targeting property investors at the expense of other sectors.

But Xuccoa said there had been a tightening across the board and many sectors had been targeted. “All the IRD is saying is please pay tax and meet your obligations."

She said the IRD would look at a taxpayer’s intentions as well as their history when reviewing their  affairs and transactions.

Jeremy Tauri, of Plus Chartered Accountants, said the IRD would sometimes do that by going back through bank files looking for references to the reasons for a property’s purchase.

Xuccoa said people should not take shortcuts when it came to meeting tax obligations. “If a taxpayer is going to enter into property transactions they need to be wise and put a proper structure in place which deals with satisfying their tax obligations.”

Just 6% thought the sharemarket offered the best prospect of returns in the last quarter of last year. By the end of the first quarter of this year, that had risen to 10%.

The New Zealand sharemarket has had a very strong year in 2012. The NZX50 was up more than 24% last year on the year before.

Rental property was investors’ favourite throughout 2006 and 2007 but dropped below term deposits and bank savings accounts through 2008. Expectations of rental returns recovered a bit during 2009 but dropped below term deposits through 2010, before recovering strongly towards the end of last year.

Just under 20% of investors nationwide now think rental property will offer them the best returns.

In Auckland, 23% of investors back rental property, and 13% would put their money on the sharemarket.

For the rest of the country, there are as many investors who think term deposits offer the best returns as those who would expect the best results from rental property.

ASB’s head of wealth advisory, Jonathan Beale, said investor confidence was now at levels not seen since the end of 2010. It has reached a net 18%.

He said: “Kiwi investors have, over the past few years, regarded the share market with an air of caution in comparison to some other investment classes such as investment property and term deposits. However, it appears that public awareness surrounding recent Government SOE share offers has put the share market firmly back on retail investors’ radar this quarter. While the percentage of respondents believing term deposits and managed investments will yield the best returns is down two points each this quarter, expectations that public shares will have the highest returns has jumped up three points to sit at 10% of respondents.”

If the trial is successful, the scheme will be extended to other social housing providers.

The Government has previously said it would not introduce such a system for private rentals until its own properties were in order.

Whanau Ora minister Tariana Turia welcomed the move, saying it showed support for families in need.

But Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei, who has campaigned for a warrant of fitness scheme for all properties, said it did not go far enough.

“It’s not going to sort out the biggest problem of poor quality private rentals. Until they do that, this Government is not doing anything for low-income families.”

The New Zealand Property Investors Federation is critical of the idea, saying it will needlessly raise costs for landlords, which will have to be passed on to tenants.

This year’s Budget has moved to increase the supply of housing but critics say it will do little to stop the rise of prices in the short to medium-term.

The Inland Revenue Department has also been handed an extra $6.65 million a year to tackle property investment tax compliance.

The move is expected to return about $45 million a year in tax.

In previous years, the IMF had said house prices were 10% to 20% overvalued.

This year, it said house prices were a primary issue for New Zealand and could “lead to an increase in debt-financed household spending which would put pressure on aggregate demand and increase the risk of an abrupt price correction.”

It noted that price-to-income ratios are 20% higher than the average of the past three decades. Price-to-rent ratios show an even larger overvaluation, although the IMF noted that that was distorted by the large number of houses supplied by the Government.

Population growth, low housing investment, supply constraints, low interest rates and high building costs were driving values, the IMF said.

"New Zealand has one of the highest rates of growth for working age population among OECD countries—over the last 30 years New Zealand has experienced population growth well above the OECD mean."

It said not enough new housing was being built.

"Housing investment fell sharply in the wake of the global crisis and has been below 4% of GDP in the last five years, the lowest level in 40 years and relatively low when compared to other countries."

It noted that the cost of building was a lot higher than in Australia and industry productivity was flat-lining.

The IMF raised its assessment of the potential for a sharp fall in house prices to "low to medium", from "low" previously. Such an event would have a medium to high impact on the economy by reducing household investment and increasing mortgage defaults.

Directors agreed that the current accommodative monetary policy stance was appropriate.

REINZ chief executive Helen O’Sullivan said there had been a notable surge in prices and sales of mid-level homes in many parts of the country.

She said: “Several regions appear to be benefiting from the tail-wind generated by the strength of house prices in Auckland and Christchurch.” 

But price rises in  Auckland and Canterbury are having a major impact on the national picture. Together, Auckland and Canterbury accounted for 92% of the increase in the national median price over the past 12 months. 

All but one region recorded increases in sales volume compared to April last year. Manawatu/Wanganui recorded an increase of 36.5%, followed by Taranaki with 36.2% and Nelson/Marlborough with 34.2%.  Four regions recorded an increase in sales volume in April compared to March. Central Otago Lakes recorded an increase of 11.3%, followed by Manawatu/Wanganui with 2.0% and Southland with an increase of 0.7%.

The national median house price fell by $9500 from $400,000 in March, to $390,500 in April.

Compared to April 2012, Taranaki recorded the largest increase in median price, up 15.9%, followed by Auckland with 13.3%, and Canterbury/Westland with 10.0%.  Central Otago Lakes recorded the largest fall, down 10.1%, followed by Hawkes Bay, down 6.4% and Nelson/Marlborough, down 2.2%.

The REINZ Stratified Housing Price Index, which adjusts for some of the variations in mix that can impact on the median price, is 9.8% higher than April 2012 and increased 0.8% compared to March. 

Houses took three days longer to sell in April, compared to March, easing to 34 days. Compared to April 2012, the number of days to sell improved by three days. 

For the month of April, Canterbury/Westland recorded the shortest days to sell at 27 days, followed by Auckland at 30 days, and Wellington and Nelson/Marlborough at 35 days.  Central Otago Lakes recorded the longest number of days to sell at 57 days, followed by Northland with 56 days and Manawatu/Wanganui with 49 days.  Over the past 10 years the median days to sell for the month of April has averaged 36 days across New Zealand.

Nationally there were 1368 dwellings sold by auction in April representing 19.3% of all sales – the third highest number of auction sales in a month and an 85.1% increase on the number of dwellings sold by auction in April 2012. 

Across New Zealand the total value of residential sales, including sections, was $3.5 billion in April, compared to $4.11 billion in March, and $2.57 billion in April 2012.  For the 12 months ended April 2013 the total value of residential sales was $36.63 billion.

A net 5.1% of the agents who responded to the survey reported a drop in vendor requests for appraisals, signalling that the shortage of listings in the Auckland market in particular is unlikely to improve any time soon.

Alexander said new building was still not keeping pace, either. “The number of consents issued for the construction of new dwellings was not only well below the 10-year average of 22,000 in March at 17,397, that result was down from February’s 17,481.”

Alexander said the Reserve Bank move to require banks to hold more capital for lending above 80% of a property’s value had made things harder for first-time buyers and had put a premium on high-LVR interest rates.

“Short of an outbreak of foot and mouth devastating the economy there appears little reason for believing other than that house prices will continue to rise strongly.”

A net 9.5% of the 549 people who responded to the survey this month said they had noticed more people going to open homes over the past month, a decline from April.

But Alexander said it did not appear that it was a lack of determination to buy that was prompting the easing.

Agents overwhelmingly reported that buyers were more motivated to get a deal done than sellers – a net 21.3% positive. 

Alexander said: “This is the highest result in our two-year survey and well above the average of 4.7%. What this perhaps indicates then when taken in conjunction with the easing off in open home numbers and still high interest coming from investors and first home buyers, is that buyers may simply be sick of looking at homes they feel they have no hope of buying. One would not call this buyer fatigue but perhaps buyer despair.”

He said the survey showed that investors were still strong in the market.

“This balanced and pragmatic agreement addresses the economic risks to New Zealand’s economy of an over-heated and supply constrained Auckland housing market. It is good news for Auckland families wanting access to more affordable houses to buy and rent.”

Auckland’s housing stock is not keeping pace with population increases. It is estimated there are 20,000 to few homes in the city and only 3600 are being built a year.

The draft Auckland Unitary Plan is intended to counteract the problem with increased intensification, but will not take effect for three years.

The accord's legislation will be introduced as part of this year’s Budget and will create special areas of Auckland where it will be possible to override existing restrictions.

New greenfield developments of more than 50 dwellings will be able to be approved in six months as compared to the current average of three years and brownfield developments in three months as compared to the current average of one year.

The streamlined process will not be available for high-rise developments that will need to be considered under existing rules until the Unitary Plan has been finalised in 2016.

Smith said: “The accord sets a target of 9000 additional residential houses being consented for in  year one, 13,000 in year two, and 17,000 in year three. This is a huge boost on the average 3600 homes that have been consented each year over the past four years and the 7400 a year over the past 20 years.”

It will expire when the new Auckland Unitary Plan becomes fully operative, expected in 2016.

Employers and Manufacturers Association chief executive Kim Campbell praised the plan.

"The agreement between Minister Nick Smith and Mayor Len Brown makes infinite commonsense. It deals with concerns we had about the constraints on Auckland's growth, and 'so refreshing to see Auckland and central government finding common ground.... the accord unblocks log jams we were concerned about with the government's three-year phase in of the Unitary Plan.”

Buyers are still being careful in their decision-making, except in parts of Auckland where excess demand means there is not time to delay.

QV reports that Auckland house prices are now up 12% on a year earlier.  The fastest increase over the past three months has been in Waitakere.

Stewart said some properties were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars above their rateable value.

Tauranga has seen renewed confidence, with prices up 1.2% over the past three months. Hamilton was slightly ahead of that, with a 1.7% rise.  QV’s valuers there said there were signs more Aucklanders were moving into the region for work.

Wellington’s values are 2% up on the same time last year and properties worth more than $1 million are still selling well. Valuer Kerry Buckeridge said: “There are quite a few apartments on the market but with insurance increases affecting body corporate fees still, sales aren’t as prolific in many buildings.”

Christchurch’s prices are up 9.4% on a year earlier, although growth seems to be slowing in outlying areas.  Dunedin is 4.8% up on last year.

In the provinces, Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa appeared to be picking up on some of the renewed optimism in the market, QV said. Even Whangarei, which has had signs of declining prices, appears to be turning around.