It's no angel but Auckland's 'halo effect' has blessed the property market with roaring sales, well ahead of national figures and housing stocks back to sustainable levels.

New data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand shows Auckland sales volumes rose 3.6 per cent since October 2014 while Waikato/Bay of Plenty shot to a staggering 54 per cent increase in the same period.

Rises were felt across the region with sales in Eastern Bay of Plenty up 87 per cent, Mt Maunganui/Papamoa up 81 per cent and Rotorua climbing to 71 per cent.

That was well ahead of national sales volumes of 18.6 per cent and all regions other than Auckland on 27.5 per cent.

But Lodge Real Estate managing director Jeremy O'Rourke said a 54 per cent growth indicated an "artificially low" market which underperformed in previous years.

New data showed a return to balance.

"The number of sales going on here, for whatever reason, were extraordinarily low," said O'Rourke.

"Now, what we have seen is a return to a more normalised market and a little bit of catch up."

The Reserve Bank's loan restriction, introduced in 2013 to cool the Auckland and Christchurch markets, saw Hamilton sales plummet.

"They didn't really affect Auckland and they didn't really affect Christchurch but they certainly affected markets like Hamilton and the Waikato," said O'Rourke.


The market was unusually quiet in 2014, he said.

"For whatever reason, the elections last year were quite a distraction for our markets. We saw a drop off on volume and I can only put it down to the election."

In the last year, the average price of a house rose 22 per cent in Hamilton and 11 per cent across the region but demand remained strong.

But O'Rourke warned those sorts of increases were unsustainable.

"If people think we are going to get 25 per cent growth every 7 months, that would be foolhardy," he said.

"We're still seeing price growth, we're just not seeing it at the same rate as we saw in July, August and September where we did see some quite staggering price growth."

Lugton's managing director, Simon Lugton, said the sales volumes remained high throughout the year.

"It's been pretty high all the way through, although last month, September, was an exceptional month," said Lugton.

REINZ figures show sales across the region fell 5.8 per cent between September (463) and October (375).

Bucking that trend was Rotorua with sales in the month up 24 per cent, Tauranga up 19 per cent and Mt Maunganui/ Papamoa up 11 per cent.

Lugton said sales had spiked in their auction room during the same month and they had noticed activity fall away since then.

"Before, we would have had clearance rates of 90 or 100 per cent with four or five bidders on properties."

Last week, they sold 75 per cent of their auctioned stock with two bidders vying for each property.

"It's still, historically, pretty good numbers but not quite as intense as it was."

Spring and summer were traditional seasons where listings and sales volumes increased and Lugton said the good run was set to continue into the new year.

The number of online listings has shown an increase with nearly 8 weeks supply, up on July which only had 5 weeks supply available.

"It's not quite as crazy as it was in July, August and September. Those months were pretty frenetic really."

The softening in the market was a return to "a bit of normality" and he still expected Auckland investors to surge into the Hamilton and Waikato regional markets as new October lending restrictions take effect in the super city.

"I think that will continue because the LVRs have made it even tougher up there.

"You need to have at least 30 per cent equity to buy up there so it does make Hamilton, Tauranga and those regions close a bit more attractive."