Spring helps property market poke its head up
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Online searching for properties is rising as the number of new properties coming to the market hits a four-year high.
The annual spring property market is underway with new property listings online in October up 29% from September and 3% year-on-year, to the highest levels since late 2021.
The Trade Me Property Pulse Report said the surge in new inventory coincided with growing demand, which is up 11% month-on-month and more than 18% compared to October 2024.
Trade Me Property customer director Gavin Lloyd said the numbers pointed to an active market, and growing confidence as we head towards summer.
“It’s awesome to see the property market firing on all cylinders in October, proving that the spring selling season is well and truly underway,” Lloyd said.
“ Buyers appear to be feeling the confidence that comes with more choice too as we’ve seen strong demand both compared to September and year-on-year.”
In the main centres new listings rose 4% in Auckland in the last year and 33% in the last month. Wellington saw a 6% jump in new inventory on site between September and October and 33% compared to October last year.
New listings across Canterbury are also up 5% month-on-month and 20% year-on-year.
Lloyd said demand, measured by online searches, was also up across the three regions. Month-on-month demand is up 10% in Auckland, 15.5% in Wellington and 7.9% in Canterbury. Year-on-year growth in Auckland and Wellington has grown between five and 10% and in Canterbury close to 31%.
He said outside of the main cities, Northland and Marlborough also saw a flurry of new property listings from September, up 49% and 43% respectively. Demand for properties was also up, 15% in Northland and 22% in Marlborough for the last month, a whopping 42% for Northland for the last year while Marlborough had a more sedate 11% year-on-year increase.
The national average asking price rose about $48,000 from the last month - now $883,200, a 6% rise. But for the year the average price was a flat 0.2% increase.
'We’ve now seen three straight months of positive growth in the average asking price, with the increase between September and October the biggest month-on-month jump since January,” Lloyd said.
Trade Me’s Property Pulse Report showed the average asking price increased in 12 of the 15 regions it monitors between September and October, with the only exceptions being Southland down -2%, West Coast dropping -1% and Taranaki with no change for the month.
Five regions saw double digit growth in the last month, Gisborne up 17%, Hawke’s Bay 13%, Marlborough 13%, Northland 11% and Bay of Plenty 10%.
Lloyd said the number of days properties spent on the site had shortened from a median of 65 days in September to 57 in October.
“Not since March have we seen days on site this low, indicating a more balanced market than the one which has, in more recent months, tended to favour buyers,” Lloyd said.