The Real Estate Institute New Zealand (REINZ) announced in May that property listings had dropped by 28.9% to just 14,883.

This is only the second time since the 1960s that the country has had fewer than 15,000 on the market in a given month.

There are 6,057 fewer properties on the market compared to 12 months ago. And for the second month in a row, only one region saw an annual uplift in inventory levels – Gisborne with a 15.0% increase in inventory levels from the same time last year (from 80 to 92 properties – 12 additional houses).

Regions with the largest percentage decrease in total inventory levels were Bay of Plenty at -46.9% (from 1,417 to 753 – 664 fewer houses), Nelson -45.8% (from 395 to 214 – 181 fewer properties), West Coast -44.4% (from 304 to 169 – 135 fewer properties) and Canterbury -42.8% (from 2,800 to 1,603 – 1,197 fewer properties)