Auckland and the Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne regions experienced notable increases while Wellington experienced a fall in its median.

Sales at 7930 were up on January’s 6360, but still down by more than 2000 sales on the February 2005 sales figure of 10,145.

Days to sell figures improved slightly from 38 in January to 37, compared with 31 days to sell in February 2005.

REINZ national president, Howard Morley, said the market showed encouraging signs in February. ”Sales are starting to get back up there after the holiday period and prices show no real sign of weakness.”

Morley said that 2006 was always going to be a more subdued year for real estate partly because of the Reserve Bank’s tightening of interest rates and partly because of the signs of deterioration in consumer and business confidence.

“The flip side is that mortgage interest rates are now in decline, which will give the market a little more confidence as the year unfurls,” Morley said.

“Nevertheless some of the regions have experienced very strong price performance, especially in the central North Island and Auckland, where prices are remaining strong despite the fact that Metropolitan Auckland sales at 2084 are down by about a third compared with the 2948 sales in February 2005,” he said.