The average asking price of homes listed for sale on Trade Me Property broke through the $500,000 barrier for the first time in the three months to November.

Trade Me’s head of property Nigel Jeffries said the average asking price of homes listed for sale on the website in the three months to the end of November was $509,750, up 13.7% versus the same quarter last year.

“There has been a resounding resurgence in the property market after a pretty subdued winter and that all adds up to good news for sellers and a bitter pill for buyers to swallow,” he said.

All regions apart from the West Coast showed a year-on-year rise in average asking prices, ranging from 1.8% in the Waikato to 21.4% in Hawkes Bay.

In the main centres average asking prices were up 11.3% in Auckland, 6.9% in Wellington, 12.5% in Canterbury and 11.6% in Otago.

Jeffries said there were early signs that the pressure on the housing market in Christchurch could be starting to ease, with average asking prices for the three months to November up 12.5% compared to a year earlier, which was down on an annual increase of 13.5% for the three months to October.

The apartment market was particularly strong, with the national average asking price of apartments hitting a new record of $426,950 in the three months to November, up 14.9% on a year earlier.