New Zealand property price growth paused in December, falling just under one per cent after reaching a record high in November.

According to Trade Me Property, the average asking price across all property types for the three months to December was $504,300 - up more than $57,000 since the previous December.

Many provincial areas of the country witnessed significant rises including Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Southland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Otago and Marlborough.

The major metro areas of Auckland and Christchurch saw double-digit percentage growth through the year, and many other provincial areas of the country witnessed significant rises including the Bay of Plenty.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries says the pause in the recent surge in asking prices was expected.

'December is traditionally one of the quietest months of the year,” he says, 'so this slowdown is more about there being fewer new listings, rather than an underlying weakness in price expectation by sellers.”

The Property Price Index measures trends in the expectations of selling prices for residential property listings added to Trade Me Property by real estate agents and private sellers over the previous three months.

It provides buyers, sellers and realtors with insights into ‘for sale' price trends by property type and property size.

Nigel says the easing in the headline level of expected selling price masked strong underlying growth over the medium and long term.

He adds: 'In December we saw average asking prices across New Zealand increase by almost 13 per cent year-on-year, and over the past five years the expected property prices have risen more than 26 per cent.”

All regions except West Coast, Northland and Gisborne posted year-on-year increases of more than 5 per cent, and Gisborne was the only region that reported a year-on-year fall in price expectation.

Nigel says: 'The spread of increases indicated that the polarisation of the property markets to just Auckland and Canterbury may be weakening as ‘seller optimism' encompassed more of the country”.

In Wellington, the 6.9 per cent growth in sales price expectation over the year was rapid compared to more modest 0.9 per cent growth in 2013.

In comparison, Auckland was up 11.2 per cent in the year ended December 2013 but closed out 2014 with a 10.7 per cent annual rise.

Canterbury was also similar in 2013 and 2014 - up 9.2 per cent in 2013 and up 10.9 per cent in 2014.

Nigel says the trend in price expectation for smaller properties comprising one or two bedrooms continued to grow.

'In December 2013 the annual growth in asking price was barely two per cent,” he says, 'but this has accelerated through 2014 to end with annual growth of over 16 per cent. There is growing interest from investors, as well as first time buyers.”