The number of houses coming onto the market in March 2015 were at their lowest for four years.

According to figures from Real Estate NZ, demand is exceeding supply, and the latest monthly data shows that the number of new listings in March declined 4.9 per cent to 11,870 - the lowest for figure for March since 2009.

Average asking prices in the Bay of Plenty remained largely static last month.

It represents a fall of 1.1 per cent on the 12,008 new listings in February.

New listings in Auckland and Wellington experienced falls of 5.2 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively, while Canterbury reported an increase of 3.8 per cent on the number of new listings from March last year.

The reduced supply continues to push asking prices to record levels, with the average asking price of homes for sale in New Zealand in March reaching a new high of $514,712 - the third consecutive month of record asking prices.

But it is just a 0.6 per cent increase on the previous record of $511,412 set in February. Average asking prices in the Bay of Plenty remain virtually static, creeping up by 0.3 per cent in March to $495,597.

Auckland's new high of $766,912 is a 0.3 per cent increase from the previous record, while the average asking price in Wellington during March was $461,905 - a 1.6 per cent drop from the all-time high of $469,487 set 12 months earlier.

'There is no let-up in the increase in asking prices,” says CEO of Realestate.co.nz, Brendon Skipper, 'especially with regions such as Canterbury and Auckland experiencing new highs.

'With the slight fall in the number of new listings in March, sellers are in a good position to maximise the value of their homes,”

The national average in overall inventory* of available housing stock for sale fell slightly to 23 weeks in March, close to the record low level set in January of 21.4 weeks.

'The long-term national average is 36 weeks of stock,” ads Brendon. 'Many regions are experiencing low inventory levels, including the three major cities.”

*Inventory is expressed as a theoretical measure of the number of weeks it would take to sell all unsold housing stock on the market at a given point in time, which includes all active listings of homes for sale no matter when they were first listed.