The Bay of Plenty has become the second most expensive region to buy a house after Auckland.

According to Trade Me's monthly index, October asking prices for property in the Bay were 11 per cent higher than a year ago, hitting a new high of $483,000.

This Mt Maunganui house by Shaw Builders was a finalist in the regional over $2m category of the house of the year awards.

Trade Me Property head Nigel Jeffries put the rise down to a spillover effect from the hot Auckland, as investors and home buyers look outside the city for better value.

Prices in the Bay of Plenty have risen 25 per cent over the past five years.

"The Bay of Plenty is the second most expensive region in New Zealand to buy a house, behind Auckland but ahead of Wellington, Canterbury and the Nelson Tasman region."

Auckland's growth underpins the national asking price for a house, which was up 15.1 per cent over the year to $571,750.

But excluding Auckland, price expectations were up 5.5 per cent to $424,100. They rose 3.8 per cent on September, the biggest single monthly jump in the past five years.

Auckland is the second fastest growing region annually, with prices up 18 per cent.

But there are signs that sellers were lowering their expectations in response to reports that the market is slowing down.

Average asking prices are still rising, ticking up just over 2 per cent to $792,000 on the previous month.

Nigel says it now looks like Auckland prices peaked in July when prices rose 20 per cent for the year.

"It's worth noting this adds up to a $121,000 increase in Auckland asking prices since July, so it's still far from sluggish."

The fastest-growing regions over the past year were the Hawke's Bay, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, all regions popular with Aucklanders.

Hawke's Bay had the biggest price rise in the country, with prices up 19.7 per cent to a new peak at $436,350, while Waikato gained 11 per cent to $388,500 and Bay of Plenty rose 11.1 per cent to a record of $483,000.

The biggest dip over the year was seen in Gisborne where asking prices fell 20.8 per cent, followed by Taranaki, down 8.6 per cent.

After being subdued for most of the year, price expectations on the West Coast rose 13.8 per cent to $287,700,

Wellington price expectations rose by a modest 2.6 per cent to $455,350 and asking prices in Christchurch were up 6.9 per cent to $469,950.