Sales of residential property in New Zealand have soared to a four year high in January 2012, according to figures released by government owned property valuer Quotable Value (QV).

The rise comes as demand for limited city properties continues to increase from buyers in the migrant and first time buyer markets.

The Auckland area is one of the fastest growing city-centre residential markets and saw an increase of 2.1% over the past three months, and an increase of 5.1% over the past year.

The old Auckland City has claimed the place for the strongest performing area within Auckland, seeing a growth of 2.7% over the last three months and by 7.2% across the year as a whole.

North Shore also saw an increase in sales, at slightly lower figures of 4% over the year and 0.9% above peak.

The rest of Auckland also saw gains last year that varied between the 2.5% figure for Franklin and the 3.2% for Waitakere.

The picture for prices and sales in smaller residential areas remains less promising and falls short of the highs experienced in 2012, according to QV data.

As an example, Hamilton only experienced a 0.5% increase, falling 11% short of its 2007 high.

The sluggish upturn in sales was also the case for Rodney, which only saw a 1.6% improvement on the previous year’s figures.

Transfer Money to New Zealand

If you are thinking about investing in New Zealand, it is definitely a good idea to consider the logistics of transferring money abroad. Foreign currency exchange rates quoted by banks are usually worse than the exchange rates available through specialist currency dealers.

So if you are looking to send money to New Zealand (which is inevitable if you are looking to make a property investment) be sure to compare the market before you buy your overseas currency.