A shortage of residential listings in the three main centres, just ahead of the traditional spring upturn in real estate activity, indicates home sellers currently have the upper hand over buyers in the property market.

That is one observation made in NZ Property Report, a monthly survey of market activity compiled by Realestate.co.nz, the country's most comprehensive property listing website. The latest issue, covering August, has been released today.

According to NZ Property Report, the level of 'available inventory' nationally - the number of weeks it would take to sell the country's entire available stock based on average sale times - was down 34% on a year ago.

A scarcity of new listings in the main centres, however, meant that the drop in inventory levels in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch was even more pronounced, down between 41% and 45% on August 2008.

``The arrival of spring typically signals a surge in residential property market activity, but with inventory levels low this year - particularly in the three largest centres - vendors may be encouraged to increase asking prices,'' says Alistair Helm, CEO of Realestate.co.nz.

``That has not happened yet,'' Helm adds. ``Our report shows asking prices remained essentially unchanged between July and August, and remain 7% below the peak they reached in October 2007.''

Nationally, the average asking price for a property in August was $397,187 - compared to $396,949 in July and $403,107 in June.

Helm said the combination of little movement in price expectation, the number of listings, and inventory over recent months meant the market could be considered stable at present.

If potential sellers continued to hold off listing the0069r properties, however, the shortage of available stock could push prices up over the coming months.

The full NZ Property Report can be found on Realestate.co.nz's Unconditional blog at: www.realestate.co.nz/blog.

About Realestate.co.nz Realestate.co.nz is the official website of the New Zealand real estate industry, and provides the most comprehensive selection of listings across all categories of real estate. Realestate.co.nz lists over 100,000 properties at any one time, representing over 90% of all listings currently marketed by real estate professionals.