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Property values are only going one way, and that is up, according to the head of Barfoot and Thompson.
Auckland's shortage of properties up for grabs last month saw buyers quick to commit, nudging prices up to an all-time average high of $589,521.
Sales hit a peak of 994 for Barfoot and Thompson, the highest since 2007 and the average price was up 13%.
At the same time, the real estate company saw the lowest number of listings in seven years.
And Wendy Alexander, the chief executive of the real estate company, told TV ONE's Breakfast that history tells us prices are only going to get steeper.
"I believe it will be sustained, at the moment we're nudging 589,000 as our average sale price," she said.
"I don't see that reducing - it may hit a blimp, it may drop a little bit, when you look historically, and yesterday I looked at the figures way back to the beginning of 2004, we will not go backwards."
However, Alexander said the average house price at the moment is distorted by houses being sold for millions of dollars.
"We are selling a lot, in excess of a million dollars - many of them multi million - now you have to watch that that distortion does not create a false picture."
Still, New Zealand's auction houses are packed out, Alexander told Breakfast.
"It's not complicated - the demand at the moment dramatically exceeds the availability. We've got far more buyers in today's market than we've had for a very long period of time, and the availability of properties in today's market is very limited," she said.
"A number of people have contemplated the market in some cases up to years. I watched the auctions yesterday and the room was full of a diverse range of people who are extremely enthusiastic about the acquisition of property."
But while there is a glut of buyers itching to buy, they are still playing it safe.
"They are also cautious. Our buyers know value in today's market and they are unlikely to spend more money than is necessary to acquire a property," said Alexander.
Front page-grabbing sales of houses going $100,000 above their capital value are not the reality of every day real estate, said Alexander.
She said most houses are sold at market value and those that do not are exceptions to the rule.
Getting the bank to say yes
Campbell Hastie, a mortgage broker from the Go2Guys, said there are a few ways first-time home buyers can get their ducks in a row.
"There's a bunch of things that you should do, in terms of getting your ducks in a row. Saving a deposit is pretty key part of that," he said.
"Also, KiwiSaver is providing a lot of assistance there for people these days, so it's not just a matter of slotting money into a bank account, although I thoroughly recommend that you should do that, but you know you can pull some money out of Kiwisaver and I think a lot of people will find they're most of the way down the track because of that, and maybe don't even realise it."
Hastie said first-time buyers should still be aiming to save 20% for a deposit, but could still make do with less.
"The reality is, that's a hell of a lot when you're talking about the median house price in Auckland, you know if we're talking half a million dollars, 20% of that's a hundred grand right? So people are coming to me with 5%, 10% deposit and going from there."
Banks will be screening buyers hard - scrutinising the certainty and quality of income, he said.