Housing Minister Nick Smith says there are tentative signs that the Auckland housing market could be cooling down, but he will not be confident until prices have eased for six months or more.

Real estate company Barfoot and Thompson also said today that the Auckland housing market was “subdued” in September and “a totally different market to 12 months ago”.

They pointed to lending restrictions by the Reserve Bank as a cause of the trend.

Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford said that unless the Government also took further demand-side measures, it was “extremely unlikely” that prices in Auckland would flatten or fall for a sustained period.

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