Leading indicators suggest the housing market is heating up yet again, according to the Bank of New Zealand.
BNZ economist Craig Ebert said the property market had again surfaced as a source of strong activity for the services sector.
"A lot of it is localised, regionalised, but when you have got a good chunk of the market, in Auckland alone, picking up steam, some of the indicators we have seen just in the last couple of months have been really quite strong," he said.
The Bank of New Zealand-Business NZ Performance of Services Index rose 1.8 points to 56.5 in December, the average level for 2014, above the average 55.8 point expansion in 2013.
A reading above 50 points indicates expansion.
Mr Ebert said the housing sector could become a headache for the central bank again.
The employment component of the PSI eased 0.8 percent to just below 52 points.
