Good news for house-buyers in Canterbury and the West Coast

The latest Massey Home Affordability Report shows Canterbury and Westland have experienced the most significant improvement in housing affordability in the past year - at 9.3 percent.

This was followed by the country's least affordable regions, with Auckland showing an improvement of 7.5 percent and the Central Otago Lakes of 5.3 percent.

Northland faces the greatest decline in housing affordability, at 16.1 percent.

The report says a 6.5 percent increase in national median house price has been partially offset by a small decrease in mortgage rates and steady wage increases.