New figures show there were 124 mortgagee sales in February, with 51 of those in Auckland.
In the same month last year there were 46 sales across the country.
The data is collected by property information firm Terralink, which says property investors are continuing to bear the brunt of the housing market downturn.
It says 67% of the properties sold in mortgagee sales in February belonged to people who owned multiple properties, or to 'non-individual' owners such as companies.
It says the analysis suggests residential homeowners are not yet being forced from their homes in large numbers.
The number was slightly down on January, when 150 properties were listed as mortgagee sales.
