National drops 2 seats, Greens/Labour pick up 2

National has lost two seats and the Labour and Green parties each picked up one in the final election results.

Check out RNZ's live coverage here and an infographic with the full final results.

National will now have 56 seats compared with 58 on election night, Labour goes up to 46 seats and the Green Party will have 8 MPs.

There were no changes to the number of seats held by New Zealand First and ACT, at nine and one respectively.

This means National, with support from New Zealand First, would have 65 seats.

Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First would now have 63 seats, compared with the 61 under the provisional results.

To form a majority in Parliament, 61 seats are needed.

There were 446,287 special votes, or 17 percent of the total number of votes. That includes 61,524 overseas votes.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters had earlier said he would not begin coalition talks in earnest until those results were announced.

Mr Peters released a statement this evening saying New Zealand First would hold post-election discussions in Wellington tomorrow, with the National Party at midday and the Labour Party at 3pm.

National Party leader Bill English said in a statement he was as determined as ever to lead a strong, stable government for the next three years.

"It is clear that National has finished 10 seats ahead of the Labour Party and also ahead of the Labour/Green grouping," he said.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said the count has strengthened the mandate for change and for negotiations to continue in earnest.

"Today's result lifts Labour's final vote to 37 percent, and the left block of seats to 54. The majority of people voted for a change to the status quo."

Green Party leader James Shaw also said the result and increased the case for a change of government.

All electorate candidates leading on election night have been confirmed as winning their seats.

Golriz Ghahraman, a human rights lawyer, becomes the Green Party's 8th list MP.

For Labour, Angie Warren-Clark will take a list seat in Parliament.

National's Nicola Willis and Maureen Pugh will not now become MPs.

The turnout was the highest since 2005, with 79.8 percent of those enrolled voting - the highest turnout since 2005 when the turnout was 80.9 percent.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Alicia Wright, said that was partly a result of efforts to have voting stations in more prominent areas.

"We had 79.5 percent turnout this time, which is really good, and we think that we had a focus this election on putting voting places where voters are, we saw a big increase in the use of people voting at places like supermarkets and in malls."

Ms Wright said 47 percent of votes were cast before election day, compared with just under 30 percent in 2014 and 14 percent in 2011.

Before the special votes were factored in, National had 46 percent of the ballots and 58 seats, Labour had 35.8 percent and 45 seats, New Zealand First had 7.5 percent and nine seats, the Greens had 5.9 percent and seven seats and ACT had 0.5 percent and one seat.

Special votes include votes that were cast overseas, votes by people who were not on the printed public roll and those who were not enrolled at the start of the election process.

For full results check the Electoral Commission site here.