The residential median selling price for New Zealand homes fell during June from $248,000 in May to $243,000, due largely to the impact of heavy sales of lower priced apartments in Auckland, according to the National President of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Inc), Mr Graeme Woodley.

Overall the housing market continued to consolidate during June with sales down and days to sell lengthening, however a number of regions continued to experience buoyant prices with five of the eleven regions surveyed reporting increased median prices while five declined and one remained unchanged.

Sales declined from 9,416 in May to 8,367, down also on the June 2003 sales figure of 9,790. Days to sell increased from 30 to 31.

The New Zealand median is up 15.71 per cent on a year to year basis compared with the median in June 2003 of $210,000.

According to Mr Woodley, higher interest rates and the traditional decline in activity during winter were responsible for the lower volume of sales, “values are holding up relatively well and despite the lower level of activity there doesn’t appear to be any significant decline in values around the country.

Mr Woodley said the Auckland median fall from $339,000 in May to $323,710 in June had to be seen in the context of recent significant increases, the market had increased from $320,000 in March in two big jumps, to $330,000 in April and then $339,000 in May.

“Some consolidation is always likely after such big increases and of course thelarge number ofapartments which have come onto the market lately especially in the under $200,000 category, has tended to exaggerate the fall in the Auckland median which in turn has affected the national median price.

“Overall we think the residential property market is fairing pretty well for this time of the year and taking into account the very significant increases over the last two years”.