Excluding Auckland, the median New Zealand residential price remained at $460,000 in June up 7 per cent on June 2017. However, Auckland's median price decreased by 0.7 per cent year on year to $850,000 down from $856,000 last year.
Bindi Norwell, REINZ chief executive, said: "The lack of housing supply continues to put pressure on prices in the majority of regions across New Zealand, with 12 out of 16 regions seeing a price increase since June last year. Until we solve the supply issue, house prices are likely to continue rising, particularly as the OCR remains low and the banks continue dropping interest rates."
Auckland City median prices rose from $935,000 in May to $975,000 last month while Auckland regional prices shot from $845,000 to $850,000.
The number of properties available for sale nationally decreased by 3.8 per cent from 23,507 to 22,605 – a decrease of 902 properties compared to 12 months ago. This is the lowest level of inventory for 9 months (since September 2017, REINZ said.
Only three regions across New Zealand saw annual increases in inventory levels.
"For the fourth month in a row, Nelson saw the largest percentage increase in inventory levels with a 24 per cent annual increase (from 310 to 385), followed by Waikato (+9.9 per cent - an additional 153 properties) and Canterbury (+2.6 per cent- an additional 86 properties).
"Auckland's annual inventory decreased by 2.4 per cemt from 8560 to 8356, the lowest level of inventory for 9 months," REINZ said.
