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The average asking price for Auckland property has dropped below $1 million for the first time in close to four years.
New Trade Me Property data shows in August 2024 the average asking price was $986,750, down 1.3 percent from July - the first time since September 2020 it has been less than $1 million.
Trade Me Property customer director Gavin Lloyd said August marked the fifth consecutive month of falling prices for Tāmaki Makaurau.
"It's going to be interesting to see what happens to prices over the next month as we come into spring," he said.
"September results should be able to give us an indication as to whether we've just endured a difficult winter, or if drops are as a result of a more structural weakness in the housing market."
Nationally, the average asking price for August was sitting at $818,25, down 0.8 percent month-on-month and 2.3 percent year-on-year.
"We've not seen prices drop to this level since April 2021 and if we keep seeing consecutive falls, as we have done over the past five months, we could see the average price go below $800,000," Lloyd said.
Of the 15 regions Trade Me Property tracked, only five had seen a year-on-year increase in average asking prices, with four in the South Island - Marlborough (up 2.8 percent), West Coast (up 1.9 percent), Otago (6.3 percent) and Southland (5.5 percent).
Gisborne was the only region in the North Island to show upward growth, with the average asking price up 9.9 percent to August 2024. Taranaki was flat at 0.1 percent.
In the south, only the West Coast and Canterbury had seen average prices fall.
The price of larger sized properties continued to soften, with homes of five or more bedrooms down 3.4 per cent in the month to August to an average of $1,396,250.
"Bigger properties in Wellington and Auckland have both recorded falls down 8.7 per cent and 2.5 per cent, whereas Christchurch remained fairly flat down 0.2 per cent," Lloyd said.
One- to two-bedroom properties in Wellington were down 9.7 percent to $651,800 in August, and the average apartment had dropped $150,000 in price since April.