New Zealand's national median house price is holding steady at $500,000, with the number of houses available for sale down 40 percent.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The Real Estate Institute (REINZ) said, in the year to June, the seasonally-adjusted national median house price rose 11 percent to $500,000, but was down by 1 percent compared to May.
A number of regions achieved record prices, including Auckland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Northland, Otago and the Central Otago Lakes.
Its figures showed the total number of sales rose 6 percent in June to 7864, compared to the year earlier.
But on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of sales fell 3 percent on the month earlier.
REINZ director Bryan Thomson said June's sales reflected the low inventory of houses on the market.
"Although there is much discussion about the housing market and increasing new build supply, the fact remains that the vast majority of the supply comes from the sale of existing properties," he said.
The national inventory fell 40 percent in June compared to the year before, with six regions seeing a more than 50 percent decline in the number of houses on the market.
"The inventory data continues to show rapid declines in the volume of properties available for sale right across the country, with a number of regions, such as Wellington and Hawke's Bay, recording very low levels of properties for sale," Mr Thomson said.