New Zealand property values rose less than five percent last month - mostly on the back of strong house price inflation in the country's smaller regional towns and centres.
The national median house value hit $579,000, while the median sales price for the country was $550,000, up marginally on the previous quarter.
The top performing suburbs and regions for June were Wairoa, in Hawke's Bay, which saw median property rise 29.17 percent to $155,000; Opotiki, in the Bay of Plenty, up 25 percent to $325,000; and Tararua, up 25 percent to $225,000.
Property prices and sales volumes continued to slide in Auckland, with the city's North Shore feeling particularly challenged. Auckland's median sale price was down 4 percent year on year to $830,000 - and down 5 percent on December 2017, when median sales price last peaked, at $875,000.
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Sales prices for the city were down 1.4 percent on CVs and sales volumes were down 28 percent on the year before.
Christchurch's housing market saw no growth for the month while median values in Hamilton and Tauranga grew 3.77 percent and 5.56 percent respectively. Of the major metros, Wellington, Queenstown and Dunedin performed the best, with values lifting between 8 and 10 percent.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan says: "Most of the growth in New Zealand's housing market right now can be seen in areas where prices sit below the $400,000 mark.
"That's an affordable price point for first-home buyers and for investors who have been priced out of more expensive markets.
"The catch-up effect has been evident in the regions for some time now, but there are signs that some of those areas where house inflation has been strongest over the past 12 months, such as Rotorua, Whakatane, Carterton, Upper Hutt, Invercargill, Palmerston North, are now starting to slow.
"The housing markets in these regions and towns are still head and shoulders above the major metros, but strong growth has pushed their median values above $400,000 - and led to flight to more affordable locations."
First-home buyers remain the biggest buyer group in the country, accounting for 29.3 percent of new mortgage registrations. Other buyer groups continue to retreat from the market. Investors account for just 16.6 percent of purchases - down 11.3 percent year on year, while movers account for 12.9 percent of new mortgage registrations - down 4.8 percent year on year.
The majority of sales (30 percent) are transacting above $800,000, driven mostly by sales within the main urban areas.
But there has been a surge in sales of properties for under $300,000 (11.3 percent nationally), however this bracket represents only 8.6 percent of sales by value of housing stock.
James Wilson, valuation director at OneRoof data partners Valocity, says: "This indicates that buyers are chasing more affordable housing stock, resulting in properties at these levels comprising an increasingly larger share of total sales.
"This has the potential to 'distort' the headline statistic for an area, making it appear that all values are declining, however in reality it’s a reflection of what's selling."
Vaughan adds: "The figures show that the rate of house price growth in the smaller regional centres is beginning to slow. Growth in the main urban centres will also stall, with Auckland set to remain flat for the next couple of years."
