Auckland's largest real estate agency has reported median house prices fell in the past year.
Barfoot & Thompson on Monday released a report claiming for the first time in a decade house prices in the city are "edging towards a price decline".
Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson, said the year was an active one for residential sales, up 8.1 percent on 2017.
However he said that the "median price at $836,792 in 2018 was down 0.8 percent on that for 2017".
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"This is the first time the median price has fallen below that for the previous year since 2008, the year the impact of the Global Financial Crisis affected house prices."
There was a rise in the number of houses sold below the $500,000 price point, climbing from 2017's 8.9 percent of sales to 11.4 percent in 2018.
"This increase can be linked directly to the higher number of apartments, terraced housing and town houses hitting the market, giving first time buyers and those in limited incomes far better access to property."
Mr Thompson also said the market is unpredictable at the moment, "the overriding market sentiment at present is indecision as to the direction the market is heading".
He said there were a range of factors contributing to the decline in average prices.
"These included non-New Zealand residents being restricted from buying certain categories of property, the reported major decline of property prices in the major Australian cities, the potential for capital gains tax to be applied to investment properties in the future and concerns over world economic stability, in part caused by the trade friction between the United States and China."
Newshub.
