RUN OF PLAY ALL ONE WAY

The run of play in the housing market continues to be largely in one direction as the REINZ House Price Index (HPI) fell another 1.4 per cent in August to be 5.9 per cent down on the same month last year.

The median house price across the country of $800,000 was down by the same rate as the HPI in August. The median residential property price for New Zealand, excluding Auckland, remained unchanged compared to last year at $700,000. There was a month-on-month drop of 2.8 per cent from $720,000.

Four regions had an annual decline in the median price last month. Auckland's median price dropped 8.3 per cent compared with August last year, down from $1,200,000 to $1,100,000.

Six of Auckland’s seven territorial authorities had negative annual growth, down 13.4 per cent. Waitakere had the greatest decline followed by Auckland City where the median price was down 12.3 per