The median price of houses in New Zealand rose to a new record of $305,000 in April 2006, despite the fact that the number of sales fell to 7,576, well below the April 2005 sales figure of 8,875. The median house price in April 2005 was $272,000.
REINZ National President, Mr Howard Morley, commented, “With just seventeen working days in April, one of which was sandwiched between two holidays, it’s no wonder turnovers were down.
“April is always a difficult month with Easter and Anzac Day but this year the way those public holidays fell, it made for an unusually short business month which obviously affected sales. However we are encouraged by the way prices held up.”
House prices in eight of New Zealand’s regions rose while prices in four declined.
House Price Changes
| Region | Median Price April |
Change since March |
| Northland | $269,000 | down 3.9 % |
| Auckland Region | $387,250 | up 0.6 % |
| Waikato / Bay of Plenty / Gisborne | $275,000 | up 0.9 % |
| Hawke’s Bay’s | $246,000 | down 11.4 % |
| Manawatu/Wanganui | $190,000 | up 5.8 % |
| Taranaki | $240,000 | up 6.6 % |
| Wellington Region | $335,000 | up 3.7 % |
| Nelson / Marlborough | $298,250 | up 6.5 % |
| Canterbury / Westland | $275,000 | up 3.3% |
| Central Otago Lakes | $430,000 | up 8.9 % |
| Otago | $218,000 | down 0.4 % |
| Southland | $127,750 | down 1.9 % |