While Auckland-based estate agency Barfoot & Thompson experienced its slowest month of December trading for five years, and the median price for the month was 16% below the peak, and property prices on a month-by-month basis have remained static for four months now.

“Contrary to the expectations of economists and commentators, the median price paid for property in December has barely moved from where it was in September,” said Peter Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson.

“In December, the median price paid was NZ$1,067,500 (£562,000), the second highest median price in the past four months. In the first eight months of the year the median price declined gradually, but then stopped falling and has remained static since.

“While all the drivers putting pressure on prices such as rising interest rates and inflation, concerns over future economic activity and more properties for sale than there have been for a decade remain, vendors have become cautious about accepting what they consider to be too low an offer.

“In December the effect of this reluctance was particularly felt in the under NZ$750,000 (£395,000) price category, and we sold only 90 homes in this price segment. At the same time, we sold 37 homes for more than NZ$2m, 12 of them for more than NZ$3m.

“Overall, 2022 was a challenging one for property and was dominated by extremely low sales numbers and falling prices.”