WELLINGTON, Aug. 11 (Reuters) - New Zealand house prices fell 1.2 percent in July, while sales volumes plummeted on an annual basis, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) said on Friday.
The number of properties sold fell 24.5 percent to the lowest level since August 2014, excluding slow Christmas periods.
"A key reason for this is that the two biggest hurdles to purchasing a house right now are access to finance as the banks continue to tighten their lending criteria and LVR restrictions," said Bindi Norwell, REINZ chief executive, in a statement, referring to the central bank's loan-to-value rules.
These were ramped up last yeat in a bid to insulate banks from a hot market.
Prices were still up 3.3 percent on an annual basis, REINZ said, though they fell 0.8 percent since July 2016 in the commercial centre of Auckland, previously the epicenter of house price inflation.
