Auckland house sales saw a downward trend in the preceding month, as winter depression set in amongst purchasers in the middle of declining demand in the property market.

The number of sales plunged 16% to 66% in the month of June from a month earlier, and was down 23% from a year ago, according to Barfoot & Thompson, Auckland's biggest real estate company.

The standard sale price plunged 3.6 % to $523,058 month-on-month, and was up a yearly 0.2 %.

Housing market activity is expected to remain feeble all through 2010, reflecting weakening demand, said Jane Turner, Economist at ASB Bank.

Given the weakening basics anticipated to be seen in housing prices making a drop by a slight fraction this year, however, the squat level of supply, as indicated by weak consent issuance and the low level of new listings, will limit the scale of problem pressure on house prices.

House prices are projected to drop at a yearly pace of 0.2 % for the subsequent two years with a number of years of subdued sales volumes, according to Westpac Bank.

This is a consequence due to the Government's decision of clamping down on tax benefits for property shareholders in its May budget, while the Reserve Bank embarked on thinning economic policy.