The average price reported by the agency in June was $714,054, up 1.6% on May.

The number of sales dropped 6.5% from the month before,  to 1037 – the same number as sold in May last year.

Chief executive Wendy Alexander said there were 179 homes sold in the month for more than $1 million, or 17.3% of all turnover and 35.9% of the total value of all homes sold.

“Even six months ago, sales of this number of high value homes would have been exceptional. What this underlines is that while supply continues to lag behind demand, values for high end homes will climb.”

Close to a third of all June properties sold for less than $500,000.

The agency’s median sales price for the month dropped 2.9% that for May to $626,500.

“The median price tends to be more volatile than the average price, but at $626,500 it is 8.2% higher than the median price for the 2013 year,” Alexander said.

“The number of new listings in June was 1149, our lowest number this year and down 12.8% on those for May. While a fall in new listing is a trend commonly seen at the start of winter, it will add pressure to lack of choice in coming months,” she said.

“At month end we had 3274 properties listed, our lowest number for 5 months.  Compared to the number of properties available at this time of year over the past 10 years, choice remains very limited.”