However, while Queenstown joined the eight main areas with price falls, even with a decline in its lower-quartile house price of $127,000 between April and May, it remained one of the least affordable areas in the country.
In data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand's affordability index, regions which recorded a fall in their lower-quartile selling prices in May compared with April were Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu/Whanganui, Wellington, Nelson/Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
In most cases the drop in prices was small, $5000 or less, but there were more substantial falls in Nelson/Marlborough of $36,000, Otago, $17,000, and Southland, down $10,000.
The lower-quartile house price in Otago was $308,000 in May, down from $325,000 in April.
One area where there was a particularly large fall in the lower-quartile price was Queenstown, where it dropped from $727,000 in April to $600,000 in May, the lowest it has been since August 2016.
However, Queenstown remains the only district outside of Auckland where housing is regarded as unaffordable for typical first-home buyers on median incomes, the report said.
The Auckland and Queenstown regions are considered officially unaffordable for such buyers as their mortgage payments on a lower-quartile-priced home would cost more than 40% of their take-home pay.
In Auckland, the lower quartile selling price increased from $660,000 in March and April to $665,000 in May.
