New Zealand's largest real estate agency recorded a substantial drop in the number of homes it sold last month and in their average selling price.

Harcourts sold 2345 homes throughout the country in April, compared to 2579 in March, while the average selling price dropped by $40,103, from $588,311 in March to $548,208 in April, a decline of 6.8% for the month.

However, the national average selling price in April was still up 5.7% compared to April last year.

The biggest fall in prices was in the Auckland/Northland region where the average selling price fell by $77,919, down from $940,246 in March to $862,327 in April, a fall of 8.3%.

However, even with the price slide, April's average selling price in Auckland was still up 8.4% compared to April last year.

Although the average selling price was down in Auckland/Northland, the number of sales made in the region increased slightly to 729 in April from 718 in March, and April's sales were up 10.5% compared to April last year.

The latest Harcourts figures follow on from the latest REINZ figures which also showed a fall in median house prices and sales volumes in many places in April.

In Wellington Harcourts average selling and the number of home sold also fell in April, with the average price dropping from $437,848 in March to $398,983 in April, while the number of sales dropped from 456 to 349.

In Christchurch, where Harcourts is the largest real estate agency by a substantial margin, the average selling price increased slightly from $545,689 in March to $550,529 in April while the number of sales dropped substantially from 523 in March to 406 in April.

In the rest of the South Island, the number of sales rose from 266 in March to 283 in April but the average price fell from $397,303 in March to $366,898 in April, a decline of $30,405 (-7.7%).

The only other region to record an increase in the average selling price was Harcourts Central District, which includes the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, where the average price climbed from $392,585 in March to $417,000 in April, up 6.2%, while the number of sales in the region dropped from 592 to 549.

The was also a drop in the number of new listings the agency signed up in April, which dropped from 2665 in March to 2096 in April (-21%), with new listing numbers falling in all regions.

The latest figures suggest the market has started heading into the traditional winter downturn after a particularly strong summer selling period which extended well into autumn.