Real estate agents have been kept on their toes this year, the Real Estate Institute says.

The number of Auckland property sales has fallen by almost a quarter over the year, and sales fell 15.7 per cent through the rest of the country.

There were 68,737 properties sold between January and November across New Zealand.

Between January and November, Auckland house prices increased 6.7 per cent, to a median $880,000, compared to 18.2 per cent in the same period of 2016.

At the same time, prices outside Auckland have been strong, increasing 13.7 per cent over the year, to a median $450,000.

Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell said the drop in turnover, particularly in Auckland, the strength of prices in the regions, the difficult for first-time buyers in getting into the market and the impact of strict lending criteria had been big themes of the year.

Loan-to-value (LVR) restrictions, particularly on investors, have had an impact on the market and the banks have tightened their own rules, too.

"This year has been an interesting one with one of the wettest winters in a long time and the uncertainty created by an election," she said.

"When you combine those factors with the LVR impacts and the tightening of bank lending, it's certainly kept the industry on its toes. But now the warmer weather has returned, there is the prospect of reduced LVRs in the New Year and there is more certainty post-election, we're looking forward to things returning to normal."

She said real estate agents in coastal areas were expecting a lot of inquiries over Christmas and the New Year period.

But ANZ economists said they expected to see soft housing market conditions continue. "While the past few months have shown some stabilisation, and even modest recovery, turnover is still low and house price growth more modest."

Affordability was the main reason Auckland's housing market was underperforming, they said.

ASB's economists said the potential for tax changes was likely to weigh on property investors in 2018.