Greg Purcell, owner of Ray White Realty Papamoa/Mount Maunganui, said the new data was pretty much in line with what those in the local industry had been saying anecdotally for a while now.
"That it's a different market, there's no question. When those LVRs [Loan-to-Value ratios] kicked in in September, October last year, it really took that entry level away for a lot of people.
"It hit the investors and it hit the first-home buyers and we're hearing that money has been pretty hard to get for a while from banks."
He said banks have got into "box ticking, big time".
"To be fair, I think the Reserve Bank probably got the temperature about right, I might not agree with their target market, which was cheaper homes and entry level, but it certainly had the desired effect," Mr Purcell said.
"Now that it's pretty evident that there's been a softening, whether they'll ease some of these lending restrictions - I was wondering about that. Whether that will happen or whether they'll let it go like this for a while."
He said he did not think it was anything for people to worry about.
"It's not doomsday. It's not property doomsday. And I should know because I've survived a couple. So I know what they look and feel like, and they don't look and feel like this, I can assure you.
"We haven't seen any changes in real time from what's been happening for a little while now."
Mr Purcell said when people are not borrowing there is still a good market for middle-to-upper-market homes.
"They're turning over. It's not as if the market's dead, it's not like 2008. This one's far more gentle."
The wider Bay of Plenty was one of only four regions across the country in which the median house price for July did not increase when compared to one year ago.
The median house price for Bay of Plenty went down by 1.2 per cent to $489,000.
Bindi Norwell, chief executive of REINZ, said while sale volumes and median prices are down, things were still stable.
Ms Norwell said median prices could get a bit skewed with the dynamics of what happened with individual numbers of properties.
"And so what that means is, you might think it's all dragged down, but it's not because it's the change in mix of the type of properties."
Last month there were more properties being sold in lower price brackets than the same time last year, Ms Norwell said, which dragged the median price down a bit.
"We can see that in June 2017, 32 per cent of sales were in the $250,000-$499,999 price bracket and 40 per cent of sales were in the $500,000-$749,999 price bracket.
"However, in July 2017 that flipped around and we see that 43 per cent of sales were in the $250,000-$499,999 price bracket and 30 per cent of sales were in the $500,000-$749,999 price bracket."
She said this showed how changing market composition could affect the median price.
"The more reliable HPI [House Price Index] movements tell us that the value of dwellings in Bay of Plenty have stayed steady since last month and increased since last year.
"That's a positive story - that it's not as bad as it seems in terms of this decline because actually overall it's actually still robust and stable."