KEY POINTS:
The national median price paid for farms rose to $1,425,000 in December, up from $1.2 million for the same month in 2005 - despite warnings from the Reserve Bank that farm prices are too high.
However, the number of farm sales was down, at 210 transactions compared with 233 in December 2005.
The fall in the number of farm sales indicated a shortage of listings, Real Estate Institute national president Murray Cleland said.
The national median farm sales price was $ $1.17 million in 2004.
Rising farm prices were singled out in July by Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard, who warned farmers not to buy farms expecting that double-digit growth in values would continue.
He said agricultural land prices had been "bid up considerably" in recent years.
It was increasingly hard "to try to rationalise prices paid for land using estimates of the future flow of income from the land".
Of the 210 farms sold in December, dairy farms recorded the second highest number of sales at 38 for the month, down on the 46 dairy farms sold in November.
The 38 dairy farms attracted a median sales price of $2,592,500, up from $2,487,500 in November.
Canterbury had the biggest number of farm sales in December with 31, up from 25 in November.
Lifestyle property sales for the month (621) were up on the December 2005 figure of 552.
More lifestyle properties were sold in Auckland in December (113) than in the same month in 2005 (92).
The median sales price for an Auckland lifestyle property was $680,000 in December.
That was down from $745,000 in November 2006.
However, it was up from the $672,500 median of December a year ago.
