According to latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures, the median house price in Rotorua rose from $225,500 to $246,000 in the month to April.
The average weekly after-tax pay for those on a median Rotorua income was $782.41, up from $761.48 in April last year.
Roost also released a further report this week showing it would take 35.3 per cent of a Rotorua first home buyer's median take-home pay to service a mortgage on a lower-quartile-priced house, up from 28.1 per cent in March.
Rotorua Mike Pero mortgage adviser Greg Thomas said April sales had "definitely been slower".
Houses were still extremely affordable in Rotorua and it was "just a shame" the Reserve Bank's lending restrictions - which placed a 10 per cent bank home loan lending cap on mortgages with less than 20 per cent deposit - had been applied to the regions.
"We never really had a problem with property price inflation in Rotorua anyway so it was starting to get better and then when they put the restrictions in it kind of just jammed on the brakes.
"It took all those first home buyers and the people who didn't quite have 20 per cent [deposit] out of the market. They're starting to come back a little bit with the banks relaxing their criteria, but it's almost like the damage was done over six months."
The impact of the restrictions took the market from a "flat line in Rotorua and turned it to a slight downward curve", he said.
Nationally, it now takes nearly two-thirds of a median income to pay the mortgage on a $432,250 median-priced house - at 62 per cent, up from 56 per cent a year ago. The Roost figures were released in the wake of last week's Budget, which was criticised for offering little to first home buyers.
The sole new home affordability measure was the temporary suspension of tariffs and duties on building products, reducing the cost of a standard new home by about $3500.
- additional reporting Adam Bennett
