New Zealand's house prices declined in July from a month earlier, a report from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand showed Monday.

The national median house prices fell 2.3 percent month-on-month to NZ$385,000 in July. However, house prices increased 6.6 percent compared to July 2012.

The REINZ stratified housing price index, which adjusts for some of the variations in mix that can impact on the median price, was 8.6 percent higher than in July 2012 and fell 0.5 percent compared to June.

There were 6,777 unconditional residential sales in July, a 14.7 percent increase on July 2012 and an increase of 10.5 percent compared to June. This was the best result for the month of July in six years.

However, the market continued to experience a significant shortage of listings, the report said.