The median sale price for a Bay of Plenty farm continues to fall in the long term and was down to $975,000 for the three month period ending May.
The latest statistics from Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show that this is nearly $500,000 less than in the May 2008 period when the median sale price was $1,465,000.

In the May 2009 period, the median sale price for a Bay of Plenty farm was $1,150,000.
On the flipside, the current median sale price is an increase of about $50,000 from the April 2010 figure of $922,500.
Of concern is that these lower prices are not increasing sales, with just 34 sales in the May 2010 period, compared with 50 sales in May 2008 period when the median sale price was close to $1.5m.
This surprises REINZ president Peter McDonald as current returns for some farmers are high.
"It should have been a good year with the second highest milk solids payout ever, but sales of dairy farms have been disappointingly low because of the lack of confidence amongst lenders," says Peter.
"Rural property sale prices and current values are being determined by lending policies and the availability of finance rather than farming returns."
Of the 34 farms sold in the Bay of Plenty in the three month period ending May 2010, 24 were horticulture, three were dairy and seven were grazing.

The lifestyle property market in the Bay of Plenty held steady with 94 sales in the region in the May period with a median sale price of $480,000.