A slowdown in major commercial real estate sales in Hawai'i appears on pace for a third consecutive year, according to a tally of deals for hotels, shopping centers and other investment property during the first half of this year.

Local commercial real estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander said there were 103 purchases of commercial property this year through June, down 9 percent from 113 purchases in the same period last year.

But the collective value of transactions was down sharply to $536 million from $1.2 billion in the same period, as the market dried up for big deals over $25 million.

The Colliers report tracks commercial property sales over $1 million, and includes office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, apartment complexes, warehouses and undeveloped land.

Sales have been curtailed by the instability of financial markets that has severely crimped the availability of financing that just a few years ago had been cheap and widely accessible.

The flood of commercial property purchases in Hawai'i peaked in 2005 at 431 sales valued at $4.3 billion. The decline began in 2006 when there were 350 purchases for $3.8 billion, and continued last year last year with 269 purchases for $3 billion.

Mike Hamasu, Colliers research and consulting director, said in the report that skittish lenders with stricter lending criteria have helped reduce purchases of hotels, shopping centers and office buildings to a level not seen since the late 1990s.

Also curtailing sales are sellers and buyers not being able to agree on what constitutes a fair price for property given the changes in the market, which also include a weakening local economy.

"Buyer and seller disconnect is impeding transactions," Mark Bratton, an agent with Colliers, said in the report.

Among the largest deals this year were 2,140 acres of former Dole Food Co. farmland on O'ahu's North Shore for $39 million, the 72-unit Diamond Hawaii Resort & Spa hotel in Wailea, Maui, for $27 million and the Honolulu Club for $16 million.

Retailer Target Corp. paid about $24 million for two pieces of land under which it is building stores in Kapolei on O'ahu and in Kailua, Kona, on the Big Island slated to open next year. Costco also paid about $13 million for land in Kapolei on which to build a store slated to open early next year.