\n The Auckland market remains soft, first-home buyers are propping
\n up demand and the rental market is showing signs of strain.\n <\/p>\n
At the same time, global uncertainty and inflation risks are starting to cloud the outlook.<\/p>\n
Cotality NZ chief property economist Kelvin Davidson told The Front Page that the persistence of weaker sales suggested something more than a simple start-of-year adjustment.<\/p>\n
\u201cJanuary\u2019s weakness could have been explained by activity being pulled forward into December to nab a generous cash-back, but that softness has carried through February and March as well,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve now had three subdued months in a row, which indicates a weaker first quarter than expected. It\u2019s not a sharp downturn, but it does show that confidence is still muted and buyers are taking their time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davidson said that first-home buyers are active. <\/p>\n
\u201cFirst home buyers continue to play a major role in New Zealand\u2019s market, accounting for more than 27% of purchases nationally across the first quarter, well above their long-term average of around 22%,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLower house prices compared to a few years ago, reduced mortgage rates and KiwiSaver withdrawals are all helping.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Auckland, their share was higher again at around 30%, with even stronger concentrations in other parts of the country, including Hamilton (33%) and the wider Wellington area (37%).<\/p>\n
Cotality\u2019s latest data shows sales volumes in March were down -2.4% compared to the same time last year, following falls of -7.6% in January and -3.1% in February.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full episode<\/a> to hear more about:<\/p>\n Regional differencesFirst-home buyersRenting and investor demandOutlook for 2026.<\/p>\n The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime\/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.<\/p>\n You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Auckland market remains soft, first-home buyers are propping up demand and the rental market is showing signs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2840,806,138,3237,15293,29384,4190,4480,38403,36023,1668,305,10053,3339,809,225,111,139,69,28630,667,223,23964,2963],"class_list":{"0":"post-393998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-across","9":"tag-as","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-buyers","12":"tag-continued","13":"tag-decline","14":"tag-demand","15":"tag-drive","16":"tag-falling","17":"tag-firsthome","18":"tag-front","19":"tag-have","20":"tag-house","21":"tag-housing","22":"tag-keep","23":"tag-market","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-page","28":"tag-sales","29":"tag-the","30":"tag-volumes","31":"tag-zealands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}