{"id":493617,"date":"2026-06-24T19:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493617\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:24:09","slug":"house-sales-fall-for-fifth-consecutive-month-first-home-buyers-lift-market-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493617\/","title":{"rendered":"House sales fall for fifth consecutive month; first-home buyers lift market share"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though the flow of new listings also eased, the level of choice for buyers is high and this is keeping a lid on values, Cotality found.<\/p>\n

Five months of national sales volume declines:<\/p>\n

Last January 4898 sales; this January 4540, -7.3%Last February 7954 sales; this February 7734, -2.8%Last March 9155 sales; this March 9060, -1%Last April 7812 sales; this April 7380, -5.5%Last May 8108 sales; this May 7748, -8.3%.<\/p>\n

The Cotality Home Value Index was flat in May, still -0.6% below a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, this is presenting favourable conditions for first home buyers, who continue to buck the wider caution being seen from other buyer groups,\u201d Cotality said today.<\/p>\n

Favourable buying conditions, access to KiwiSaver for at least part of the deposit and the availability of low-deposit mortgages were supportive factors for first-home buyers.<\/p>\n

Nationally, house values are down 17% from the peak of the market earlier this decade.<\/p>\n

\"Cotality'sCotality’s Kelvin Davidson said the current market state was “not a collapse”. Photo \/ Peter Meecham<\/p>\n

Kelvin Davidson, Cotality NZ\u2019s chief property economist, said: \u201cI\u2019d sum these falls up as being notable, but it\u2019s not a collapse \u2013 the level is still fairly normal, but certainly a more sluggish start to the year than we were anticipating.”<\/p>\n

Liam Dann<\/a> of the Herald has calculated<\/a> that in inflation-adjusted terms, Auckland and Wellington house prices fell 35.5% and 40% since the market peak this decade.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s current property downturn, already one of the deepest in our modern history, is on its way to being the longest, Dann said.<\/p>\n

This country is four-and-a-half years into the slump.<\/p>\n

\"HerneHerne Bay in Auckland is one of the country’s highest-priced areas. Photo \/ Chris Tarpey<\/p>\n

This month, Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod found<\/a> more than a quarter of a trillion dollars had been wiped off Auckland and Wellington housing values.<\/p>\n

He calculated $271 billion as the reduced value in the two cities\u2019 values since the market peak.<\/p>\n

The $271b is calculated as the difference in the collective value of all the homes in the two cities since the peak of the market about four-and-a-half years ago to May, based on Quotable Value (QV) figures.<\/p>\n

Our economy, by the numbers<\/p>\n

New Zealand has 1.73 million homes48% of our assets are held in residential real estateNew Zealand real estate value: $1.67 trillionNew Zealand Superannuation and KiwiSaver: $234bTotal listed stocks: $187bCommercial property: $342bOutstanding mortgage debt: $398bTotal sales of homes in the last 12 months: 89,992Gross value of those total sales: $79.3b<\/p>\n

Source: Cotality<\/p>\n

Anne Gibson<\/a> has been the Herald\u2019s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even though the flow of new listings also eased, the level of choice for buyers is high and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,3237,1308,9688,15293,27505,3592,55893,36023,2082,10053,685,8461,225,32739,7810,4486,111,139,69,1133,667,2122,23964,102,379],"class_list":["post-493617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-buyers","tag-compared","tag-consecutive","tag-continued","tag-declines","tag-fall","tag-fifth","tag-firsthome","tag-for","tag-house","tag-last","tag-lift","tag-market","tag-marking","tag-may","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sale","tag-sales","tag-share","tag-volumes","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493617","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=493617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}