first home buyers<\/a> saving a deposit, but affordability is no longer the handbrake that it was four or five years ago.”<\/p>\nThe Cotality report noted: “Housing affordability is generally more favourable for buyers than it was in late 2021 and early 2022, given that house prices have dropped and then stabilised, and incomes have risen.”<\/p>\n
The report also said mortgage payments as a share of household income had “improved dramatically”.<\/p>\n
“It now stands at 40% \u2013 below its own long -term average of 42%, well down from the 2020\/21 peaks of 54%, and back to the lowest levels seen since prior to Covid,” the report read. <\/p>\n
Davidson said rental affordability also improved, with median rents absorbing 25.5% of household income nationally \u2013 broadly in line with the long-term average and the most favourable conditions for tenants in about a decade.<\/p>\n
“That being said, it\u2019s important to recognise that some tenants will be paying typical rents but not earning an average income. This will make renting more difficult for them than these headline numbers suggest,” Davidson added. <\/p>\n
What centres are the most attainable? <\/p>\n
![\"Homes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/homes-pictured-in-auckland-top-left-tauranga-top-right-welli-KMM5YKIQCJFNBHZNEJPQTOV3SU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Homes pictured in Auckland (top left), Tauranga (top right), Wellington (bottom left), and Christchurch (bottom right). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
The report noted the key message remained the same around the country. <\/p>\n
Among the main centres, Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington recorded the strongest turnaround after several years of subdued property values. <\/p>\n
Auckland’s value-to-income ratio fell to 7.2, below its long-term average of 7.5. Wellington now had the lowest value to income ratio of the main centres at 5.5, well below its historical average of 6.2. <\/p>\n
Mortgage repayments also dropped below long-term averages in all three cities, while the years required to save a deposit have returned to below-average levels.<\/p>\n
Christchurch and Dunedin experienced more modest improvements after property values proved more resilient during the downturn. <\/p>\n
Christchurch’s value-to-income ratio remained above its historical average at 6.7 compared with 6.0, while Dunedin was 6.1 compared to its long-term average of 5.7. Deposit affordability also remained more stretched than normal in both cities.<\/p>\n
“Markets such as Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington haven’t necessarily become inexpensive but, after several years of softer property values, they’re more affordable than they’ve been for many years,” Davidson said.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Christchurch and Dunedin held onto more of their earlier price growth, which was good news for existing homeowners, but it also meant affordability hasn’t improved to the same extent as experienced elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Outside the main centres, Whang\u0101rei, Kapiti Coast and Nelson had value-to-income ratios and deposit measures below their own long-term averages, while Gisborne, Hastings, Napier and Palmerston North were close to their long-term benchmarks. <\/p>\n
Queenstown and Invercargill remained among the country’s least affordable markets for owner-occupiers, owing to the recent resilience of property values, while rental affordability continued to be a challenge across many provincial centres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buying a house isn’t cheap \u2014 but there has been a “marked improvement in affordability” in the past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69,814],"class_list":["post-573135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573135","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=573135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}