by Metropol | December 10, 2025 8:33 am
New data indicates that buyers in New Zealand continue to hold negotiation power, judging by the multi-million dollar slash from asking prices in the third quarter of 2025.
Collectively, people selling their homes cut $72.5 million from their original asking prices, as reported by New Zealand property website realestate.co.nz.
On average, vendors who reduced their prices trimmed $34,598 off each listing – a clear sign that buyers are still negotiating hard in a relatively soft market.
Spokesperson for realestate.co.nz Vanessa Williams says the drop is probably due to rising buyer confidence as interest rates fall.
“Looking at average reductions per listing gives us a clearer picture of how much sellers are actually flexing,” says Vanessa. “These figures show that in many regions, vendors are making significant adjustments to meet buyer expectations and get deals over the line,” she says.
“The total value of reductions was less in Q3 2025 than it was in Q3 2024, meaning the gap between what sellers want and what buyers will pay is closing. She adds that when confidence rises and demand picks up, sellers won’t “have to work as hard to close the gap”.
Canterbury buyers shaved a collective $4,125,992 off asking prices in Q3 2025. In comparison, Auckland’s total price drop was $22,832,918, and Wellington $8,823,500.
Regionally, Coromandel recorded the largest average drop, with sellers trimming $61,788 from their original asking prices. Gisborne followed at $54,000, while Wellington, Central Otago/Lakes District, and Auckland rounded out the top five with average reductions of $45,718, $44,433, and $42,919, respectively. Canterbury recorded a $24,559 average, with 168 listings showing a price reduction. Auckland had a whopping 532 listings drop in price, followed by 255 in Waikato.
The only regions with a below double-digit number of listings that dropped their price were Gisborne (4) and the West Coast (7).
The number of users of realestate.co.nz increased by 12.2% year-on-year in Q3 2025.
Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/72-5-million-property-market-slash/
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