Realty contrast in 2024
Despite a challenging year for New Zealand’s property market, moments of resilience and divergence emerged, with multi-million-dollar prestige sales, double-digit gains and declines, and properties selling in as little as seven days.
The annual CoreLogic NZ Best of the Best 2024 report highlights the country’s top property sales, highest and lowest growth suburbs and best-performing regional markets.
The company’s Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson says this year’s report painted a nuanced picture of a market in flux after early optimism gave way to renewed price declines and slower activity.
“After an initial lift in values early in the year, driven by sentiment following the late-2023 election, property prices quickly resumed their decline as unemployment rose and interest rate cuts were delayed,” he says.
The CoreLogic hedonic Home Value Index (HVI) shows national property values have declined 5% since February, with Auckland and Wellington particularly hard-hit, while Christchurch and Dunedin proved more resilient. Kelvin is cautiously optimistic about 2025, suggesting the country is set for a period of modest recovery. He estimates conditions could lead to a 10% rise in sales volumes and potential uptick in property values of around 5% over the year.
