
Good news in property
The housing market looks set to remain relatively static throughout the opening months of 2025, following yet another flat quarter.
That’s the forecast from the latest QV House Price Index, which shows residential property values edged upwards by an average of just 0.1% nationally in the December quarter. The average home is now worth $902,414, which is 0.3% less than at the start of 2024 and 15.2% below the market’s peak just over three years ago.
That flattening trend looks set to continue throughout the early part of 2025, with little evidence to suggest that property values are set to grow substantially this summer, according to QV operations manager James Wilson. “It’s been ‘steady as she goes’ throughout much of last year, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for a while yet. It’s a new year, but the same restraining factors are still very much at play – including sustained weakness in the labour market, a high cost of living, credit constraints, and a surplus of properties for sale on the market today,” he says.
“The marked uplift in demand for housing that has come as a direct result of falling interest rates hasn’t yet converted into any significant price pressure, so we’re only seeing very small pockets of growth. However, we also haven’t seen quite so many reductions this quarter in particular, which indicates that we’re now at or very close to equilibrium in the market.”
Average home values increased in Auckland (1.3%), Wellington (0.4%), and Christchurch (1.1%). James predicts that more investors will soon return to the market throughout 2025, especially if interest rates drop markedly further, putting price pressure on first-home buyers.
The Canterbury region ended 2024 with the residential property market averaging 1.8% value growth over the calendar year. Ashburton experienced the largest amount of home value growth in the Canterbury region last year, increasing by 6.5% to $575,108. Waimakariri recorded the least growth; its average home value neither increased nor decreased at $712,876. Modest growth was recorded everywhere except Mackenzie (-0.8%) and Waimate (-0.5%) in the December quarter, with Christchurch’s average home value increasing by 1.1% to $766,388. Selwyn (0.2%), Waimakariri (0.4%) and Hurunui (0.6%) also experienced modest growth.