Treading Water: Wild weather the new ‘meth crisis’ for home buyers
Saturday, 16 May 2026
With New Zealand experiencing a storm on average every eight days, thousands of properties in coastal inundation and flood zones could become uninsurable. Our new series explores the impacts of relentless weather events on families and communities, asks for how much longer insurance will be available, and how the Government is planning to respond.
Home hunters’ behaviour is changing as the prevalence of destructive weather events grows - but it’s not making an impact on the housing market yet, experts say.
Storms are now hitting the country every second week, and that’s left the threat of wild weather at the forefront of public consciousness - and weighing on people’s considerations when they choose a home.
Eighty-nine percent of New Zealanders would consider the potential for a property to be affected by weather or natural hazards when looking to buy or rent, according to IAG’s Wild Weather Tracker.
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And 76% of respondents to Urban Advisory’s latest housing survey ranked safety from natural hazards as the most important property feature - above price and outdoor space.
But are most home hunters really savvy when it comes to spotting homes at risk from flooding or weather hazards, and if so, what’s the impact on the housing market?
The Post talked to real estate agents, property managers, and property researchers to find out.
What are real estate agents seeing?
Telos Group national manager Lauren Mirabito was meeting with two agents based on Auckland’s North Shore, one of the areas most severely affected in the 2023 floods, when The Post called.
Those agents reported questions around flooding and landslip risks were the first ones buyers asked at open homes and described it as the “new meth crisis” in terms of buyer fears, Mirabito said.
“There is increased awareness of the risks because people have seen houses decimated in weather events, and that’s heightened buyers’ concerns and risk averseness.
“Our agents ask sellers to provide a signed document around flood risks faced by the property, and whether it has been flooded before, and there are also online sources where people can get information.”
Responses depended on how bad the risk was, and when council information and LIMs showed high risk it worried people - even if it was a property that had never been affected before, she said.
“In situations like that, the seller declarations do make a difference, but if they’ve been researching beforehand it might impact on whether some buyers choose to view a property at all.
“While there is a percentage of people who will walk away, for most buyers if they can get insurance for a property they’ll still buy it if they want it.”
For Bayleys Gisborne managing director Simon Bousfield, there was no doubt the succession of severe weather events had led to buyers becoming more thorough in their approach to property purchases.
Buyers were doing more due diligence to ensure they knew of any risks with a property, and what the impact might be for them - but it was not stopping them from buying most of the time, he said.
“Occasionally, it might. A buyer might like the look of a riverside property, go to the open home, and like it even more. Then their insurer tells them the premiums will be really high, and that nixes the sale.
“So it depends on the individual property, but insurers are taking a hard line on some properties that have been affected by weather events, or which are in particular areas.”
Bousfield said questions about weather event risks were in the mix but it was not a situation where people were walking into open homes to ask about flood risks, and nothing else.
“Buyers are just being more careful about how they operate, particularly when it comes to insurance costs, but it is not holding back the market.”
But is there an impact on house prices?
Increased buyer awareness about weather events and natural hazards has not yet led to a noticeable change in house prices or demand.
Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said there was limited research around the price impact of weather events, but the Strand Marsden Project suggested there was a price discount on properties in affected areas - but that it did not last long.
The project looked at house prices in South Dunedin after severe flooding in the area in 2015. It found they dropped 15% on average immediately after the flooding, but they largely recovered over the next 12 to 18 months.
Davidson said that research was a bit old now, and the increasing prevalence of events might have led to any price discounts being more and lasting longer.
But he interacted with lots of people in the property sector, and did not get the sense that increased awareness of risks had translated into lasting price discounts or a marked decrease in sales.
“People remain happy to buy coastal properties that might be at higher risk of flooding, for example. That’s not a scientific observation, it’s anecdotal, but I haven’t encountered anyone who has said sales in a particular suburb are hard because of climate risks.”
Many buyers might not appreciate that while they could get insurance now, premiums would get much higher, and it would become harder to get insurance in a few years time, he said.
“There needs to be more awareness around this, because of the challenges facing the property market over the next 20 years, surely the impact of climate change must be number one.”
BettaVal general manager valuations James Wilson said valuers had to assess and report on risks, such as flood plains and land slip risks, but there was no hard rule on how a risk impacted on a property’s value.
Valuers looked at recent sales of properties with similar risks in the same area to find out if the market had discounted those properties to help determine value, he said.
“At the moment, more than a price discount effect, it is more of a saleability effect. If people are aware of a risk a property might take longer to sell, and more questions will be asked about its history.
“As we move towards more parts of the country becoming uninsurable it will have a big impact on valuations, but we’re not there yet.”
The irony was that with many properties that were at risk, such as cliff top properties, and waterfront properties, there was a scarcity factor, and they were in demand, Wilson said.
“So there are buyers that are aware of a property’s risk but love its sea views or water access and are willing to take the risk and buy it if they can get insurance.
“It will always come down to individual buyers, but people do have short memories with these events. Often when the flood waters dry out, it doesn’t take people long to forget.”
And are renters concerned by weather risks?
Several property managers spoken to by The Post agreed that flooding and natural hazard risks posed different considerations for home owners and renters.
That was because tenants were not tied to the property if it was affected by a weather event, and so had more flexibility to move on.
Propertyscouts New Zealand director Duncan McLean said renters did not think about insurance risk in the same technical way buyers did, but they did care about safety.
“If a home looks flood prone, or they’ve heard the area has had issues before that can influence whether they feel comfortable renting it.
“No one wants their gear damaged, or to be suddenly displaced, and we’re constantly reminded these days that weather events can do exactly that.”