Wellington house prices drop and now we are just average

Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Wellington’s average house price has dropped yet again, now matching the national median price for a house.

At $750,000, the median price for the region has dropped 1.3% from the same time last year.

The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) latest figures for January show that average prices dropped for every part of the region except Porirua, which has gone up from $745,000 to $850,000, an increase of 14.1%.

Wellington City has dropped $5000 in the last year to $840,000 while Upper Hutt dropped by a huge $55,000 in price.

REINZ Chief Executive Jen Baird said first home buyers were the most active in the Wellington market.

“Attendance at open homes was steady for the month, an improvement from the end of 2024. Auction activity was quiet,” she said.

Baird said interest rates continued to influence market sentiment and local agents reported increased enquiry levels.

“Local salespeople predict the market will track upwards over the next few months.”

There was four weeks more stock available in the Wellington market than there had been last year with the current average to sell a property was 59 days, higher than the the 10-year average for January of 46 days.

She said there were also signs that investors were selling properties.

Baird said nationally there were positive signs, held back a little by the usual slowness of the market during the January holiday period.

“While the numbers predictably show January being a slower month due to the holidays, sales and listings were higher compared to January 2024, and open home volumes were strong across the country with a positive sentiment shown from buyers.”

The most notable growth was in Marlborough up 62.5% and West Coast up 47.4% year-on-year while all regions saw a decrease in sales month-on-month.

The median price for New Zealand decreased slightly, down 1.7% from $763,000 to $750,000 year-on-year except for Auckland where the median price increased 0.9% year-on-year, rising from $685,000 to $691,500.

Nationally listings had increased on the previous year by 21.2% from 7347 to 8904, the highest level of listings for January since 2015.

Baird said other than Auckland, listings rose by 21.9% compared with January 2024, from 4886 to 5956.

Northland was the only region that didn’t report an increase in listings compared with last year; the most significant gains were reported in the West Coast, Otago and Gisborne.

National inventory levels increased by 18.9% year-on-year and also increased by 10.0% compared with December.

'All regions are seeing an increase in stock numbers with Gisborne, Marlborough and Otago leading the way,” added Baird.