New Zealand real estate prices

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › New Zealand real estate prices

kingdragonfly

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#321465 19-Aug-2025 11:41

I am catching wind of various Auckland house owners, who are shocked their valuations.

The average Auckland house value has decreased by approximately 22.35% in 4 years.

A very upset Mount Albert, Auckland house owner was extremely unhappy of a 15% drop in his house valuation, again in 4 years. His house lost aver 1 million in valuation.

It was pleasant, but honestly instantly forgettable if you walked by. Not a mansion.

An Auckland house price Index reported a slight quarterly decline of 0.5% in July 2025, indicating that the rate of decrease may be slowing .

New reality in realty.

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#3405551 19-Aug-2025 11:51

Request unlock on this: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=268553&page_no=172 and chuck it in there.

nzben

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#3405552 19-Aug-2025 11:55

... also some were unhappy in the past when valuations when up as it could be thought that would relate to an increase in rates.

wellygary

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#3405561 19-Aug-2025 12:21

kingdragonfly: I am catching wind of various Auckland house owners, who are shocked their valuations.

The average Auckland house value has decreased by approximately 22.35% in 4 years.

A very upset Mount Albert, Auckland house owner was extremely unhappy of a 15% drop in his house valuation, again in 4 years. His house lost aver 1 million in valuation.

It was pleasant, but honestly instantly forgettable if you walked by. Not a mansion.

An Auckland house price Index reported a slight quarterly decline of 0.5% in July 2025, indicating that the rate of decrease may be slowing .

New reality in realty.

House Prices in Auckland and most places have basically gone sideways since 2019- except for the bucket of petrol that got poured onto the market during COVID, which is currently being unwound......

BUT those that did buy post 2020 will be hurting as they see their 20% deposits vanish with a fall in values...
If they keep their jobs, and stay where they are for another 5 years they'll escape with their shirts,

however If they suffer a "change of life" event and have to realise the loss, then its will be painful..

Mehrts

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#3405567 19-Aug-2025 12:51

Bad luck if you bought at the peak, otherwise it's a non-issue. It was pretty obvious that the surge that occured around the Covid era was an anomoly instead of the norm, especially with the super low interest rates at the time.

Property values are still on the rise overall.

cddt

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#3405593 19-Aug-2025 14:15

kingdragonfly:
A very upset Mount Albert, Auckland house owner was extremely unhappy of a 15% drop in his house valuation, again in 4 years. His house lost aver 1 million in valuation.

This implies that his CV was at least $6.67m and is now around $5.67m...

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mattwnz

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#3405594 19-Aug-2025 14:22

Mehrts:

Bad luck if you bought at the peak, otherwise it's a non-issue. It was pretty obvious that the surge that occured around the Covid era was an anomoly instead of the norm, especially with the super low interest rates at the time.

Property values are still on the rise overall.

essentially NZ House prices have crashed but the media in NZ has been very quiet on this. Compare it to all the stories they did when House prices were increasing during Covid. The interest rates are now heading to very low levels again and are very low historically to try and get the housing market moving again. But DTIs are helping to prevent people borrowing too much now.

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mattwnz

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#3405595 19-Aug-2025 14:25

cddt:

kingdragonfly:
A very upset Mount Albert, Auckland house owner was extremely unhappy of a 15% drop in his house valuation, again in 4 years. His house lost aver 1 million in valuation.

This implies that his CV was at least $6.67m and is now around $5.67m...

The CV is just used for rates and as far as I am aware doesn’t include things like chattels. TBH we need to stop with CVs for rating, as it is a very unfair way to charge for essential services and means many also aren’t paying their fair share and being subsidised. Essentially it is a form of wealth tax.

Kookoo

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#3405610 19-Aug-2025 15:38

As someone who's gone unconditional on a property yesterday after looking for about a year - no, Auckland prices haven't crashed, but they're definitely a downward trend.

Older stock 3 bedroom half-section prices have gone down by about 10%-15% in the last 12-18 months due to the impact of economic conditions on FHBs who're typically the main target market for these properties, and due to reduced interest from developers except for top school zones where these sections are snatched by developers at crazy prices
New builds are getting cheaper. Much cheaper. There are some exceptions, but it's not uncommon for new builds to sit empty for 6-12 months waiting for a buyer even in top school zones, only to sell when the developer gives up and takes a hit on the asking price.
Older stock 4 bed 2 bath properties in good condition have had no significant price change in the last year.
Similar properties in top school zones on smaller sections are selling at crazy prices compared to the market because of developer pressure on larger sections that reduces stock availability.

The CVs in some areas have absolutely collapsed, but those have very little impact on the real estate market.

With new builds not selling, or selling well below developers' expectations, the pressure on top school zone old stock is going to decline, and their prices should start coming down too. Give it a year or so, assuming there's going to be no miraculous economic recovery,

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Earbanean

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#3405617 19-Aug-2025 16:06

nzben:

... also some were unhappy in the past when valuations when up as it could be thought that would relate to an increase in rates.

No, rates don't go up with your valuation. Rates go up in general, due to infrastructure requirements, inflation, etc - but your share of the rates is determined by the value of your house relative to all others. i.e. your valuation just determines the portion of the pie you pay - not the size of the pie.

e.g. if the total rates for the city didn't go up (as if!), and everyone's house went up by 10%, then your individual rates wouldn't go up. If the total rates for the city didn't go up, and everyone's house went up by 20% but your's only went up by 10%, then your individual rates would actually go down.

mattwnz

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#3405618 19-Aug-2025 16:06

Kookoo:

As someone who's gone unconditional on a property yesterday after looking for about a year - no, Auckland prices haven't crashed, but they're definitely a downward trend.

From the peak, eg 2021-22 not from just 12-18 months ago. But Auckland hasn't suffered as badly as other parts of NZ. But as a whole, NZ real estate prices have crashed. Anything around 20%+ from the peak is a crash said one well known property expert back in 2022.

mattwnz

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#3405620 19-Aug-2025 16:09

Earbanean:

nzben:

... also some were unhappy in the past when valuations when up as it could be thought that would relate to an increase in rates.

No, rates don't go up with your valuation. Rates go up in general, due to infrastructure requirements, inflation, etc - but your share of the rates is determined by the value of your house relative to all others. i.e. your valuation just determines the portion of the pie you pay - not the size of the pie.

e.g. if the total rates for the city didn't go up (as if!), and everyone's house went up by 10%, then your individual rates wouldn't go up. If the total rates for the city didn't go up, and everyone's house went up by 20% but your's only went up by 10%, then your individual rates would actually go down.

That is another reason why tying rates / services to property values is a poor way to do it IMO. IF you let your property get run down and you don't improve it, you can end up paying less in rates. Instead more uniform charging and more user pays. for example water charges are a good way to bill for water. It isn't hard these days to work out how many people live in a particular house, or city, and bill per person.

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cddt

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#3405621 19-Aug-2025 16:16

How about a land tax? With punitive rates (e.g. five times) on undeveloped land after a set period (e.g. three years).

Might solve the problem of those sites holding gravel car parks for decades which blight the CBD. Or the abandoned buildings like the old Food Alley site...

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Earbanean

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#3405622 19-Aug-2025 16:19

mattwnz:

That is another reason why tying rates / services to property values is a poor way to do it IMO. IF you let your property get run down and you don't improve it, you can end up paying less in rates. Instead more uniform charging and more user pays. for example water charges are a good way to bill for water. It isn't hard these days to work out how many people live in a particular house, or city, and bill per person.

You're basically proposing a poll tax, ala Margaret Thatcher in the UK back in the day. It wasn't too popular. People seemed to think a Lord and his wife, living in a Mayfair mansion, maybe shouldn't pay a fraction of the rates or two families jammed into a squalid flat in Brixton.

kingdragonfly

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#3405624 19-Aug-2025 16:26

cddt:
kingdragonfly:
A very upset Mount Albert, Auckland house owner was extremely unhappy of a 15% drop in his house valuation, again in 4 years. His house lost aver 1 million in valuation.

This implies that his CV was at least $6.67m and is now around $5.67m...

I don't want to get to exact, as he's already pretty grumpy.

I'd be too if I had the equivalent to a lotto win vanish.

mudguard

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#3405628 19-Aug-2025 16:38

mattwnz:

That is another reason why tying rates / services to property values is a poor way to do it IMO. IF you let your property get run down and you don't improve it, you can end up paying less in rates. Instead more uniform charging and more user pays. for example water charges are a good way to bill for water. It isn't hard these days to work out how many people live in a particular house, or city, and bill per person.

I'm not sure the council are assessing individual houses though. If your house is a bomb in a nice street I don't think your rates will reflect the condition.

Also the whole rates thing is inherently tricky.

Take two people. Both superannuitants, own their own homes which are the same size. One lives in a villa in Devonport. The other a villa in Invercargill. In terms of income they're identical, but in terms of wealth. Vastly different.

To be fair, I don't know what the answer is. Gareth Morgan proposed a property tax at least a decade ago in his Big Kahuna book. User pays goes both ways, if we start making hospital user pays, perhaps we'll claw back some of that property wealth!

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