For instance, if you look at the Auckland Region, this table shows that the median sale price for a property is $1,010,000. That is down 0.98% year on year (-$10,000).

Compare that to the Wellington Region, which is also down 0.50% year-on-year. The median sale price has gone from $799,000 to $795,000 (-$4,000).

Looking to the South Island, the median sale price for properties in Canterbury is up $2,000 (0.28%). The median sale price in the region now stands at $707,000 (February 2025).

Just keep in mind what this data is really saying. This shows the price that people are actually paying for properties. But you shouldn't look at this and say, "ok, this means that property prices are going up or down."

That's because the median sale price is heavily impacted by the properties that are sold month to month.

So, if more expensive properties sell one month, that will pull the median sale price up. But that doesn't mean that property values are rising. It just means that higher-priced properties happened to sell that month.

Let's say the month after that, a whole heap of cheaper properties sell. The median sale price will go down. But that doesn't necessarily mean that your property's value has gone down.

So, if you want to see how property values are changing month to month, I recommend reading the rest of this page too.

Some people also often ask me – "Ed, are those squiggly blue lines actual house prices?" The answer is yes. Those blue lines do show house prices over the last 12 months. They're called sparklines. And I like to include those to give you a quick sense of how the median sale price is moving.

Although the median sale price may have gone up 2% (or down 5%) over the last 12 months, that doesn't tell the whole story. It doesn't show what is happening month to month. So, those sparklines help to give you more context about what's happening in your area.

Property prices across the country are currently recovering ... in most places.

Up until recently New Zealand house prices had been falling.

House prices peaked in Nov 2021. They then fell 17.80% and appeared to bottom out in May 2023.

Since bottoming out NZ house prices have increased 3.98%. That includes REINZ house price index data through to February 2025.

Let's say you owned a $1 million property in Hamilton (at the peak of the market).

If it followed the NZ market perfectly, it would now be worth $855k.

That's a loss of $145k, at least on paper.

However, house prices fall at different rates around the country.

This graph shows how far prices have fallen since their peaks in different areas of the country.

House prices in Wellington have fallen fastest. Prices there are down 22.99% since house prices peaked in Oct 2021.

Auckland house prices peaked in Nov 2021. Property values there are down 20.48% since the peak.

The third fastest house prices falls were in Manawatu-Wanganui. House prices are down 17.48%.

House prices in Southland on the otherhand are down not much at all compared to the peak. In fact, house prices have fully recovered and are now above their peak in Jan 2022.

Otago prices are up 0.75% since the peak. And Canterbury house prices are down 2.96% since they peaked in Feb 2022.

So your properties might have done better or worse than the national average. It all depends on where your property is.

Looking at the table above, properties in Queenstown-Lakes District are selling the most above CV. In February 2025 the average property sold 22% above its capital value.

On the other hand, properties in Wellington City are doing the opposite. Properties there are selling the most below CV. Over the same period, the average property in this area sold for 17% below its capital value.

Sometimes, there are big swings in how far above or below an area is selling compared to CV. Over the last 12 months, Westland District had the biggest swing.

Properties went from selling 48% above CV to selling 1% above CV just 12 months later.

This can happen if an area is small. In that case, there aren't that many properties selling. So, the median price can jump around a lot.

Other times, the council might have updated their CVs midway through the year. In that case, the ratio between prices and CVs changed because the capital values changed.

72,826 properties sold in New Zealand over the last 12 months

If you want to know how the property market is going, look at the number of property sales per year.

Property sales peaked at 100,108 in Jun 2021. They then fell to just 58,763 in May 2023.

That's right, here in New Zealand we were buying 41.30% fewer properties per year compared to the peak.

Today the number of property sales has started to recover. In the 12 months to Feb 2025 we bought 72,826 properties. So we are currently buying 14,063 more properties per year compared to the bottom of the market.

Our standard assumption at Opes Partners is that Auckland house prices will increase 6% per year over the long term – compared with 5% for the rest of the country.

This is a slower rate than the market has experienced in the past.

Over the last 30+ years (Jan 1992 - Feb 2025) NZ house prices, excluding Auckland, increased 6.0% per year (on average). House prices in Auckland increased 6.7% per year (on average).

So the capital growth rates we use are ‘discounted’ by 0.7% - 1.0% percentage points.

These forecasts are roughly in line with independent economist Tony Alexander’s thoughts.

“It pays to remember that the long-term trend in prices is upward. Since 1992, on average New Zealand house prices have risen 7% per annum. I think we’re looking at 5% per annum going forward.”

Where are house prices most undervalued?

To answer this question we look at where prices are higher or lower than we would expect them to be.

The blue areas are those where house prices are below where we would expect them to be. These areas are currently undervalued and will likely increase in value faster.

The red shows areas where house prices are higher than we'd expect them to be. These areas are currently overvalued and will likely increase in value more slowly.

The 3 most undervalued areas appear to be Wellington City, Auckland and Waimakariri District.

The most overvalued areas are Mackenzie District, Queenstown-Lakes District and South Waikato District.

Wellington City property prices appear to be 13.01% undervalued.

This suggests there is more potential for capital growth in Wellington City compared to Mackenzie District.

You can read about how we calculate this data on any of our property market pages. Like this one on the Auckland property market.