New Zealand Property Values Fell 1.3% in a Year, a Sixth Straight Monthly Drop

Cotality puts the national median property value at 797,078 New Zealand dollars in September, down 1.3% in a year and a sixth straight monthly fall.

The facts

Cotality New Zealand puts the national median property value at 797,078 New Zealand dollars in September 2026, -1.3% against a year earlier, and calls it a fall for the sixth straight month.
The country's main residential listings portal, which measures asking prices rather than values, puts the national average asking price at 855,245 New Zealand dollars, down 0.2% on a year earlier.
The Auckland average asking price was 993,562 New Zealand dollars, which that portal describes as below one million New Zealand dollars for the first time in six years.
The same report gives the January 2022 Auckland peak average asking price as 1,274,829 New Zealand dollars.
Total national stock for sale at the end of September stood at 34,001 properties, up 10.7% on a year earlier, with 9,466 new listings in the month, up 0.8%.
Auckland stock stood at 13,958 homes, up 13.8% on a year earlier. Both reports were published on 1 October 2026.

What it means for your money

Values have fallen for six months, so entry is cheaper. But most foreign buyers cannot buy there at all.
Glopra's New Zealand entry records foreign purchase of residential property as banned, with narrow exemptions. For a non-resident reader that eligibility question comes before any price question, because a cheaper market is only useful to someone permitted to transact in it.
More stock cuts both ways for whoever can buy. A buyer has 34,001 listings to choose from instead of the smaller number a year earlier, while anyone planning to let the property faces 10.7% more competing supply.
An owner already holding an Auckland property sees the other side: an average asking price of 993,562 New Zealand dollars against the January 2022 peak of 1,274,829, which is a paper loss until a sale crystallises it.

What to watch

Both series are monthly, so the next reports will show whether a seventh consecutive monthly fall follows.
Two different national average asking prices are in circulation for September: 855,245 New Zealand dollars from the listings portal itself and 845,142 from a financial news outlet that labels its own figure non-seasonally adjusted. Neither publisher prints the other's number, so the two are not the same series.
The statement that stock is at its highest September level since 2014 comes from that news outlet, not from the listings portal.

Sources: Cotality New Zealand, NZ property values fall for sixth straight month as buyers retain upper hand, 1 October 2026 https://www.cotality.com/nz/insights/articles/nz-property-values-fall-for-sixth-straight-month-as-buyers-retain-upper-hand; realestate.co.nz, NZ Property Report September 2026, 1 October 2026 https://www.realestate.co.nz/news/property-market-news/new-zealand-property-market-2026-september; interest.co.nz, Stock levels at realestate.co.nz are up, 1 October 2026 https://www.interest.co.nz/property/140492/stock-levels-realestateconz-are-asking-prices-are-flat-overall-vary-across-regions

Market data: New Zealand