New Zealand real estate market — prices, rental yield and trend
- Average price: $5,515 / m²
- Gross rental yield: 4.12%
- 12-month price change (USD): -3.5%
- Transaction cost: 5.5%
- Price basis: local-market average
Residential property in New Zealand averages $5,515 per square metre — -3.5% in dollar terms over twelve months, so a dollar buyer pays less than a year ago. That makes it the 20th most expensive of the 70 markets in the set.
What a buyer pays in New Zealand
The $5,515 figure is a local-market average across all residential property types: it describes the capital's market, not the country as a whole — most of the country trades well below it. Buying costs — transfer tax or stamp duty, notary, registration and agency — come to about 5.5% of the price here. On a 100 m² apartment at the average price that is roughly $30,333 on top of the $551,500 purchase price. That is below the 9.5% median across the set, which shortens the time it takes for a purchase to break even.
What it earns
Long-term letting returns about 4.1% gross on the purchase price, 59th of 69 markets by gross yield. Measured against local earnings, the price-to-income ratio is 7.9 — that is how many years of an average local income one average home costs, and it says more about who can buy here than any price figure does.
How this figure is built
The price figure for New Zealand comes from the source we judge most reliable for this market. It was last refreshed on 2026-07-23. We rate our confidence in this market’s data high: the underlying series is official and current. We recompute every market the same way; a figure that fails our checks is suppressed, not guessed.
Sources: REINZ Jun-26 via Property Brokers · propertybrokers.co.nz · globalpropertyguide.com · numbeo.com. Snapshot: 2026-07-23.
Latest New Zealand market analysis
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- New Zealand's Auction Clearance Stuck at 36% While Consents Ran 21% Higher — 2026-09-07
- New Zealand Home Values Fell a Fifth Straight Month, Dipping Below NZ$800,000 — 2026-09-06
- New Zealand Mortgage Lending Fell to NZ$7.9 Billion in July, Down 13.1% on the Year — 2026-08-31
- One in Eight New Zealand Resales Now Loses Money as July Sales Drop 10% — 2026-08-14