The average amount first home buyers are paying for a home declined slightly last month as did the average size of the mortgages they took out to buy their home.
Interest.co.nz estimates that the average purchase price paid by first home buyers in May this year was $673,000, down slightly form $680,000 in April.
May's estimated purchase price of $673,000 was approximately midway between the REINZ's lower quartile selling price of $580,000 in May and the median price of $763,000.
However their estimated average purchase price has bounced around within a few thousand dollars either side of that price since October last year, so the overall trend for the amount they are paying is flat.
May's average purchase price remains $45,000 lower (-6.3%) compared to the estimated peak of $718,000 set in April 2022.
While the prices they are paying for homes appears stable for now, the numbers taking out low equity loans with less than a 20% deposit continue to grow.
The latest Reserve Bank figures show that 2895 mortgages were approved to first home buyers in May, and of those 1213 (41.9%) were low equity loans.
That set a new record for low equity lending to first home buyers.
It was both the highest percentage of low equity borrowing by first home buyers in the Reserve Bank's data series which goes back to August 2014 and the highest total number of low equity loans made to first home buyers in the same data series.
The average amount borrowed by first home buyers taking out a low equity loan in May was $629,000, although that was down by $56,000 (-8.2%) from the peak of $685,000 set in May 2022.
The Reserve Bank figures also show that in total, 2895 mortgages were approved to first home buyers in May, equivalent to exactly one third of all new mortgages approved by banks for the purpose of purchasing a property in the same month, suggesting first first home buyers have a substantial share of the housing market.
The comment stream on this story is now closed.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.