The mountain of housing stock for sale continues to get bigger - still a buyer's market in September

Property / news

The number of homes for sale is at an 11 year high leaving buyers in charge as the spring market gets underway

1st Oct 25, 5:40am by Greg Ninness

Buyers look set to continue having the upper hand in the housing market, according to the September figures from property website Realestate.co.nz.

The website received 9394 new residential listings in September, up 7.1% compared to August.

An increase in listings in September is not unusual as the housing market moves out of its winter slumber and towards the busier summer months.

However this September's listings were the highest they have been in the month of September since 2020, when the market was heading into in boom mode.

That pushed the total residential stock available for sale on the website to 30,721 at the end of September, which was up 2.4% compared to August and perhaps more importantly, was an 11 year high for the month of September.

The total stock of properties for sale on the website was up 74.8%, compared to September 2020, which was the last time that September new listing levels were higher than they were last month.

So it appears that the mountain of stock which has given buyers so much choice and the upper hand in price negotiations, is slowly getting bigger.

At this stage, it is still a buyer's market as the spring selling season gets underway.

Normally, that would put downward pressure on prices, but Realestate.co.nz's national average asking price* was $847,034 in September, up by $6487 (0.8%) compared to August but still down by $19,994 (-2.3%) compared to September last year.

All regions recorded increases in asking prices in September compared to August, except for Northland, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Manawatu/Whanganui.

However asking prices are not the same as selling prices, and we will need to wait another week or so for the Real Estate Institute of NZ to release its September sales report to see what is happening with selling prices.

But at the moment, the latest figures from Realestate.co.nz suggest the amount of stock on the market could be a significant concern for vendors, although potential buyers should happy.

*Note on prices: Realestate.co.nz also publishes a set of seasonally adjusted price data, but interest.co.nz uses the actual price data in its reports. So the prices quoted above may vary from those reported elsewhere.

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17 Comments

by 11boomer11 | 1st Oct 25, 7:05am 1759255535

Analyzing the above

9400 new listings, yet stocks increased 2.4 percent from 30,000 to 30700 ... only 700

The all important demand/sales numbers are the missing key here. Was there more sales or more pulled from sale to account for the net of 8700 homes that have 'gone missing'

by DonKerrBab | 1st Oct 25, 7:39am 1759257569

There’s got to be some kind of “double counting” or thereabouts when you have this trail of “conditional sales” where one counterparty will put an offer in conditional on them selling their place and so on. Most people I know here who are involved in selling (vendors or buyers not people in the industry) seem to have minimum of one person needing to sell their house before they can transact. So if one house sells it can trigger a number of sales if that original house is at the start of the chain. When one house goes conditional maybe you get 3 or 4 people then pop their house up for sale as they are within this chain and bang you get more listings than appears ?

by rastus | 1st Oct 25, 8:38am 1759261094

Must be a nightmare trying to sell and buy at the same time on this market.

Just told a friend to focus on selling first. Two reasons, cash buyer power. secondly, the cost of his 'new' home will be the marginal difference. And if you don't know what that's going to be, negotiating buy price is a lottery.

by Nifty | 1st Oct 25, 11:45am 1759272341

Its actually a good time, vendors much more willing to accept offers with conditions - e.g. Subject to sale of your home etc.

by rastus | 1st Oct 25, 2:33pm 1759282404

Flawed logic. They'll accept less if it's cash!

by ex socialist | 1st Oct 25, 12:58pm 1759276688

I agree - and understanding the pain and caution of being a vendor sets you up better to negotiate a purchase

by MikeM7382 | 1st Oct 25, 7:35am 1759257317

Residential construction about to boom...apparently.

by Averageman | 1st Oct 25, 9:22am 1759263727

Unsold bubble getting bigger by the day. The withdrawn from sale truth will start to become more visible as the tsunami is unleashed. Will get a kick out of the leveraged debt speculators "spin" on how this is normal and things are "all good" and ponzi growth is back underway.

Ponzi to the moon, and then mars, and then Saturn, and then Pluto and then.....where are the buyers again, and where are the renter slaves - oh yes open the flood gates on immigration again...

by IT GUY | 1st Oct 25, 9:55am 1759265709

The incremental value add to NZ from low wage immigrants does not cover there own retirement and healthcare, let alone help the rest of NZ.

Its a fiscal nightmare as treasury points out, either huge gst rise big tax rise reduced healthcare, retiring at 74...

The housing Ponzi is actually the least of our worries. but could probably not come at such a bad point....

meanwhile we are preparing for emergency power disruption....

We could do with some leadership, the entire country is like WGTN council (perhaps a tad better) government never fixes major problems like energy security etc, ferries, rather differs maintenance and does glamour projects.... this one not doing glamour so we probably vote them out, the people do not want to pay for the services they want/need to consume.

be aware and get your own power security.

Be aware the old ponzi will not return, not housing anyway

by rastus | 1st Oct 25, 10:43am 1759268599

Wayne Brown riding to the rescue of Auckland. Pity we didn't have more like him, instead voting in media persuasive lightweight fluffs.

by endlesslearner | 1st Oct 25, 11:53am 1759272806

Just dropped from RBNZ, new mortgage approvals fell off a cliff in August, down 16.4% month on month. What makes this particularly striking is August rarely sees drops this steep (usually it's January that gets hammered), making it one of the worst August/non-seasonal declines on record.

Meanwhile Centrix showing company liquidations up 26% YoY with IRD now driving 70% of them (vs 30-40% during Covid) as they chase $9.3B in tax debt. Every sector except agriculture seeing double-digit increases in liquidations. More liquidations → more job losses → more mortgage stress → less spending → more liquidations → more .......

by Yvil | 1st Oct 25, 12:28pm 1759274904

From your RBNZ link: All borrower types new mortgages:

Aug 2023: 5,782

Aug 2024: 6,194

Aug 2025: 7,579

So 22.3% MORE borrowing this August than last August, hardly "falling off a cliff"

by redcows | 1st Oct 25, 12:37pm 1759275446

So existing mortgages borrowed even more then, way more . Is that a good thing on falling values?

by endlesslearner | 1st Oct 25, 1:13pm 1759277598

Yvil, you're absolutely right about the y/y comparison. The 16.4% cliff dive is month-on-month (July 9,035 → Aug 7,557), which is worst August decline on record. Yes, we're up 22% from last year, but if we zoom out, still down ~14% from August 2021 peak (8,814). After six rate cuts (250bps) since August 2024, the monthly momentum should be building, not reversing with around 16% collapse

by Yvil | 1st Oct 25, 1:32pm 1759278758

I hear you, but monthly figures can often be noisy, just like July 2025 which was unusually high at 9,035, which obviously makes the following month's drop look large. I think it's wiser to look at annual figures or perhaps a moving average for direction.

by mfd | 1st Oct 25, 1:54pm 1759280095

You can download the data and plot it if you like. Looks to me like a fairly steady (although noisy) upwards trend in the last 18 months or so, now comfortably above the pre-Covid levels and below the 2020-21 craziness.

I don't know how refixing affects this data, if at all.

by IT GUY | 1st Oct 25, 2:59pm 1759283981

its not booming like they said it would is it?

i see no V shaped recovery looks like its fallen every month for last 7... ie

its still not even possible to claim a bottom....