Cotality's Pain & Gain Report shows 17.4% of Auckland residential sales were loss-making in the fourth quarter last year

Nearly 12% of the residential properties sold in the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year were sold at a loss.

According to property data company Cotality's latest Pain & Gain Report, 11.9% of residential sales in Q4 sold for less than their purchase price.

That's up from 8.9% in Q4 2024.

Around the main centres the percentage of loss making sales was greatest in Auckland at 17.4%, followed by Wellington 15.4%, Hamilton 15.2%, Tauranga 10.5%, Dunedin 6.3% and Christchurch 5.3%.

The median loss for all properties sold for less than their purchase price was $55,000, although vendors would likely have suffered an even greater loss once selling costs such as agent's commission and lawyer's fees were added.

In Auckland the median loss was $78,944, followed by Wellington $75,000, Tauranga $60,000, Hamilton $42,000, Dunedin $33,250 and Christchurch $27,000.

The percentage of properties selling at a loss has increased markedly since Q4 2021, at the peak of the last property boom, when just 0.7% of sales were made at a loss.

Conversely, while 11.9% of properties were sold at a loss, that leaves 88.1% that were sold for more than their  purchase price.

The deciding factor in whether a property sells for a gain or a loss appears to be the length of time between it's previous purchase and its subsequent resale.

The median length of ownership for properties that made a gain was 10.1 years, while the median ownership period for properties that sold at a loss was 3.9 years.

That suggests the days of buying a property and flipping it for a quick profit are probably over, and investors looking for capital gains will likely need to commit for the long haul.