The housing market remained flat in March, with sales numbers and prices almost unchanged year-on-year.
March is traditionally the busiest month of the year for residential property sales, and this was the case over the past 12 months. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand is reporting 7853 residential sales for the month, the most in the last 12 months and almost unchanged (down 0.1%) compared to March last year.
Prices were similarly flat with the REINZ House Price Index (HPI) up 0.2% nationally compared to March last year, but down 0.3% compared to February.
The REINZ HPI is considered the most reliable indicator of price movements because it adjusts for differences in the mix of properties sold each month, unlike averages or medians.
However, the REINZ's median price was $788,000 in March, down 0.9% compared to February, and 0.3% lower than March last year - the monthly regional median prices can be seen in the interactive graph below.
On average it was taking 41 days to sell a property in March, unchanged from a year ago.
"Despite rising fuel costs and global uncertainty, buyers didn't step away, but they are becoming more cautious and taking longer to make decisions," REINZ Chief Executive Lizzy Ryley said.
"The Reserve Bank holding the Official Cash Rate at 2.25% has provided a level of stability for the market but there is still uncertainty ahead.
"While we haven't yet seen a significant impact form global events in the data, agents across the country report that buyers became more cautious towards the end of March," she said.
See the table below for the regional figures.
The comment stream on this story is now closed.
REINZ House Price Index - March 2026
Median price - REINZ
Select chart tabs
9 Comments
Interest rates scheduled to rise, any spare cash going on fuel and inflationary spending. Who wants to sign on for an over priced Mort Gage (death pledge) as the Orange Swan runs amok...?
Not many I suspect. Another bad year for house prices, and for the NZ economy, coming up.
'Survive until 25' seems like just yesterday.
'Green shoots are here' was another.
We just had the deepest and longest yield curve inversion since the late 1920's, leading into the Great Depression. A very reliable economic indicator for future/subsequent time outcomes.
Wouldn't be a surprise if we have a decade of poor performance/growth/economic conditions, that resemble nothing of the past few decades. But peoples confirmation and recency bias says that good times are just around the corner again (you know, the 'be quick' mentality).
Agree there is no real reason to think next year will be any better.
NZ economy and house prices have performed worse than many peers over the last few years. My gut feeling is that we will catch some of that up eventually, but it could be them shrinking rather than us growing.
Who needs Aotearoa houses when you have the AllBirds pivot to AI? No pushy agents and paperwork. Press a few buttons on CMC Invest and lock in 30 years of capital gains.
Even the Orange Swan would like that move.
Have you tried ordering AI hardware recently?
Capacity is dominated by very large orders from the usual hyper funded suspects. Orders that regardless of the capacity to plug in and operate them.
https://youtu.be/-1kpxC3Ka9M?si=OWCrm5m8JvNQi_If flipping the bird
where is ching ching emoji man?
oh dear
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/companies/three-auckland-ray-white-…
I will repost in normal spuiker channels here
oh dear, how sad, never mind.
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.