House sales fall 11.6% as the spring lift fails to arrive
New Zealand recorded 5,752 residential sales in September, 11.6% fewer than a year earlier. The figure comes from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand's September Property Report, published on 14 October and summarised by PropertyNoise.
Raw sales were 2.3% higher than August's revised total of 5,624. But sales always rise in spring, and once REINZ adjusted for the season, September's count fell 4.3% from August. REINZ said the usual spring lift had yet to arrive.
The count was the 12th-lowest of the 35 Septembers in REINZ's records.
Unsold homes are piling up. Inventory rose 10.7% to 34,001 properties, while new listings rose just 0.8% to 9,466, PropertyNoise reported, using data supplied by realestate.co.nz. The extra stock comes from homes sitting on the market longer, not from a rush of new sellers. The median home took 46 days to sell, three days longer than a year ago.
"Activity is continuing but decisions are not being rushed," REINZ chief executive Lizzy Ryley said, as quoted by interest.co.nz. "Buyers are moving forward when the property, price and timing suit their circumstances, while many vendors recognise that achieving a sale may require patience."
Prices are easing rather than collapsing. The national median sale price was $755,000, down 2.3% on September 2025. The REINZ House Price Index, which adjusts for the mix of homes sold, stood at 3,551, down 1.5% over the year.
Auckland did most of the damage. Sales there fell 19.0% to 1,664, accounting for 391 of the 754 fewer sales nationally, or about 52%, according to PropertyNoise. Outside Auckland, sales fell 8.2%, interest.co.nz reported. Auckland's seasonally adjusted sales dropped 13.6% from August. Its median price was $950,000, down 2.6%, and its HPI fell 3.2%.
Take Auckland out and the national median was $691,200, effectively unchanged.
Wellington's HPI fell 4.5%, the biggest drop of any region, according to interest.co.nz. The region recorded 513 sales, down 14.8%, which REINZ said was its third-lowest September count. Homes there took a median 52 days to sell. In Wellington City the median price fell 5.7% to $821,000.
The country split clean down Cook Strait. All four South Island regions rose over the year, and all eight North Island regions fell. Southland led the country at 7.5%, its 14th straight month on top, followed by Canterbury at 3.1% and Otago at 2.8%. Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast barely moved, up 0.1%.
In the north, Northland's HPI fell 3.4%, Taranaki's 3.0% and Manawatū-Whanganui's 2.4%, interest.co.nz reported. Waikato was down 2.2%, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay 1.6%, and Bay of Plenty 0.9%.
Regional medians can point the other way. Taranaki's median rose 11.4% to $620,000, but that was from just 153 sales. Southland's median fell 3.8% to $505,000 even as its HPI led the country. A median is just the middle price of whatever sold that month, so in a small market a few dear or cheap homes can swing it; the HPI is the better guide.
The pressure on buyers and owners is about to grow. About 64% of mortgages are due to reprice within the next 12 months, according to an October analysis by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), based on Reserve Bank data. New Zealand Banking Association figures show 62.2% of loans were fixed and another 21.5% split between fixed and floating in the six months to June.
The Reserve Bank lifted the official cash rate to 2.75% in its September Monetary Policy Statement, and banks passed the rise in full to floating rates. Westpac expects a pause at the Reserve Bank's October review, then a rise to 3% in December. ASB expects 3.25% by December.
NZIER economist Ting Huang wrote that many "households will face higher mortgage repayments as their mortgages come up for repricing", which "could crowd out household discretionary spending".
Retirement-village operators feel the slowdown directly. In trading updates on 12 October, reported by interest.co.nz, Summerset said settlement timing still depends on prospective residents selling their existing homes. Ryman cited continued softness in the housing market.