In one neighbourhood, the first metric was the letterbox: a thickening sheath of “For Sale” advertisements clogging up the mail. “Almost daily junk mail advertising houses for sale,” said Greg, who lives in the central North Island city of New Plymouth. Then he noticed things changing on the street. “Every house on our road that has sold since we moved in three years ago has sold within a week,” he said. “But now the house down the road has been on the market for about a month with no signs of moving.”
The same trickle of symptoms are becoming visible in many cities across New Zealand: for-sale signs staying up as the lawns grow around them, auctions passing by with no bids, listing pages mounting up on real estate websites. For years, the country’s housing market has been on a seemingly-unstoppable upward trajectory, with homes in major centres averaging at over $1m a pop. Now, New Zealand is in the midst of some of the largest drops and slowdowns since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Some banks are predicting a 10% fall over the course of 2022.
