Almost 20% of Auckland sellers lost money on properties they sold in the first quarter of this year, Cotality says - and more than 40% of people selling apartments.
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ
Cotality said across the country, 12.2% of sales in the first quarter of this year were for less than the sellers had paid for them.
But in Auckland 19.9% of sales were for a loss. In Hamilton it was 13.1% and in Wellington 16.7%. Palmerston North recorded 17.4% losses. In Christchurch, fewer than 5% were for a loss.
For apartments, 41.1% were sold for a loss, the weakest since 2011. Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said there was no evidence of a "fire sale" in apartments but they tended to have less growth in value over time, so there was more potential for a loss.
"I don't think apartments are necessarily collapsing, the figures aren't strong by any means but it's not as if people are abandoning apartments. I think it just reflects the fact there's less capital gain over time so at any point in the cycle you're less likely to make a profit simply because apartment values don't go up as much."
The national median gross profit was $285,000, down from a peak of $440,000 but similar to recent quarters.
Profit-making sales had been held for a median 10 years.
Sellers who made a loss had held their properties for a median 4.2 years and lost a median $54,000.
For owner-occupiers, 11.1% of resales in the first quarter were for a loss, down from 11.6% in the last quarter of 2025 but still about the highest levels since 2013.
For investors, 13.7% of sales were for a loss, up from 11.3% in the fourth quarter last year and the highest level since 2012.
"We're in a buyer's market, lots of choice, prices are flat, so that's working against resellers," Davidson said. "Eighty-eight percent is down a lot from where it used to be but that's still pretty much nine in every 10 people making a gross profit of some degree so it's still quite strong and it's quite in favour of sellers.
"If you're an Auckland seller of an apartment and you're an investor, it's been a tricky few years."
He said there had been previous periods of time that had been similarly difficult for people who bought just before a drop in prices.
"If you go back to the worst point of the GFC, the figure [making a gain] was down at about 80% ... and in the Asian financial crisis it was about 70%.
"Things are not great for sellers at the moment but it has been worse in the past even though this downturn in property values has been bigger. I guess it's just telling you that people are able to hang on.
"There's been serviceability testing, there's probably higher credit standards than what they might have been 20 or 30 years ago so even though the downturn in values has been bigger people have been able to hold on and ride it out. "
In some cases, people may be taking their homes off the market rather than selling at a loss.
Davidson said very few listings "failed" in 2020 and 2021 but since the proportion had risen to between 25% had 30% and stayed there.
"We recorded about 21,850 'pulled' listings in 2025, the highest since 2018, but that's in the wider context of more properties just being listed and sold anyway."
QV data, meanwhile, shows the average value nationally had grown by 0.3% since the start of the year to $912,406 but was 0.2% lower than a year earlier.
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