Vanessa Williams

Yeah, so falling is an interesting term because actually we've seen relative stability for the last three and a half years.

But actually, when you compare that to what's been happening with inflation, because of course, inflation's gone up, but so have wages.

If property prices are staying the same, which isn't a bad or a good thing, really, or depending on which side of the coin you're on, of course.

But look, the reality of it is it actually means that house prices are cheaper just by nature of costs going up and wages going up, but house prices remaining stable.

So, look, I know that we've had this conversation before and I still continue to reiterate it.

It's actually a beautiful time to transact, in my humble opinion, of course, because when you kind of know what that baseline is, where you're sitting and what you're probably going to either sell your property for or buy a new one for, it just gives everybody a little bit more comfort.

I think probably because we've been in that environment now for well over three and a half years, that is what has shifted perhaps the drop or what we're going to talk about today is those price drops that are happening in the property market.

Where do they sit compared with previous quarters?

Fascinating, fresh new data.

For the quarter, January to March, we have seen $54 million drop out of the New Zealand property market.

So much money.

Eye-watering, in fact.

But what I will say was more eye-watering much earlier on in 2023, we actually saw over 100 million drop out.

And probably the most comparable quarter would be the same month, January to March, but last year, beginning of 2025, where we saw 63 million drop out of the average asking price of New Zealand property.

So we actually have gone, it's less, 54 versus 63.

So they're actually

is less that is pulled out of that summer quarter.

But what that really tells me is that, as we said, because those property prices have remained stable for such a long time, sellers are a little bit more realistic with what they're putting their properties on the market for.

And vice versa, buyers aren't trying to come and grab themselves a deal because they realize, look, the property market is what the property market is.

And perhaps I'm going to try and get, of course, a good deal, but I'm going to really understand where the market is sitting in this environment.