Where House Prices Are Booming Right Now (2026)
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What is the overall state of New Zealand’s property market five years after the crash?
Hello and welcome along to the Property Academy Podcast by Urbus Partners. I'm your host, Steve McKnight. I'm Andrew Nichol. And this is the show that helps Kiwis go from zero to five investment properties so you can be financially free and stick around for the next 15 minutes because you're gonna learn where house prices are actually booming right now, the one thing all of them have in common, and how to tell a real boom from a small town that's just having a good month. Now, Andrew, how would you sum up the New Zealand property market right now? Right now.
Well, I think if you picture a hill, five years ago, every market in the country was at the top of the hill, looking out over the peak, and then prices fell and everyone walked down the valley together. And so seemed Everyone's kinda gone off in different directions. So some have climbed their way all the way back to the top. Others have just kind of walked around the hill. And some of them have actually gone a bit further into the gully.
Well, if we start with with some of the bad news, because it's where most people live, seven districts, seven parts of the country out of sixty-six had a fresh record low in August, right? So a hardly the award you want, is it? Yeah, a new bottom of the market, right? So house prices, national house prices bottomed out in about May twenty twenty three, little bit of a Bounce back seven out of 66 areas have hit that brand new low. Places like Wellington, Lower Hearts, Upper Hut, Carpeti, Carterton, Horofunua, like all of the places of the wider region. Auckland is also one of them, or was one of them in July 2026. That hit a brand new low, bounced it back a little bit. It in August, but Wellington City is now 31% below where house prices were at the peak of the market.
Auckland's about 25% below Hamilton, about 17% below that peak in 2021. But if we think about the opposite, where house prices are booming, what I want to do is count down the top five areas where property Prices are booming right now. And coming in at number five is Invercargill, the the our southernmost city of 58,000 people. And they are up 22% since the bottom of the market. And house prices are currently sitting 8% above where they were back at the peak. So they've not even climbed back to the top of the hill. They've kept on climbing.
Isn't that amazing to think though people in Navicago are reading about, you know, this terrible market
And they're thinking, not my house. So I've said it in a couple of podcasts. I was just at the property investors conference in Todonga over the weekend, and there was a big contingent from Southland. Big reason behind that is that Southland is about to host the property investors conference next year in twenty twenty seven. I've already said you're going to it. Oh yeah. Yeah. And now the amazing thing is that Lee, who's actually been on our show, she's running that conference next year. She was running around in a superwoman outfit. Literally, I took photos to show you and I was like, look, th they are chipper, uh those property investors from Southland.
Why not? No, it won't leveled off surely
a bit by
then.
Well, I mean that'll be Well, you've made bets about the property market in the past, Andrew, and lost them. So we'll see what happens.
I had
to
pay that money to Lynn.
But if Invercargo comes in at number five, what's
coming in at number four? Central Otago. So you've got Cromwell, Alexandra, Wanaka's neighbors. You're up seventeen percent from the bottom of the market. Nine percent above its own.
Old Peak. That takes us to Southland, right? So Southland district is basically dairy country. We're talking about places like oh, surely nightcaps would be in Southland. Do you know where nightcaps is? No idea. Tiny little town.
Which North Island towns hit fresh record lows in August 2026?
We've got places like You're
gonna have to take me on some like national tour sometime to go to all these places I've never even heard of. You're from the South Island. You should have been to these places. You should have been to these places.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Where's that other place?
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the overall state of New Zealand’s property market five years after the crash?
0:08–4:01
2
Which North Island towns hit fresh record lows in August 2026?
4:01–8:46
3
What are the top five fastest‑recovering property markets in New Zealand?
8:46–9:33
4
Why is Invercargill’s house price growth considered a genuine boom?
9:33–13:59