Property and sales statistics

This dashboard provides a range of data series from 1980 to current to allow analysis of New Zealand’s housing market. The three sets of statistics include:

·         Sales Prices – median, lower and upper quartile sales prices

·         Sales composition – number of sales by value quartiles

·         House Price Index – an index of house price change using a Sales Price to Appraisal methodology.

These statistics are based on official sales and valuation information used across government and is updated regularly. You can use the dashboard to explore trends, compare locations, and get a clearer picture of what is happening in the housing market. 

For all three series above, the whole series is updated each month as new data becomes available. Therefore, historical observations may change slightly over time. For this reason, if you are using the downloaded data, we recommend downloading the series on a regular basis and using the most recent series, even for historical analysis.

Data download 

Sales data and our house price index history is recreated each time a new month of data is added to ensure the index is as complete as possible. For this reason, we recommend downloading the series on a regular basis, even for historical analysis.

For easy ad-hoc analysis of measures featured on this dashboard, we have created a data download file linked below. This .xlsx file encompasses comprehensive statistics from all previous months featured in the dashboard. 

Within this sheet, please read the ‘Instructions’ tab on how to filter and use the data appropriately. 

Property and sales statistics data download (XLSX, 27 MB)

Data source 

Data comes from the District Valuation Roll data compiled by local councils as required by the Rating Valuations Act 1998.  Sales prices must be reported by the seller (or their solicitors or authorised agents) to the local council as required by the Local Government Rating Act 2002 (Section 31). 

Sales data is reported post settlement, so we don’t display data for the most recent two months as that data won’t yet be complete. After two months we consider the data to be complete so add it to the dashboard. However, as we are always receiving sales data for earlier periods, so when the dashboard is updated, all period data is recalculated, so will change over time as it becomes more complete. 

The sales date used is the ‘agreement date’, so the date a deal was struck, not the settlement date. 

Making sense of the statistics 

Median sales prices provide valuable insights into what prices were being paid at the time for properties that transacted on the open market. Sales composition helps inform whether some parts of the market were more dominant than others.

The House Price Index (HPI) provides a better measure of house price change over time, as it uses a methodology that compares sales prices to capital values as a way of accounting for changes in composition. HPIs are also less prone to month-on-month volatility and so are better for calculating value changes. Statistics based on small populations are less reliable because each individual sale has a larger influence, causing median sales prices to shift sharply even when nothing meaningful has changed. For example, in an area with only 10 house sales, one unusual sale can significantly move the average price. Results from data with small populations should therefore be interpreted with caution and seen as indicative rather than precise. 

Additionally, when sample sizes are small, averages and medians behave differently: 

• Means (averages) are highly sensitive to outliers, so one or two unusual cases can distort results. 
• Medians are more robust because they reflect the middle value rather than the total, making them less affected by anomalies. Despite this, medians can still move around when there are very few observations. 

To improve stability and reduce volatility we recommend: 

• Using longer timeframes to increase the number of observations (sales) and view the long-term trend rather than short-term fluctuations 
• OR using larger geographic areas to also increase population sizes and produce more reliable results 

Reporting such results should be accompanied with the variables that were used to define them. For instance, # is the median sales price for Wellington over the 3-month period starting on 1 Feb 2025. 

Investigating sales statistics by composition is useful to validate whether sale value statistics have truly changed or whether changes have been caused by compositional variations. 

MCERT House Price Index (MCERT HPI): Concepts, sources and methods

See our methodology paper MCERT HPI - Methodology Paper August 2026 (PDF, 333KB) (PDF, 333 KB)

Disclaimer

The District Valuation Roll data published by Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is sourced from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). 

Valuation and sales data on the District Valuation Roll is collected and prepared by territorial authorities or their agents for rating and other administrative purposes and are based on assumptions, methodologies, and information available at the valuation date. They do not represent current market values and may not reflect individual property circumstances. 

This information is provided for general information purposes only. It should not be relied upon for financial, investment, valuation, or other decision‑making purposes. 

The Ministry does not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the data and accepts no responsibility or liability for any use of the information beyond its intended purpose.