Waitakere and Lower Hutt are the first-home buyer capitals of New Zealand, claiming the biggest share of purchases by property newbies.
Analysis of settled house sales by OneRoof and its data partner Valocity shows the impact of the housing market slump on those taking their first step on the property ladder.
First-home buyers’ overall share of the market jumped from 25% in 2021, at market peak, to 31% in 2024, while the median price of first-home buyer purchases fell from $747,000 to $685,000.
The OneRoof-Valocity list of first-home buyer hotspots includes a clutch of far-flung locations with low median purchase prices, but the figures suggest buyers want to stay as close as possible to employment and amenities, with two major metros and city fringe locations ranking highly.
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Year to date, first-home buyers accounted for 47% of mortgage registrations in Auckland's Waitakere – up from 34% in 2021. And while breaking into the market in the city’s west wasn’t cheap, the median purchase price of $845,000 was $100,000 cheaper than it was during market peak.
Papakura, on Auckland’s southern fringe, was also popular, with 40% of all homes bought with a mortgage in 2024 going to first-home buyers.
Lower Hutt was the favoured location in Wellington Region, with first-home buyers making up 47% of all purchases with a mortgage in the district.
First-home buyers also dominated in neighbouring Porirua (41%), Wellington City (40%) and Upper Hutt (36%), although the overall number of first-home purchases in the region is well below the long-term average, with higher interest rates counteracting the benefits of lower prices.
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The figures threw up some surprises. One of the most expensive locations for entry-level homes, Auckland’s North Shore, had the same share of first-home buyer sales (33%) as Christchurch, where the median purchase price was almost $400,000 lower.
The North Shore also ranked more highly than Dunedin, where first-home buyers had a 31% share of the market and median purchase price was $530,000, and Whanganui, where the share was 30% and the median price was $440,500.
While prices for first-home buyers in the North Shore have dropped more than $150,000 since market peak, their increased share of the market has been driven by the absence of other buyers, such as investors and owner-occupiers, rather than improved affordability.
In Christchurch and Dunedin, the retreat by investors and owner-occupiers hasn’t been as pronounced, with prices in both cities still low enough for movement in the market.
Unsurprisingly, the location with the lowest share of first-home buyer purchases is New Zealand’s most expensive. Those who had never owned a property before in New Zealand made up just 16% of new mortgage registrations in Queenstown-Lakes.
Price and availability of suitable stock is obviously a barrier to entry in the district, which is favoured by rich-listers and expats. The median purchase price for first-home buyers in 2024 was $1.137 million – $184,000 higher than at the height of the market.
Harcourts West Auckland agent Diego Traglia: "It's nothing flash, but it's definitely going to get you on the ladder." Photo / Fiona Goodall
Harcourts agent Diego Traglia said many first-home buyers in central Auckland and the North Shore ended up shifting their focus to his patch in West Auckland because of how much more affordable the area was.
Traglia said he was one of them. When he was looking for his first home in 2015 he spent six months at open homes on the North Shore but he ended up buying in Massey.
The vast majority of stock in the district was "bread and butter" first-home buyer homes. “When you are looking at Henderson, Massey, Swanson, Te Atatu, even to an extent Westgate, Whenuapai, West Harbour – they all have a lot of first-home buyer properties,” he told OneRoof.
In the current market, a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on a decent sized section could easily be picked up for under $800,000, he said. “It’s nothing flash, but it’s definitely going to get you on the ladder.”
In Lower Hutt, Ray White agent John Matthews said the first-home buyer market was quite busy. “They are looking for something that’s user-friendly, has a bit of a section and garaging – that sort of thing.”
Suburbs like Wainuiomata, Stokes Valley, Taita and Naenae were extremely popular due to the lower price points they offered and were generally selling within the two to three-week deadline sale process.
Matthews said a tidy three-bedroom, one-bathroom home in Wainuiomata would set someone back around $550,000 to $650,000, although that would have been up to $850,000 at the peak.
“People are moving to the Hutt because they are getting better value for money. That lower end of the market is moving quite quickly and as long as it’s well presented and doesn’t have any issues building-wise they will sell.”
Those with issues such as needing a new kitchen or roof were harder sells, he said, due to renovation and building costs still being quite high and because the banks would only lend on houses that were clean and tidy.
Valocity senior research analyst Wayne Shum said areas such as Waitakere and Papakura and Takanini in South Auckland offered first-home buyers a cheaper alternative to relatively well-connected areas.
In addition, the thousands of new houses being built and planned for some of the West Auckland suburbs such as Swanson, Glen Eden and Sunnyvale had also made it easier for them to enter the market. In many cases the new builds were offered at a fixed sale price, which was also more attractive to first-home buyers who weren’t in a position to buy at auction.
Waitakere and Lower Hutt were historically first-home buyer suburbs, Shum said, but during the peak of the market investors had flocked to those areas and as a result pushed first-home buyers out.
The absence of investors in the market in the last two years had also made it easier for first-home buyers to get on the property ladder, he added.
Likewise the rise in house prices in Wellington City had also seen more first-home buyers move out to Lower Hutt, he said. “Wellington is definitely getting really pricey and there’s probably enough news coverage in the last few days or recent times that they are getting huge rate increases and that’s another cost or expense for first-home buyers to think about.”
House prices in Lower Hutt were more affordable, and people could still get the train to the city.
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