By Kelvin Davidson, Chief Property Economist, CoreLogic New Zealand
Wellington’s property market has been on a prolonged upswing since 2015 and if anything that boom has intensified over the past nine to 12 months (post-COVID). What’s been going on lately and does it tell us anything about future prospects?
Starting with average values themselves, in June 2015 the figure for wider Wellington (defined here as city, Porirua, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt) was $459,751. Now, only six years later, the number has jumped to $1,024,649 – a rise of 123%, or $564,898.
As the chart shows, each of those sub-markets has risen strongly over the full six years since 2015, but even more so in the past 12 months. Even the ‘cheapest’ market in Upper Hutt now has an average property value of more than $850,000.