House sale and rental prices : Greater Christchurch

Why it's important

House sales and rental prices over time help to give a picture of what is happening in the housing market in terms of supply and demand, and household affordability.

Key points

In the year to December 2020, the median sale price for the Greater Christchurch urban area was $565,000. For the council areas, Christchurch was $564,000, Selwyn $580,000 and Waimakariri $520,000.
Median dwelling sale prices in the Greater Christchurch urban area have increased by over 55% in the past decade, from $363,000 in December 2010 to $565,000 in December 2020.
Selwyn had the highest mean weekly rental price in December 2020 at $456. Waimakariri ($421) was higher than in Christchurch ($368). Across Greater Christchurch, the mean for the quarter was $373.

Note this is an interactive chart and you can select the legend items to change what is shown on the graph.

Commentary

The post-quake rebuild and strong greenfield development have resulted in a strong supply of houses, which in turn has softened house prices across Greater Christchurch. An increased supply of housing and relatively steady demand has also led to easing rents across Greater Christchurch. There has been a sharp increase in house price levels in Greater Christchurch during the second half of 2020 – following the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions.

Data notes

Dwelling sale prices

This indicator shows the median prices of residential dwellings sold in each quarter. This median price series is not adjusted for size and quality of dwellings.

Prices are not presented in inflation-adjusted terms with a base period of the most current period. Note that when we include the effects of inflation prices are lower in the past compared with unadjusted prices when viewed from today's prices.

This Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment data is sourced from CoreLogic.

Dwelling rental prices

This indicator reflects real mean rents as reported in new rental bonds lodged with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The mean used is a geometric mean. The reason for using this mean is that rents cluster around round numbers and tend to plateau for months at a time (spiking up by say $10 or $20 at a time). This makes analysis of time series difficult and using the geometric mean is a way of removing this clustering effect.

Prices are not presented in inflation-adjusted terms with a base period of the most current period. The data is for private bonds only and so excludes social housing.

Data is sourced from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Data information and downloads

Data source	Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Urban Development Capacity Dashboard
Data access	The data tables(external link) are available for download
Date updated	To December 2020 (data is updated quarterly with monthly figures)
Data download	Download the tables [XLSX, 26 KB]
Page updated	June 2021

Data breakdowns

Geographic area	Greater Christchurch urban area
Data breakdowns	Territorial Authority level – Christchurch City Council, Selwyn District Council, Waimakariri District Council

Links to other information and reports

Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Urban Development Capacity Dashboard(external link)
Ministry of Housing and Urban Development data tables(external link) with all territorial authority data
QV residential sales prices(external link) and house prices(external link)
Residential property data(external link) from REINZ
An online comparison of rental statistics or house sale prices from Landlords.co.nz(external link)
Information on New Zealand house prices and rentals(external link) from Global Property Guide

Other areas: Environment indicators, Community indicators, Economic indicators