Of the larger urban areas, Christchurch has emerged as a value centre for first home buyers, with an entry level property estimate at $363,000.

For those that are comfortable buying into a smaller community, however, the average entry level in Whanganui comes in at a more affordable $258,000. 

The ‘first home buyers’ HomesEstimate, developed by online property search engine homes.co.nz, uses an algorithm to generate the likely first home buyer’s ‘achievable’ price, calculated as the lower quartile estimate in any given urban area.


While the lowest quartile tends to follow the general median pricing trend of any given city or town, bigger price gaps can be found in the more expensive regions.

Queenstown, which claims the most expensive median property price in the land at $984,000, overshadows the entry level home price of $727,000 by a whopping $257,000. 

The Auckland “affordability gap” is $220,000, with an estimated entry price of $731,000 versus a median of $951,000. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Whanganui’s median of $322,000 is only marginally ahead of the entry point of $258,000.

Unwinding gains

Homes.co.nz head of commercial Tom Lintern said the forecast 5 percent to 10 percent drop in property prices resulting from the covid-19 correction should also be taken in the context of recent very strong property market growth.

He said that in many areas a 5 percent drop would only wipe away the capital gains generated in the past few months.

“Even a 10 percent drop is only unwinding the gains generated in the last year or two. “

He said that property prices in Dunedin, for example, had increased 19.8 percent in the last 12 months, “and we only need to look back to November 2019 when prices were 10 percent less than they were today.”

The exception to this is Christchurch and Auckland where the market has been relatively flat. 

“However, even Auckland has seen a recent resurgence in the first quarter of 2020 and many believe the Christchurch market is undervalued and is unlikely to experience as large a decrease as some areas. “