An overview of the Auckland economy for February 2025, in charts and graphs and with some commentary.

Measures covered: house prices and numbers sold, weekly rents, building consents, employment and unemployment, GDP, business and consumer confidence, retail sales, imports.

Highlights include:

• average weekly rent for the month of November 2024 was $668 (in real* dollars: similar to October ($666); 1% lower than a year ago; below most of the last eight years). For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $591 (2% above October ($580); 1% higher than a year ago, following over three years of minimal increases);
• real* value of imports by Auckland seaports for the year ended December 2024 was $29.8 billion, which was 4% lower than the year ended December 2023, but 4% higher than 5 years ago. For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $30.3 billion (11% lower than a year ago, and 1% lower than 5 years ago). Results for 2024 years ended September, October and November were very similar to December, for both Auckland and the rest of New Zealand;
• number of houses sold for the year ended December 2024 was 21,592 (similar to the last nine months; 18% above May 2023’s trough; 41% below July 2021 peak; below most of 2012-2022);
• median house price for the month of December 2024 was $1,000,000 (in real* dollars: similar to nine years ago (2015); 6% lower than a year ago; 3% below November ($1.03 million); 34% below the 2021 peak);
• number of new dwellings consented in the year ended November 2024 was 13,905 (37% lower than the September 2022 peak; slightly above the July 2024 trough; similar to five years ago);
• real* value of new non-residential buildings consented in the year ended November 2024 was $2,592 million (11% below a year earlier; below nearly all of the last four years, and 24% below the November 2022 peak, but 15% above the 2020 trough)
• consumer confidence (Westpac McDermott Miller Index) for the December 2024 quarter was 106.5: the highest-equal since 2021, but below 2013 to 2018
• business confidence (NZIER QSBO) Auckland for the December 2024 quarter showed a net 27% of businesses expecting the general business situation to improve over the next three months – the highest quarter since 2016, and the highest December since 2014.

*Note: real dollars/values are after adjusting for the effects of inflation each quarter, so a similar ‘real’ level means that a value rose at a similar rate to inflation.

February 2025

Previous updates. 

2024

September

October

November

December