An overview of the Auckland economy for January 2026, in charts and graphs and with some commentary.

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

Highlights include:

• consumer confidence (Westpac McDermott Miller Index) for the December 2025 quarter was 107.0: above most of 2018-2025, but below 2009-2017;
• business confidence (NZIER QSBO) for the December 2025 quarter showed a net 60% of businesses expecting the general business situation to improve over the next three months: the highest-equal since 1994, rising since June 2024 – but note, “improve” can include “be bad, but less bad than currently”;
• median house price for the month of November 2025 was $1,050,000 (in real* dollars: slightly above the last seven months; similar to a year ago; 32% below 2021’s all-time peak; same price as November 2015);
• number of houses sold for the year ended November 2025 was 23,720: similar to the last several months; 29% above the May 2023 trough; slightly above 2017-2019; 35% below the 2021 peak
• average weekly rent for the month of October 2025 was $668 (in real* dollars: similar to the last three months; 13% below February 2021; the same as ten years ago). For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $568: mostly falling since January 2025 (and highly seasonal); 5% below a year ago; the lowest October figure since 2019
• number of new dwellings consented in the year ended November 2025 was 15,252: rising steadily since April; 10% above a year ago; 31% below the September 2022 peak; 1% above the 2019 pre-Covid peak;
• real* value of new non-residential buildings consented in the year ended November 2025 was $2,643 million: 8% above October; rising since August; similar to a year ago; 24% below the 2022 and 2019 peaks; 16% above the 2020 trough;
• real* value of imports by Auckland seaports for the year ended November 2025 was $31.8 billion: gradually rising 4.8% over the last year, still 6% below April 2023, but 20% higher than the 2020 Covid trough. For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $31.3 billion: similar to the last year and a half, 20% above the 2020 trough, and 25% lower than their 2023 post-Covid rebound peak.

*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.

January 2026

Previous updates. 

2025

February

March 

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December