An overview of the Auckland economy for July 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:

• Consumer Confidence Index for the June 2025 quarter was 95.9: above most of 2022-2024, but below most of 2009 to 2021 (source: Westpac McDermott Miller CCI; below 100 is net pessimistic);
• business confidence (NZIER QSBO) for the June 2025 quarter showed a net 35% of businesses expecting the general business situation to improve over the next three months – the fourth rise in a row, reaching the highest level in eleven years (since 2014);
• median house price for the month of May 2025 was $975,000 (in real* dollars: similar to the last several months; similar to ten years ago (2015); 36% below the 2021 peak);
• number of houses sold for the year ended May 2025 was 22,900: rising continuously for eight months; 25% above the May 2023 trough; similar to 2017-2020; but 37% below the July 2021 peak;
• average weekly rent for the month of April 2025 was $684 (in real* dollars: similar to the last three years; similar to nine years ago; below 2017 to 2021). For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $577: an 11% real fall since January (probably due to seasonality), 2% below April 2024; 1% annual average increase in the last five years;
• number of new dwellings consented in the year ended May 2025 was 13,864: 1% below April; similar to the previous 11 months; 37% below the September 2022 peak; 9% below the 2019 pre-Covid peak;
• real* value of new non-residential buildings consented in the year ended May 2025 was $2,347 million: similar to the previous 3 months; 23% below a year ago; similar to the 2020 trough and among the lowest since 2016; 32% below the 2022 peak;
• real* value of imports by Auckland seaports for the year ended May 2025 was $30.3 billion, similar to the last several months, still 10% below April 2023, but 16% higher than the 2020 Covid  trough. For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $30.5 billion: similar to the last several months, 19% above late 2020, and 26% 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.

July 2025

Previous updates. 

February

March 

April

May

June

2024

December