An overview of the Auckland economy for May 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:

• median house price for the month of March 2025 was $1,040,000 (in real* dollars: slightly above recent months; below nine years ago (March 2016); 5% lower than a year ago; 31% below the 2021 peak);
• number of houses sold for the year ended March 2025 was 22,473: rising continuously for six months, 23% above the May 2023 trough, similar to 2017-2020, but 38% below the July 2021 peak;
• average weekly rent for the month of February 2025 was $685 (in real* dollars: similar to the last two months, similar to one and two years ago; below 2017 to 2021). For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $643: a 1% rise since January (whereas most Februarys fall due to seasonality), but only 2% annual average increase in the last five years;
• number of new dwellings consented in the year ended March 2025 was 14,049: 2% above February - largest monthly rise since 2022; 36% below the September 2022 peak; 7% below the 2019 pre-Covid peak;
• real* value of new non-residential buildings consented in the year ended March 2025 was $2,389 million: just above February, after six falls in a row; 22% below a year ago; similar to the 2020 trough and among the lowest since 2016; 31% below the 2022 peak;
• real* value of imports by Auckland seaports for the year ended March 2025 was $30.5 billion, rising gradually since October 2024, still 9% below April 2023, but 16% higher than the 2020 Covid trough. For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $31.0 billion: 20% above late 2020, and 25% lower than their 2023 post-Covid rebound peak;
• business confidence (NZIER QSBO) for the March 2025 quarter showed a net 31% of businesses expecting the general business situation to improve over the next three months – the third rise in a row, to well above pre-Covid levels, reaching the highest level in ten years, since late 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.

May 2025

Previous updates. 

February

March 

April

2024

November

December