ISSUE #5: Housing

AKA: housing affordability, housing supply, housing availability

What this graph shows

• Median house price in New Zealand from REINZ monthly reports.
• Median household incomes as at May of each year, from the HLFS (Household Labour Force Survey). This data starts in 1998, which is why our house prices also start in 1998.
• Combined, you can determine the housing affordability ratio = median house prices / median household income.

Key notes

• Historically, and in many international comparisons, 'affordable housing' was widely considered to be 3x household income (in other words, 3 years of gross income to buy a house outright). New Zealand's housing affordability was:
  • ~3x in the early 1990s (not shown on graph)
  • ~4x in May 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001
  • ~9x at it's peak in November 2021
  • 6.7x when Labour left office in October 2023
  • 5.9x as of both August and September 2026
• Renters - we haven’t forgotten you! As house prices go up in price, so too do rental prices and vice versa.
• External factors can also influence these results, and context is important, but governments are ultimately accountable for New Zealand's performance.
• Remember that each Labour-led or National-led government has had coalition or support partners that share in their successes and failures. A full list of governments for this time range is at the bottom of this page.
• You can toggle the household income line on and off by clicking on 'Median Household Income' in the legend underneath the graphic.

Why this KPI?

• When people talk about the housing issue, they are usually talking about the supply/availability of housing, the price of that housing, or both.
  • Generally, as supply decreases relative to demand, prices increase, and as supply increases, prices come down, stay stable, or increase at a slower rate more closely aligned with inflation.
  • The reverse also generally holds true. When house prices decrease, the supply of new housing decreases as developers/investors can’t make satisfactory returns as easily, and when prices increase, the supply of new houses increases.
• For those who aspire to own their own home, the price of housing relative to their income is the key metric. Since expensive homes can drag the average up, the more common metric used is the median (middle) house price. And because most houses are purchased by couples, we compare those prices against the median household income rather than individual incomes.
• For those who already own their own home with a sizeable mortgage, they are most likely to be concerned about interest rates which we have not shown here, yet. With more support, we plan to add additional KPIs per issue.
• For those who own their own home freehold, or are close to it, their housing concern, if any, is most likely to be either a) how to buy another property or b) their family, friends, and fellow Kiwis’ ability to achieve home ownership too. As such, the median house price to median household income comparison is likely of most interest to them as well.
• You can divide the median house price by median household income to achieve a housing affordability ratio. Given the median household income is only measured once/year for the April-June quarter, May midpoint months will produce the most accurate housing affordability measures. However, you can extrapolate out the trendline to determine approximate affordability ratios for other months.

Data sources

• Median house price = https://www.reinz.co.nz/Web/Web/Data-and-Products/Property-reports.aspx [You will need to manually go through them one by one, or ask for the data set]
• Median household income = https://explore.data.stats.govt.nz/vis?tm=INC_INC_011&pg=0&hc[dataflowId]=INC_INC_011&snb=1&df[ds]=ds-nsiws-disseminate&df[id]=INC_INC_011&df[ag]=STATSNZ&df[vs]=1.0&dq=202606%2B202506%2B199806%2B199906%2B200006%2B200106%2B200206%2B200306%2B200406%2B200506%2B200606%2B200706%2B200806%2B200906%2B201006%2B201106%2B201206%2B201306%2B201406%2B201506%2B201606%2B201706%2B201806%2B201906%2B202006%2B202106%2B202206%2B202306%2B202406.98.98.&ly[rw]=PERIOD_INC_INC_011&ly[cl]=MEASURE_INC_INC_011&to[TIME]=false

Data timing

• Frequency:
  • House prices = monthly
  • Household income = annually for the June quarter (May midpoint)
• Update delay:
  • House prices = ~2 week delay
  • Household incomes = ~5 week delay
• Last update:
  • House prices September = 14 October 2026
  • Household incomes Q2 2026 = August 2026
• Next update:
  • House prices October = mid-November 2026
  • Household incomes Q2 2027 = August 2027

Related facts

Some of these articles contain historical data and analysis that may not have been updated since publication. Please check the dates when interpreting the findings.

• Public housing applications
• Emergency housing grants

Wishlist

With support, we’ll be able to add multiple KPIs for each issue:

• Updates on many of the KPIs listed above.
• Housing affordability ratio (just another way of showing the data we have)
• Mortgage interest rates as a % of income (interest vs principal), or median mortgage interest rates
• Rent as a % of income
• Home ownership rates
• New first homeowners per capita
• Median deposit required
• % of mortgage applications approved (if we can get that data from banks)
• Building consents issued (can be misleading if the house is not finished)

Governments over the timeframe shown

• 1996 = National/NZ First*
  
  
• 1999 = Labour/Alliance + Green
  2002 = Labour/Progressive + United
  2005 = Labour/Progressive + United, NZ First
  
  
• 2008 = National + ACT, United, Māori
  2011 = National + ACT, United, Māori
  2014 = National + ACT, United, Māori
  
  
• 2017 = Labour/NZ First + Green
  2020 = Labour + Green

• 2023 = National/ACT/NZ First

* National remained in government from 1993–1999 despite MP defections and changing governing arrangements. Its coalition with NZ First, formed after the first MMP election in 1996, collapsed in August 1998.
/ = Coalition partners
+ = Other formal governing agreements, including confidence and supply, support and cooperation.

Sources:1,2 (table 5).

© Copyright

© REINZ
Republished with permission

Data published by Stats NZ
© Crown Copyright
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

Analysis and graphics © KPI.nz 2026. Please share widely! You're welcome to reproduce our work with attribution and a link to the original post.

Corrections & suggestions

If you spot a typo, mistake, or improvement opportunity for this page, please .