Ray White Now

For the better part of two years, New Zealand’s residential property market has existed in a strange kind of limbo – never weak enough to unravel, nor confident enough to boom.

Every few months, the market appears ready to break decisively in one direction, says Daniel Coulson, Ray White New Zealand’s Chief Executive.

Interest rates stabilise, inflation softens, confidence briefly returns, and transaction activity begins to rebuild – before another external shock interrupts the narrative. Oil prices surge, conflict escalates, and central bank expectations shift again. The recovery is pushed out again.

What has emerged instead is not a dramatic downturn, but a market learning to operate without certainty.