Some readers see the housing slowdown as their first chance to buy while those already on the ladder could be hit hard by rising interest rates<\/p>\n
In one neighbourhood, the first metric was the letterbox: a thickening sheath of \u201cFor Sale\u201d advertisements clogging up the mail. \u201cAlmost daily junk mail advertising houses for sale,\u201d said Greg, who lives in the central North Island city of New Plymouth. Then he noticed things changing on the street. \u201cEvery house on our road that has sold since we moved in three years ago has sold within a week,\u201d he said. \u201cBut now the house down the road has been on the market for about a month with no signs of moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same trickle of symptoms are becoming visible in many cities across New Zealand: for-sale signs staying up as the lawns grow around them, auctions passing by with no bids, listing pages mounting up on real estate websites. For years, the country\u2019s housing market has been on a seemingly-unstoppable upward trajectory, with homes in major centres averaging at over $1m a pop. Now, New Zealand is in the midst of some of the largest drops and slowdowns<\/a> since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Some banks are predicting a 10% fall over the course of 2022.<\/p>\n