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Summarised by Centrist
New Zealand and Canada may be on opposite sides of the world, but their housing markets face strikingly similar pressures, according to Canadian real estate writer Susan Doran.
Both countries have seen high investment, foreign ownership concerns, supply shortages and rising prices push home ownership further out of reach.
Doran writes that New Zealand’s former “soft-touch real estate sector” helped drive “high investment, increased foreign ownership, supply challenges and soaring costs”.
She says home prices in New Zealand are now “often more than nine times the average household income”, a pattern familiar to Canadian readers.
“We’re all too familiar with this scenario in Canada, of course,” Doran writes. “Both nations’ real estate markets currently rank among the least affordable worldwide.”
In response, both countries have moved from lighter regulation toward tighter controls. Doran says New Zealand and Canada have “aggressively buckled down”, tightening rules around foreign buyers, investor activity, taxation and anti-money laundering controls.
But she argues stricter regulation has not solved the problem. “Highly regulated markets may still continue to be unruly,” she writes, pointing to price volatility, investment bubbles, low affordable housing supply and gaps in oversight and compliance.
New Zealand’s market is now stabilising after a pandemic-era boom and a correction that began in 2022. Bayleys national residential director Johnny Sinclair says higher inventory levels are “keeping prices steady for now”.
Affordability remains difficult. Sinclair says median prices in Auckland average around NZ$1 million, while Queenstown-Lakes averages NZ$1.5 million. Rents are also “out of reach for many”.
Both countries are dealing with a similar policy challenge: housing markets that remain expensive and unstable despite tighter rules, weaker affordability and ongoing pressure between local buyers, investors and supply limits.
