An overview of the Auckland economy for December 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:

• real* Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year ended September 2025 was 0.8% lower than for the year ended September 2024; in the rest of New Zealand, the annual change was 0.3% fall. Both growth rates were: slightly above recent quarters (but still slightly negative); below most of 2021 to 2024; similar to their 2020 (Covid) troughs; below 2010 to 2019;
• real* retail sales for the year ended September 2025 were 0.9% lower than for the year ended September 2024; in the rest of New Zealand, the annual change was a 0.1% fall. Both growth rates continued the improvements of the last several months, in contrast to the falls from 2021 to 2024. They are still slightly negative despite population increases, so not yet returned to the pre-Covid levels of at least 2%;
• median house price for the month of October 2025 was $1,033,000 (in real* dollars: slightly above the last six months; similar to October 2024; 33% below 2021’s all-time peak; 1% below October 2015);
• number of houses sold for the year ended October 2025 was 23,759: similar to recent months; trending up since the May 2023 trough; slightly above 2017-2019; 35% below the July 2021 peak;
• average weekly rent for the month of September 2025 was $667 (in real* dollars: similar to the last three months; 3% below a year ago; the same as ten years ago). For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $561: steadily falling since January 2025 (and highly seasonal); 5% below a year ago; the lowest figure since 2020;
• number of new dwellings consented in the year ended October 2025 was 15,017: rising continuously since April; 8% above a year ago; 32% below the September 2022 peak; 1% below the 2019 pre-Covid peak;
• real* value of new non-residential buildings consented in the year ended October 2025 was $2,455 million: 3% above September; slightly above most of 2025; 10% below a year ago; 29% below the 2022 and 2019 peaks; 8% above the 2020 trough;
• real* value of imports by Auckland seaports for the year ended October 2025 was $31.8 billion: gradually rising 5.4% over the last year, still 6% below April 2023, but 20% higher than the 2020 Covid trough. For the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $31.3 billion: similar to the last year and a half (and to Auckland), 20% above the 2020 trough, and 25% lower than their 2023 post-Covid rebound peak.

*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.

December 2025

Previous updates. 

February

March 

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November