An overview of the Auckland economy for November 2023, in charts and graphs and with some commentary.

Highlights include:

• average weekly rent for August 2023 was $661 (1.2% higher in real* dollars than August 2022, but still slightly lower than six years ago);
• real* value of imports by seaports for the year ended September 2023 was $33.2 billion, which was 0.8% higher than the year ended September 2022; for the rest of New Zealand, the figure was $36.5 billion (6.7% lower than a year ago);
• number of houses sold for the year ended September 2023 was 19,044 (20% lower than a year prior, but rising slightly for the fourth consecutive month);
• median house price for the month of September 2023 was $1,015,000, which in real* dollars was: 7% lower than a year prior; 31% below the 2021 peak; the same as seven years ago; similar to the last several months;
• number of dwellings consented in the year ended September 2023 was 17,079 (22% lower than year ended September 2022, continuously falling since September 2022, but still above pre-Covid levels);
• non-residential consent value in the year ended September 2023 was $2,791 million in real* dollars (11% lower than year ended September 2022, and 15% below the November 2022 peak);
• number of people employed in the quarter ended September 2023 was 2.0% higher than in September 2022 quarter, due to both population growth and higher labour force participation rate;
• unemployment rate in Auckland in the quarter ended September 2023 was 4.0%, slightly above the last two years’ record lows, but still lower than nearly all of 2008 to 2020;
• business confidence showed a net 62.5% of businesses in the quarter ended September 2023 expecting a worsening of the general business situation over the next three months – broadly similar to 2022 and 2023 views.

*Note: real dollars are after adjusting for the effects of inflation each quarter.

Measures covered: business and consumer confidence, GDP, imports, retail sales, employment and unemployment, house prices and numbers sold, weekly rents, building consents.

November 2023

Previous 2023 updates. There is no January 2023 update.

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September 

October

Selected 2022 updates

November

December