What a typical first-home buyer looks like now

A typical New Zealand first-home buyer is now 35.5 years old and buying a standalone house for about $715,000. They are helped by a KiwiSaver withdrawal and maybe borrowing more than 80 percent of the house's purchase price.

Cotality and Westpac have released their latest first-home buyer report, which shows first-time buyers were responsible for 29.5 percent of all property purchases in the third quarter of the year. That is another new record market share.

They paid a median $715,000 for their purchases. In Auckland the median was $868,000, in Wellington $720,000 and in Christchurch, $650,000.

Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said the median price had lifted from $700,000 last year but they were getting more house for their money. "The share of first-home buyer purchases that are standalone dwellings has just continued to rise."

He said there were about 25,000 first-home purchases on a rolling 12-month basis, a level last seen briefly during the post-Covid boom.

First-home buyers were particularly strong in Wellington, where they made 37 percent of the purchases so far in 2026. But they were also at least 30 percent of the Hamilton and Auckland market, as well as Gisborne, Rotorua, Hastings, Palmerston North and Invercargill's.

More than three-quarters of their purchases were standalone houses, and more than half of first-home buyers' loans were taken out with a deposit of less than 20 percent.

The average age of first-home buyers increased a little from 35 late last year to 35.5 but Davidson said that could just reflect that buyers felt they had more time to make a decision about a purchase.

"The average age ticked up a bit in the third quarter, which at face value might not be so encouraging but I think as opposed to the past where it's been linked to lack of housing affordability, I think this little edge up is more about we don't need to rush, we've got time, the market's not running away. We might as well wait a bit and get what we actually want."

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said buyers were helped by the large number of properties available for sale.

"Those looking to get their foot on the property ladder have had plenty of options, As a result first-home buyers have often been able to get into newer and larger standalone homes without having to pay significantly more."

He said mortgage rates being relatively low had also helped.

"For the average first-home buyer, lower mortgage interest rates in recent years shaved around $560 off their monthly mortgage payments compared to 2023 when interest rates were at their peak. And in Auckland, where first homes tend to be more expensive, the saving is around $685 a month."

Davidson said first-home buyers were active across the price spectrum. They accounted for 30 percent of purchases in the middle 40 percent price bracket of transactions so far this year, up from 28 percent in 2025 and 25 percent in 2020, and from only 21 percent in 2015.

He said there were some signs that the number of first-home deals was starting to tail off a bit.

"Up until now their market share has been going up because they've simply been doing more deals. There's just a sense now that the market share is starting to take a bit of a boost because other groups are actually falling even faster. So first-home buyers are maybe just buying a few less properties, but the fall for other groups is even faster, so their market share is still going up. But that's very, very early days, the wider point is they're still very strong, they're still buying high numbers of properties and market share is strong."

Davidson said housing affordability had been a problem for so long that it was important not to get complacent about it. "I have to acknowledge it's not easy. It hasn't just become a free-for-all in terms of buying a first house. But the fact is that more people are being successful at the moment than has been the case for quite some time."

He said that was likely to remain the case for the time being.

"If you look at first-home buyers themselves, some of those supports they've had look likely to be in place. We're not really seeing house prices going anywhere. They don't seem likely to turn around any time soon so there's a chance to save that deposit. There's plenty of low deposit finance available, KiwiSaver funds are building up. There's still a lot of listings, but also just a bit of caution from other buyers.

"Owner occupiers are sort of fairly cautious about the economic cycle and tending to stay where they are. There's still a lot of new builds coming online too, so that's presenting more choice for first home buyers. And investors are fairly cautious as well."

He said it was not always the case that first-home buyers and investors were interested in the same houses.

"I don't think it's direct competition. But the fact is investors are a little bit more cautious right now, there's obviously political considerations, what might happen over the next year or two in terms of taxes. It is simply harder to get investment sums to stack up at the moment with higher costs and flat rents, so there's just a little bit less competition out there. First-home buyers have a fairly open platform at the moment to get the house they want. They don't have to rush. There are good times ahead for first-home buyers, still."

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