What's happening with Waikato house prices?

Council area of Waikato

Explore Waikato's property market for the latest trends, house prices, market cycles, rental yields, and top investment suburbs

Author: Ed McKnight

Our Resident Economist, with a GradDipEcon and over five years at Opes Partners, is a trusted contributor to NZ Property Investor, Informed Investor, Stuff, Business Desk, and OneRoof.

Reviewed by: Laine Moger

Journalist and Property Educator with six years of experience, holds a Bachelor of Communication (Honours) from Massey University.

Last Updated: 11 Oct 2024

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What's happening to Waikato house prices?

The average price of a Waikato property is $744,189 (CoreLogic, June 2024).

Waikato house prices are down 0.51% over the last three months (REINZ). And they are 0.08% down over the last 12 months.

Quick Facts

The average price of a Waikato property is $744,189 (CoreLogic, August 2024)
Over the last 3 months property prices in Waikato have gone down 0.51%
Waikato property prices increased 7.51% per year (on average) in the 20 years between August 2004 - August 2024 (REINZ)
The average rent in Waikato is $600 per week (Tenancy Services, April 2024)

How are Waikato property prices changing?

Waikato house prices soared after the Covid-19 pandemic began. House prices started out 36% below the eventual peak of the market.

However, after that peak in November 2021, house prices fell 19.30% before bottoming out in July 2024.

Today, Waikato house prices are down 16.87% compared to their peak. That means prices have risen 3.01% since the bottom of the market.

Where is Waikato in its property cycle?

At the absolute bottom of its property cycle, Waikato was 21.67% undervalued.

Today, property prices in Waikato are overvalued 18.46%.

That suggests there is a selling opportunity in Waikato.

Waikato suburb prices

I track the value of 13 suburbs in Waikato. The most expensive suburb is Buckland, which has an average house value of $1,070,000. While the most affordable suburb is Huntly, which has an average house value of $521,300.

I track the value of just 1 suburb in Waikato. It's called Huntly and you can see how the average property value is changing in the graph below.

Over the last 24 months of all Waikato suburbs (June 2022 - June 2024, Tamahere had the slowest-falling house prices. They have gone down -2.39% over that period.

The suburb that fell the fastest over that period was Te Kauwhata. Property values in this suburb fell by 11.80% over those 2 years.

What is the Waikato rental market like?

Here's how rents are changing in Waikato. Over the last four years (April 2020 - April 2024) the median rent has gone up $185 a week. That's 9.65% a year (on average).

Over the last 12 months, rents have gone up. They are up 7.14% ($40 a week) year on year.

Are properties selling above or below CV in Waikato?

One of the most common questions I get asked is: “Ed, are properties selling above or below their Capital Value (CV)?”

Some call it the RV (Rateable Value) or GV (Government Value).

Why do people care? Well, if you go on TradeMe (or another website), you’ll almost always see the council’s valuation for the property. So even if the seller hasn't advertised a price, you can get a feel for what the property might sell for.

This table shows whether the average property is selling above or below CV across Waikato.

Other property markets to look into

If you found this article useful, then you might also like our analyses on the other property markets in New Zealand. You can read all about the Waikato property market here.