More than house prices: Here’s the Wellington region’s strongest property market
September 2, 2026
Source: Deborah Morris. The Post, Monday 31 August 2026.
Lower Hutt has emerged as the strongest property market in the Wellington region, with a new index showing the city is outperforming the capital.
The latest Wellington Property Insights report from Comprendé and The Property Knowledge ranked Lower Hutt ahead of Wellington City, Upper Hutt, Kāpiti Coast and Porirua on a new Property Outlook Index.
The index looked beyond house prices to four measures of market strength: population, property sales, weekly rents and new dwelling consents.
Lower Hutt scored 283, well ahead of Wellington City on 235. Upper Hutt scored 181, Kāpiti Coast 165 and Porirua 90.
The result puts Lower Hutt at the top of a regional property market that has otherwise been characterised by subdued prices and cautious buyers and sellers.
Comprendé founder and chief executive Grant Foggo said the results challenged the perception that Wellington’s property market remained fundamentally weak.
“People understandably look at house prices and assume they tell you whether a property market is strong or weak, but Wellington is showing us that they don’t tell the whole story,” Foggo said.
Lower Hutt had a population of about 114,200 in July and recorded 118 property sales, with weekly rents of $595.
It also had just 24 new dwelling consents during the month.
By comparison, Wellington City had a population of 210,800 and recorded 196 sales, with weekly rents of about $590 and 53 new dwelling consents.
Despite its smaller population and lower sales volume, Lower Hutt’s combination of demand, sales activity, rental income and relatively limited new supply gave it the strongest overall score.
Professor Graham Squires, founder and director of The Property Knowledge, said the index highlighted the difference between price performance and underlying market fundamentals.
“Strong house prices do not automatically mean a market has the strongest outlook, just as falling prices don’t necessarily mean the underlying market is weak,” said Squires.
“What matters is the relationship between demand, the number of properties changing hands, rental income and the amount of new housing being supplied. Lower Hutt currently has a particularly strong balance across those measures, while Wellington City continues to benefit from its scale and depth of market.”
Wellington City, despite having house prices about 30% below their 2021 peak, ranked second on the index. Wellington has held the title of having the biggest overall fall in house prices for months.
Foggo said the capital’s relatively low house prices should not be interpreted as evidence that demand had disappeared.
“Wellington City prices are still around 30% below their 2021 peak, yet people are buying, people still need somewhere to rent, and considerably fewer new homes are coming through the pipeline,” he said.
Porirua provides another example of why price movements alone do not tell the full story.
The city has the highest weekly rent of the five districts, at $640, and earlier this year briefly overtook Wellington City on median house price measures.
However, its smaller population, lower sales activity and relatively higher level of new supply saw it rank last on the Property Outlook Index.
Squires said Lower Hutt currently had a particularly strong balance across the four measures.
“Lower Hutt currently has the strongest overall mix of demand, sales activity, rent and moderate supply,” he said.
The report also points to a significant slowdown in new housing construction across the wider Wellington region.
Official Statistics New Zealand figures showed new dwelling consents across the region fell from 3836 in the year ended March 2022 to 1893 in the year ended March 2025 — a decline of about 51%.
Wellington City has also seen consents fall sharply, from 929 new dwellings in the year ended March 2022 to 442 in the year ended March 2025.
Squires said a reduction in consents now could affect the balance between supply and demand several years from now.
Deborah Morris
Original article here.
