New Zealand households got slightly poorer on paper in the three months to June, as a $26 billion fall in land values outweighed gains in KiwiSaver balances, bank deposits and the value of the homes sitting on that land.
Household net worth fell $8.4 billion, or 0.3 per cent, in the June 2026 quarter, according to experimental national accounts figures released by Stats NZ on Thursday. The detailed tables put the total at $2.593 trillion at the end of June, down from $2.602 trillion at the end of March.
The drag came almost entirely from the ground under New Zealand’s houses. Land held by households fell 3.8 per cent, or $26.2 billion, in a single quarter. Buildings rose 1.8 per cent ($9.6 billion), which Stats NZ’s balance sheet treats separately from land, so part of the land loss was clawed back by the rising cost of the structures themselves.
That split fits with other recent data showing building costs rising at their fastest pace since 2022 even as house values keep falling. A house is worth less on the market, but it would cost more to rebuild.
Financial wealth went the other way. Insurance, pension and standardised guarantee schemes, the category that holds KiwiSaver and other superannuation savings, jumped 8.6 per cent ($15.9 billion). Currency and bank deposits rose 1.8 per cent ($5.0 billion). Shares and investment fund holdings slipped 0.8 per cent ($9.5 billion).
Debt kept growing. Household loans rose 1.1 per cent ($3.5 billion) to $328.6 billion, so households owe more against assets that, for now, are not rising in value.
Explore the data. See how house prices and the years of household income it takes to buy have moved across 18 New Zealand cities since 2001 in our interactive house price tool.
Over a full year the picture is a little brighter. Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod noted in his first take on the release that household wealth was still 1.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, with financial assets up 4.6 per cent. Housing and land assets, however, were down 0.9 per cent on a year ago and, by Westpac’s reading, have essentially gone nowhere since late 2023.
Incomes did better than wealth. Seasonally adjusted household net disposable income rose 0.7 per cent ($436 million) in the quarter. Wages and salaries were up 1.0 per cent ($515 million), welfare benefits paid in cash rose 1.2 per cent ($145 million), and income from self-employed businesses, which includes farms and rental property, rose 1.9 per cent ($245 million). Dividends received by households leapt 43.3 per cent ($646 million).
The tax take rose faster still. Income tax paid by households climbed 5.9 per cent, or $942 million, more than double the rise in disposable income.
Over the year to June, Westpac calculates disposable income grew 5.2 per cent, down from 6.5 per cent in the year to March. Self-employed earnings were up 12 per cent, which Ranchhod linked partly to stronger farm incomes, while wage and salary earnings rose 2.7 per cent.
Spending kept pace with income. Household consumption rose 0.9 per cent ($553 million), and household saving dipped $117 million to $2.5 billion for the quarter. Westpac put the household saving rate at 3.7 per cent of disposable income, slightly lower than in March.
One small number may matter more than the rest. Westpac said household interest spending rose 0.3 per cent in the June quarter, the first increase in two years. The relief from falling mortgage rates that households enjoyed over the past two years has run its course.
“Recent months have seen mortgage rates pushing higher as the RBNZ has begun to hike the Official Cash Rate,” Ranchhod wrote in Westpac’s note. Westpac expects soft housing market conditions over the coming year, with further rate rises still to come.
Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan told RNZ the recovery was real but modest. “Things are heading in the right direction but not enough to feel like we’ve really crawled out of the hole,” he said.
How much a falling land value actually hurts depends on who owns it. With roughly two million households, RNZ worked out the average at about $1.3 million each, a figure that hides a very wide spread. Economists it spoke to said recent buyers carrying large mortgages feel a falling market most, while older owners without debt barely notice, and renters and first-home buyers may come out ahead.
Otago University economist Murat Ungor pointed to a 2018 New Zealand study estimating that each extra dollar of housing wealth lifts spending by about 2.2 cents, a modest effect. “I would say the sense of being worse off is driven more by what is happening to prices and incomes than by house values,” he told RNZ.
The Government’s own balance sheet moved the other way in the quarter. Central government net worth rose 5.1 per cent ($14.4 billion), helped by a $6.6 billion fall in its financial liabilities, and the central government deficit on Stats NZ’s saving measure narrowed from $2.6 billion to $778 million. The net worth of banks, insurers and other financial businesses fell 10.5 per cent ($1.9 billion).
Stats NZ stresses that these quarterly sector accounts are experimental and provisional, and the balance sheet values are not seasonally adjusted, so the figures may be revised. The quarterly series only began with the March 2021 quarter. The next update, covering the September 2026 quarter, is due on 15 January 2027.
The release lands a month out from the 7 November election, with all the main parties pitching plans on the cost of living, housing and tax. For most households the June quarter numbers tell a familiar story. Pay packets are rising, KiwiSaver balances are growing, the bank is taking a little more in interest and the house is not doing the heavy lifting it once did.
Do you feel better or worse off than a year ago, and is your house still part of your plan for retirement? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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