Canterbury Property Market - August 2026 Update
Winter might have Canterbury's property market moving at a slightly slower pace, but there's still plenty happening across the region, with open home attendance and auction clearance rates remaining steady. Here's what the numbers are telling us about where things stand across Christchurch and Canterbury right now.
Who’s in the market right now?
Across the month, all buyer groups were active in the Christchurch and Canterbury regions, with first-home buyers and owner-occupiers remaining the most active.
Both vendors and buyers were mostly on the same page when it came to price expectations, but like we’ve seen in the past - some vendors continue to hold out for higher prices, sometimes to their own detriment.
Both open homes and auctions remained steady throughout the month, despite it being the middle of winter. Auctions saw generous clearance rates and active bidding which is great to see and shows there is plenty of buyer interest out there.
Canterbury sales statistics
The median house price in the Canterbury region sat at $685,000 for July. This is down from $710,000 in June and up from $677,000 in July 2025. Overall the percentage increase in the past year for the region was 1.2%.
In Christchurch City the median house price was $669,000 for July. Again this is down on June’s median price of $725,000 and on par with $668,000 for this time last year.
Below are the median sales prices for each region and how they compared to July 2025. This data can move dramatically as many of these regions only have a handful of sales so extremely high or low sales can skew the data somewhat.
Ashburton District – median house price sits at $545,000, up 5.8% on this time last year.
Hurunui District – median house price sits at $685,000, on par with this time last year.
Kaikōura District – there is no data for this month.
Mackenzie District – median house price sits at $582,609, down 5.4% on this time last year.
Selwyn District – median house price sits at $812,000, up 2% on this time last year.
Timaru District – median house price sits at $482,000, down 2.6% on this time last year.
Waimakariri District – median house price sits at $740,000, up 5.3% on this time last year.
Waimate District – median house price sits at $355,000, down 14.5% on this time last year
Regional sales info
Across the Canterbury region, there were 1,085 properties sold during July. This is just slightly less than the month before (with 1,133 properties sold) and 10% less than this time last year (when 1,208 properties were sold)
In Christchurch City, there were 651 sales for the month of July. This is less than June, with 713 sales and, keeping up with the regional trend, also less than this time last year (with 745 sales).
The average Canterbury property took 42 days to sell - just 1 day more than this time last year. This data combined with the number of sales, shows that there are likely just less properties on the market right now. This is likely partially due to the cooler months, with many often waiting until Spring to list their homes. External factors like the upcoming general election and impacts from overseas conflicts might also be playing a part.
Overall
The local market remains steady, with little movement in either direction. This is very common due to winter and price-wise, very much on par with how things were looking this time last year.
As Spring arrives, it’s expected more properties will hit the market (as past seasonal trends show), which will in turn make for more sales and more activity. Whether prices move is yet to be seen, but at this stage we can’t see any big jumps happening any time soon.
If you are looking to buy, now is as good a time as any, with most vendors happy to negotiate and interest rates and inflation showing signs of stabilising. If you’d like assistance around buying a home in Christchurch or the Canterbury region, reach out and our team of local mortgage advisers can take you through the process from start to finish.
Book your free appointment online today with your local Loan Market Agile adviser.