🏡 The local stories shaping Christchurch property right now
Last month I sold a property for the first time — one I'd co-owned with my mother. She'd moved into a retirement village, and we needed to sell to fund her care.
I tried to follow the advice I give clients: prep well, invest in the right places, match the method of sale to your buyers. We got 3 offers, all close together, all pretty much where I expected from the start. The lotto moment didn't happen. A clean result on good terms did.
Read the full post here.
Market snapshot – April 2026
Here’s how the numbers landed across the region this month.
Christchurch City
Median sale price: $720K (↑4.1% YoY)
Search activity: 1.26M searches (↑9%)
New listings: 978 (↑15%)
Median days to sell: 43 days on site (↓4%)
Selwyn District
Median sale price: $800K (↑0.3% YoY)
Search activity: 289K searches (↑1%)
New listings: 323 (↑12%)
Median days to sell: 62 days on site (↓13%)
Waimakariri District
Median sale price: $725K (↓1.6% YoY)
Search activity: 248K searches (↓2%)
New listings: 187 (↓15%)
Median days to sell: 54 days on site (↓17%)
Canterbury's House Price Index sits at +3.0% year-on-year — second highest nationally.
Source: REINZ Property Report April 2026 & Trade Me Onehub Statistics
Wolfbrook got their deal. Now comes the hard part.
Wolfbrook Property's purchase of the Pegasus golf course has drawn real pushback, with Sir Richard Hadlee among those fighting to preserve it. It's been called the "deal of the century" for the developer — which tells you plenty about the land value in that part of North Canterbury.
I doubt the council will want to get offside with locals by granting a plan change. There's also speculation it could be pushed through under fast-track legislation. Either way, the outcome is far from settled.
My advice to clients in the area: don't make any hasty decisions while this is still up in the air. If you own in Pegasus and want to talk it through, get in touch.
New Brighton: council puts neglected sites on notice
This is well overdue. New Brighton has seen constant efforts to revitalise the mall, and they've been repeatedly hampered by building owners who simply let their properties deteriorate. The suburb has genuine momentum — the pier, the beachfront, the hot pools — and a handful of slumlords have been holding it back for years.
Accountability tends to accelerate decisions. Some of those sites will come to market. If you're watching New Brighton as a buyer or investor, keep an eye on this.
New Brighton: council puts neglected sites on notice
Dan Pengelly — closing out the 2026 season
If you've never seen an auctioneering competition, they're a bit strange to watch. Every competitor auctions the same fictional property, working through an identical bidding sequence — but the next bid is triggered by specific calls the auctioneer has to make at exactly the right moment: first call, second call, third, a vendor bid, requesting a smaller increment. They have to handle interjections from the crowd, think on their feet, and manage some genuinely tricky numbers (five-eighths of a million, anyone?). Each competitor goes into lockup beforehand so they can't watch anyone else go first. Same script, no advantages.
Since the REINZ finals, Dan also competed at the Australasian Championships in Melbourne — his first time at that level. He didn't make the finals there, but that's the nature of these competitions. The anticipation and emotion of it takes a lot out of you. And I'm not even the one up there!
He wrapped up the 2026 season in the top 4 auctioneers in New Zealand. Four years in. A very admirable effort!
