First home buyers lifted their share of the house market to a record 27 per cent in the December quarter.
CoreLogic chief economist Kelvin Davidson said first home buyers were the biggest property market success story of 2023, with an overall 25.8 per cent of the housing market last year, which was well up on the 2021 peak of 23 per cent.
It was the first time they had ever out-bought other buyer groups, Davidson said.
“There are a number of reasons for their relative resilience, but key factors include access to KiwiSaver to boost the deposit, a willingness to compromise on location or property type, the ability to tap the low deposit lending speed limits at the banks, and less competition from other buyer groups.”
First home buyers made about 17,000 property purchases last year, compared with 14,500 purchases in 2022.