Does your home earn more than you get at work?

price figures published by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) to compare house price growth with median wages.

Nationally, the average home increased in value by $30,350 in the year to September, hitting a new record of $515,000 and putting New Zealand among the most overpriced housing markets in the developed world.

In comparison, latest figures from Statistics NZ’s Labour Market Statistics (Income) report show the average worker earned $48,048 in the past year — nearly $18,000 more than the typical house.

Regional variations, however, reveal the “halo effect” of Auckland’s rampant property market, with house price inflation in our biggest city fanning out to provincial centres.

While Auckland house prices in September were up 7 per cent yearon-year to $825,000, new Reserve Bank lending restrictions on investors have cooled their exponential rise, bringing average capital gains nearly into line with what most people earned in their jobs.

Waikato homes earned $88 more in a day than the typical worker — the highest premium of any of the nation’s 12 regional council areas.

In the Bay of Plenty, property earnings topped wages by $78 a day. The figure was $76.40 in Nelson/ Tasman/Marlborough/West Coast, $39 in Wellington, $21.40 in Northland, $7.90 in Auckland and $3.10 in Taranaki.

At the other end of the scale, Otago workers earned nearly $171 a day more than their houses.

The wage premium was $127.20 in Southland, $90.10 in Canterbury, $70.20 in Manawatu/Whanganui and $18.40 in Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay.

And despite price growth easing in the Super City, the average Auckland home is still earning $7000 a year more than a graduate teacher and about the same as a police recruit.

The earnings of the typical Waikato home are on par with a headof-department teacher with 10 years’ experience, but $12,000 more than a constable with a decade on the beat, excluding superannuation.

PPTA Auckland western ward executive member Melanie Webber said the city was increasingly losing its best and brightest teachers to other regions because of house price affordability.

Unions were fighting for an “Auckland supplement” to boost the pay of key professionals such as teachers, police and nurses.

“But the problem is well beyond that,” Webber said. “If teachers, police and nurses are suffering, everyone is.”

The loss of Auckland teachers was causing serious supply problems, she said. And as more people were forced to rent, it had huge educational impacts on children whose families moved house more often.

REINZ spokesman Bryan Thomson warned against using median house prices as a gauge for firsthome buyers, who were more likely to seek cheaper, entry-level properties. He admitted raising a deposit and breaking into the Auckland market now was “challenging”, despite record low interest rates cutting the cost of borrowing.

Thomson urged house hunters to know their financial limitations, decide what was critical in a property and be flexible on location.

While house prices had undoubtedly slowed in Auckland on the back of lending restrictions, the peak selling period was approaching.

“Price rises haven’t stopped, they’re just a bit more muted.”