By Leith van Onselen I’ve noted previously how the New Zealand Labour Party’s promise to “build 100,000 affordable homes across the country” is shaping up as an epic failure due to: the government changing the program from “building” to “facilitating” the delivery of 100,000 affordable dwellings, meaning that NZ taxpayers would merely ‘underwrite’ many dwellings that would have been
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s Tax Working Group (TWG) – an 11-member group chaired by former Labour Finance Minister Michael Cullen – has delivered its final report, which recommends creating a local government tax on vacant residential land in a bid to stop land banking. From Interest.co.nz: The Tax Working Group (TWG) is recommending a new tax on vacant
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for January, which revealed a 2.9% seasonally adjusted rise in the national median house price, with prices up just 5.2% year-on-year: Outside of Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices rose by 2.3% in December, with prices up 9.7% year-on-year. Looking at the major cities,
By Leith van Onselen After Statistics New Zealand last month changed the way that it measures net overseas migration (NOM), resulting in large falls in the estimated migrant intake, it has released migration estimates for the 2018 calendar year, which reveals that NOM fell further to 48,278 people, down from a peak of 62,227 in
By Leith van Onselen The property downturn appears to be spreading into New Zealand, with the latest valuation data from Quotable Value revealing that average residential property values in Auckland were almost 1% lower year-on-year in January, whereas the rate of price growth has also declined sharply across the rest of New Zealand: The latest RBNZ Survey
NZ Stats surprised with rising unemployment this morning versus expected flat: Unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent Underutilisation rate rose to 12.1 percent Employment rate fell to 67.8 percent Filled jobs rose 1.3 percent Average ordinary time hourly earnings rose to $31.63 Wage rates increased 1.9 percent annually. The NZD took a pounding dragging the
By Leith van Onselen I’ve noted previously how the New Zealand Labour Party’s promise to “build 100,000 affordable homes across the country” is shaping up as an epic failure due to: the government changing the program from “building” to “facilitating” the delivery of 100,000 affordable dwellings, meaning that NZ taxpayers would merely ‘underwrite’ many dwellings that would have been
By Leith van Onselen “Look mum, I’ve got a new ruler”. Statistics New Zealand has revised the way that it measures net overseas migration (NOM). Instead of using departure cards that people filled out when leaving the country, Statistics New Zealand now uses an “outcomes-based measure”, which it claims is more efficient and accurate. This
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for December, which revealed a 2.9% seasonally adjusted fall in the national median house price, with prices up just 1.7% year-on-year: Outside of Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices fell by 1.1% in December, with prices up 6.5% year-on-year. Looking at the major cities,
By Leith van Onselen Late last year, Interest.co.nz published an alarming report showing how the Auckland region’s undersupply of homes has blown-out by nearly 400% in just four years – from 6944 in 2014 to 34,150 in 2018 – on the back of an insane 134,000 increase in population from net overseas migration: On Friday,
By Leith van Onselen Over the past few years, MB has meticulously catalogued the widespread rorting of Australia’s immigration system that pervades across the entire economy. Well, it appears New Zealand is experiencing the very same systemic rorting, according to a recent detailed report published in Stuff.co.nz: After months of investigating visa frauds at the
By Leith van Onselen Auckland Council’s chief economist, David Norman, has down-played concerns that Auckland’s housing market could follow Sydney’s and Melbourne’s down. From Interest.co.nz: “Suggestions that the Auckland housing market will follow those of the Australian eastern seaboard seem baseless,” he said. “Sydney and Melbourne are in a very different position, having not systematically under-built the
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released national accounts figures for the September quarter of 2018, with Gross domestic product (GDP) rising by just 0.3% over the quarter to be up 3.0% year-on-year. GDP per capita was flat in the September quarter but rose by 1.0% year-on-year. Growth my sector was mixed, with
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for November, which revealed a 1.3% seasonally adjusted increase in the national median house price, with prices up 7.1% year-on-year: Outside of Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices rose by 0.1% in November, with prices up 7.9% year-on-year. Looking at the major cities, Auckland’s
By Leith van Onselen In the lead up to last year’s September General Election, the NZ Labour Party pledged that it would end negative gearing if it is elected. Now, the policy is nearing implementation, with The Treasury and Inland Revenue releasing a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) assessing the policy. The aim of the proposed law
By Leith van Onselen A week ago, Interest.co.nz published an alarming report showing how the Auckland region’s undersupply of homes has blown-out by nearly 400% in just four years – from 6944 in 2014 to 34,150 in 2018 – on the back of an insane 134,000 increase in population from net overseas migration: On Friday,
By Leith van Onselen A few months back, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) released a study showing that its loan-to-value ratio (LVR) caps had fundamentally de-risked the housing market: The report found that prior to the introduction of LVRs in October 2013, the average new mortgage was for 67% of a property’s value.
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand released its permanent & long-term migration figures for October 2018, which revealed that immigration into New Zealand has continued to drift back from record high levels, with 61,751 annual net permanent and long-term arrivals landing in New Zealand in the year to October, down from a peak of
By Leith van Onselen I’ve noted previously how the New Zealand Labour Party’s promise to “build 100,000 affordable homes across the country” is shaping up as an epic failure due to: the government changing the program from “building” to “facilitating” the delivery of 100,000 affordable dwellings, meaning that NZ taxpayers would merely ‘underwrite’ many dwellings that would have been
By Leith van Onselen In the lead-up to last year’s September general election, the New Zealand Labour Party launched a plan to reduce immigration by around a third in a bid to relieve chronic housing and infrastructure pressures (especially around Auckland): …in recent years our population has been growing rapidly as record numbers of migrants
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released its labour force data for the September quarter, with the unemployment rate falling by 0.5% to 3.9%. This is the lowest unemployment rate since the June 2008 quarter when it was 3.8%. Below are the key points from the release: Unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent.
By Leith van Onselen I noted previously how the New Zealand Labour Party’s promise to “build 100,000 affordable homes across the country” was already shaping up as an epic failure due to: the government changing the program from “building” to “facilitating” the delivery of 100,000 affordable dwellings, meaning that NZ taxpayers would merely ‘underwrite’ many dwellings that would have
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s housing market looks set to follow Australia’s into a correction. According to Realestate.co.nz, Auckland’s housing market is now favouring buyers for the first time since 2011, whereas Quotable Values says that average prices are now falling: It’s a buyer’s market in Auckland for the start of summer, with the
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s chronic housing shortage continues to worsen, especially in Auckland, with stronger dwelling consents still failing to keep pace with turbo-charged population growth. There were 12,945 dwelling consents issued across Auckland in the year to September (up 25%): Whereas there were 32,548 consents issued across New Zealand over the year
By Leith van Onselen From Statistics New Zealand comes a new report showing how housing costs for lower income earners has surged at the same time as their income growth has been subdued [my emphasis]: The average annual household income has risen 41 percent since 2008, up more than twice the rate of inflation, Stats
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has continued to collect data on non-resident purchases of New Zealand homes, and the results are interesting: In the September 2018 quarter, 9.8 percent of home transfers in Auckland inner city (Waitemata local board area) were to people who didn’t hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa, down
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand released its permanent & long-term migration figures for September 2018, which revealed that immigration into New Zealand has continued to drift back from record high levels, with 62,733 annual net permanent and long-term arrivals landing in New Zealand in the year to August, down from a peak of
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for September, which revealed a 0.4% seasonally adjusted increase in the national median house price, with prices up 5.4% year-on-year: Outside of Auckland, seasonally adjusted house prices rose by 1.1% in September, with prices up 8.5% year-on-year. Looking at the major cities, Auckland’s
By Leith van Onselen I noted previously how the New Zealand Labour Party’s promise to “build 100,000 affordable homes across the country” was already shaping up as an epic failure due to: the government changing the program from “building” to “facilitating” the delivery of 100,000 affordable dwellings, meaning that NZ taxpayers would merely ‘underwrite’ many dwellings that would have
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand’s chronic housing shortage continues to worsen, especially in Auckland, with record dwelling consents still failing to keep pace with turbo-charged population growth. There were 12,959 dwelling consents issued across Auckland in the year to July (up 26%): Whereas there were 32,759 consents issued across New Zealand over the
