By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for November, which revealed that Auckland’s median house price retraced by 2.0% to $851,944 to be up by 11.4% year-on-year, whereas prices outside of Auckland hit a record high, jumping by 4% to $415,000 to be up 10.7% year-on-year: According to the REINZ:
By Leith van Onselen Just in via Fairfax: John Key has resigned as prime minister of New Zealand, in a shock announcement. He made the decision days after celebrating eight years as Prime MInister and a decade as leader of the National Party. Mr Key made the announcement at a press conference on Monday. “I’ve
By Leith van Onselen The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has released its latest financial stability report (FSR) which contains several stark warnings about the build-up of risks in the housing market: Vulnerabilities in the housing market have increased in the past six months. Despite some recent softening, house price growth in Auckland remains
By Leith van Onselen Property investors continue to pull back in New Zealand, with the latest data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) showing that Auckland investors have reduced their share of mortgages to 40% in October – a sharp moderation from the 48% peak share recorded in June 2016: The slowing in
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for October, which revealed that Auckland’s median house price jumped by 5.2% to $868,000 to be up by 16% year-on-year and hitting the highest level on record: Nationally, house prices fell by 1% over October, but were up by 10.9% year-on-year: However, sales
By Leith van Onselen As widely expected, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has cut the official cash rate (OCR) by 0.25% to 1.75%, the first rate cut since August. According to the release accompanying the cut, RBNZ governor, Graeme Wheeler, slated the cause primarily on a weakening global environment, a strong Kiwi dollar,
By Leith van Onselen After launching consultation in August on the second tranche of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations capturing real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, and other non-financial businesses, it appears that New Zealand’s National Government may be getting cold feet. As reported this week on Interest.co.nz (here and here), Justice Minister Amy Adams has delayed
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has this morning released its labour force data for the September quarter, with employment growth strengthening and the unemployment rate falling to 4.9% from 5.0% (revised) in the June quarter. The key changes are outlined in the below table: As shown above, employment rose 1.4% in the September
By Leith van Onselen Last month, New Zealand’s immigration data for September was released, which confirmed that net migration into the country had hit a record high 70,000 people over the year, which has driven the country’s population growth to all-time highs (see below chart). Separate data from Statistics New Zealand also revealed that the
By Leith van Onselen The RBNZ released its monthly credit aggregates data, which showed that household borrowing hit an annual growth rate of 8.8% in September – the highest level since May 2008 just prior to the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC): Most of this growth in debt was driven by mortgages, which
By Leith van Onselen Property investors continue to pull back from Auckland, with the latest data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) showing that Auckland investors cut their share of mortgages to 40% in September – a further moderation from the 48% peak share recorded in June 2016: The slowing in investor mortgage
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released its permanent & long-term migration figures for September 2016, which revealed that net permanent and long-term migration into New Zealand continues to boom, hitting a record high annual net gain of 70,000 migrants: Migrant arrivals numbered 125,600 in the September 2016 year, setting a new annual record.
By Leith van Onselen The Salvation Army has entered the debate over New Zealand’s high immigration program, releasing a report that is critical of the Government’s immigration settings and calling for a “broad public debate” around immigration: Over the past three years, we have seen record net migration that is not just the result of
By Leith van Onselen The debate over New Zealand’s high immigration program continues to bubble with The Greens yesterday calling for New Zealand to adopt a 1% population growth target that smooths-out big swings in immigration. From Interest.co.nz: Co-Leader James Shaw has proposed changing migration settings in a dynamic way to ensure the population grew
By Leith van Onselen The New Zealand Treasury yesterday recorded an increased Budget surplus of $1.8 billion in 2015-16 from $414 million in 2014-15, which the National Government vowed to return as tax cuts or use to pay down debt. From Interest.co.nz: Treasury has unveiled a surplus of NZ$1.8 billion for the just completed financial
By Leith van Onselen The REINZ has released its house price data for September, which revealed that the median house price nationally jumped by 3.3% to $515,000 to be up by 7% year-on-year and hitting the highest level on record: According to the REINZ: …new record median sale prices were seen in Northland ($390,000), Waikato/Bay
By Leith van Onselen I written previously how New Zealand’s record-breaking immigration-fueled population growth has become a hot political issue following recent concerns raised by the New Zealand Treasury, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), former RBNZ special adviser, Mike Reddell, as well as two of the major banks (here and here). Last month, Labour’s
By Leith van Onselen There’s a hot debate going on in New Zealand over whether to implement a Vancouver-style tax on foreign buyers of residential real estate. Auckland’s Mayor, Phil Goff, has called for a 15% tax on foreign owners, but National Prime Minister (and chief bubble manager), John Key, is seeking to shut-down the
By Leith van Onselen Nick Xenophon would be proud. A record number of New Zealanders are raiding their retirement savings to pay a house deposit. From Interest.co.nz: In its 2016 KiwiSaver report the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) notes “huge” growth in the withdrawal of KiwiSaver funds by members striving to buy a house. “Nearly $500
By Leith van Onselen Following in the wake of recent warnings from Westpac and the ANZ Bank, New Zealand’s Chief Executive and Secretary of the Treasury, Gabriel Makhlouf, has highlighted the risks of New Zealand’s record mortgage debt to the financial system. From Interest.co.nz: Speaking to interest.co.nz in a Double Shot Interview, Gabriel Makhlouf said:
By Leith van Onselen The RBNZ released its monthly credit aggregates data, which showed that household borrowing hit an annual growth rate of 8.7% in August – the highest level since May 2008 just prior to the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC): Most of this growth in debt was driven by mortgages, which
By Leith van Onselen The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) today released its annual report, which once again warned of “major imbalances in the housing market” and called for policy assistance to mitigate financial stability risks: …the the country is experiencing major imbalances in the housing market. In the past year house prices have
By Leith van Onselen Yesterday we reported how escalating home prices against sluggish wages growth has driven the deposit gap facing Sydney first home buyers (FHBs) to record highs. The situation is equally bad across the pond, with surging home prices in Auckland driving the deposit gap to nearly 8 years for a typical couple
By Leith van Onselen Property investors continue to pull back from Auckland, with the latest data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) showing that Auckland investors cut their share of mortgages to 41% in August – down from the 48% peak share recorded in June 2016: The slowing in investor mortgage demand follows
By Leith van Onselen Statistics New Zealand has released its permanent & long-term migration figures for August 2016, which revealed that net permanent and long-term migration into New Zealand continues to boom, hitting a record-equalling annual net gain of 69,100 migrants: The larger gain in migrants in the August 2016 year compared with the August 2015 year was driven primarily by more
