In a surprising move the Reserve Bank kept New Zealand official cash rate at 1% this week – many had expected the rate to be reduced to 0.75%. The RBNZ’s Monetary Policy Committee says employment remains around its maximum sustainable level while inflation remains below the 2 percent target mid-point. However, it conceded that economic growth continued to slow in mid-2019 reflecting weak business investment and soft household spending. The Reserve Bank expects economic...

First-time home buyers struggling to save a 20% deposit to put down on a home were thrown a lifeline this week with the launch of a website called Levridge. The Auckland-based company acts as a gateway for investors and home-buyers to help each other. In essence, the investor pays the 20% deposit and the home buyer pays the mortgage and everything else. They jointly own the property under a co-ownership agreement. When the property is sold the owner and investor share any...

If you have ever felt as if you have lost out financially due to the poor conduct of a real estate agent then you might be interested in a change to the real estate agents act this week. Buyers and sellers can now apply for compensation of up to $100,000 if the conduct of a real estate agent has been found to be unsatisfactory by The Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal. The Real Estate Authority’s (REA) chief executive, Kevin Lampen-Smith says the introduction of...

The amount of real estate sales are stable and with average values going up. Kelvin Davidson, CoreLogic Senior Property Economist steady positive rises should continue but cautions there are some important milestones to watch out for in the final few months of the year. These include another potential cut to the official cash rate (OCR), a possible loosening of the loan to value ratio (LVR) speed limits, and the final decision on bank capital requirements. He says that in...

Auckland landlord Lachlan Chung has been fined more than $5000 after renting out a damp and mouldy flat to a mother and 16-month old baby. When the mum moved in she became unwell and had an air test carried out at the Mt Eden property. Biodet Services found the property had dangerous levels of penicillium and aspergillus mould according to a Tenancy Tribunal hearing. The mother and child moved out of the property for the sake of their health; breaking a lease agreement. A...

Shelley Bay – Wellington Anyone living in Wellington will know of the controversy around the proposed Shelly Bay housing and retail development. Developer Cassels has had a survey carried out in the Capital and says 57% of those questioned support the development. 24% said they were against it. Wellington City Council gave the Shelley Beach plan the go-ahead two years ago but the project has been delayed. The housing plan includes 250 homes with a starting price...

The Property Report for Week ending Sunday 6 OCTOBER 2019 Property data firm CoreLogic is helping home buyers find property in suburbs that fit their budget with its Mapping The Market online tool. Visitors to the CoreLogic website can click on coloured areas on a map of New Zealand to see the median values of homes in any suburb. The firm says that drawing on millions of data-points users can get an instant snapshot of the market and find locations with homes that fit...

The RBNZ left the official cash rate at 1% when it announced its review of the OCR on Wednesday. But there’s still plenty of talk of it reduced in the months ahead. Prepare for the OCR to be a quarter of one percent by May 2020. Landlord fined almost $25,000 Auckland landlord Rinal Kumar, also known as Danny, has been ordered to pay $24,754.08 by the Tenancy Tribunal for failing to lodge tenancy bonds as a result of 33 applications brought by the government’s Tenancy...

Housing NZ is no more; it will be dissolved and replaced with a new government housing agency. The change brings together all the Government’s major housing entities – Housing New Zealand (HNZ), its development subsidiary HLC, and the KiwiBuild Unit – into one department. Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford; he of the failed KiwiBuild programme – says the new unit will be a “world-class public housing landlord”. Low number of new listings impacts sales volumes in...

OCR cut doesn’t cause a ripple, pressure on government to build more homes and household insurance is rising. Watch out Wellington.