With New Zealand coming off summer holidays and things returning to normal, we are starting to see the market return to normal after its seasonal slumber over the Christmas holidays.
CoreLogic House Price Index shows a 0.5% monthly rise in the average property values to kick off 2024, however this is less than the 0.7% rise in November and 1% in December. Property values are starting to increase nationwide, however slowly.
Earlier in February there was some good news from the Minister of Commerce who announced that the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) will be loosened even more over the next few months. Those in the market for a while will remember how tightly the banks scrutinised spending for potential borrowers, and while this was loosened last year, it’s good to see it’s going to be even easier to secure finance and that there will be a bit more discretion around consumer spending.
From the Reserve Bank's point of view, they are still worried about inflation, and that means it’s not likely the Official Cash Rate (OCR) will be reduced anytime soon. This means shorter term interest rates will likely remain fairly stable for the foreseeable future, and are unlikely to drop any time soon either.
The RBNZ also announced at the end of January that they propose to implement new restrictions on lenders mid-year. This will limit the debt to income (DTI) ratios, which means that no more than 20% of the value of the mortgages that they issue to owner-occupiers can go to borrowers seeking debt with more than 6 times their annual gross income. However with the implementation of DTI’s, they are also easing the loan to value restrictions (LVR’s). This means that only 20% of lending can be issued to borrowers with under a 20% deposit, this is up from 15% of borrowers.
On the bright side, many economists are picking the interest rates as peaked to peaking, which means that we are unlikely to see any major increases in interest rates. This makes it a lot easier for buyers to plan their finances and ability to borrow.
While things are always changing in the market, it’s good to see some stability starting to occur. After hikes in interest rates we are now starting to see some certainty. However with certainty often comes higher interest rates so if you are looking to buy a home we encourage you to get in touch sooner rather than later.
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