Opinion

Housing market screeching to halt

Sunday, February 10th 2008

Two items of data in the past few days show the housing market is slowing quite rapidly.
Today we have the QV data which shows slowing in house price growth continues. What’s attention grabbing is that QV are now saying we could see flat or negative house price inflation in some parts of the country this year.

On Friday Auckland’s biggest real estate firm reported its January figures and they show house sales had crashed 41.5% in the 12 month period.

Meanwhile average prices were down 7.5% on a month-on-month basis, but were still up 8.9% over the year.

Added into this equation is that there is a rising stock of unsold houses. This suggests low migration and high mortgage rates are biting.

We expect the Real Estate Institute will put out its figures this week. We will be watching what spin they include to try and tell everyone the market is still chugging along just fine.

The evidence is firmly mounting showing there is a slowdown well underway.
Heartland Bank - Online 6.69
SBS FirstHome Combo 6.74
Wairarapa Building Society 6.95
Unity 6.99
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 7.04
ICBC 7.05
China Construction Bank 7.09
BNZ - Classic 7.24
ASB Bank 7.24
ANZ Special 7.24
TSB Special 7.24
Unity First Home Buyer special 6.45
Heartland Bank - Online 6.45
China Construction Bank 6.75
TSB Special 6.75
ICBC 6.75
ANZ Special 6.79
ASB Bank 6.79
AIA - Go Home Loans 6.79
Kiwibank Special 6.79
BNZ - Classic 6.79
Unity 6.79
Westpac Special 6.39
China Construction Bank 6.40
ICBC 6.49
SBS Bank Special 6.55
Kiwibank Special 6.55
BNZ - Classic 6.55
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 6.55
ASB Bank 6.55
AIA - Go Home Loans 6.55
TSB Special 6.59
Kainga Ora 6.99
SBS FirstHome Combo 6.19
AIA - Back My Build 6.19
ANZ Blueprint to Build 7.39
Credit Union Auckland 7.70
ICBC 7.85
Heartland Bank - Online 7.99
Pepper Money Essential 8.29
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 8.40
Co-operative Bank - Standard 8.40
First Credit Union Standard 8.50
Kiwibank 8.50

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