News

No new moves on housing market: Minister

The Government has disclosed there are no new measures under consideration to cool the housing market.

Tuesday, October 12th 2021

Instead, the Government will rely mainly on policies that are already in place. 

The comments came from the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson. He was answering questions while unveiling the Government financial accounts for the year to June 30 2021.

Those accounts showed a strong rebound from forecasts as recently as those of the Budget in May.

There was a deficit of  $4.6 billion, far better than the $10.6 billion deficit predicted in the Budget.

Net debt was relatively restrained as well, at 30% of GDP, compared with a forecast 34%.

During questioning, Robertson faced stiff challenges about the housing market as well as the Government accounts. 

That market rose 26.3% in a year, according to the most recent figures from QV, and was the least affordable it has even been, according to CoreLogic.

Robertson responded by saying those figures had to be looked at carefully.

He said data from the major banks, the Reserve Bank and Treasury agreed the monthly rate of increase in house prices was beginning to ease off. 

“Everybody is continuing to accept that the impact of both the Government's policies and the Reserve Bank's policies will have that effect.”

The Government earlier this year tried to cool the housing market by removing tax deductability from rental properties except for new builds, and by assisting with the cost of developing infrastructure around housing developments. 

Robertson said the impact of those changes were only now starting to come into effect, and this process would continue.

But he said there had already been a rise in building consents to what he said were record levels.

But these reforms were definitely the end of the matter for now. 

“At this point we are not proposing any major changes in the tax area or anything like that.

“We will continue to monitor the situation …...  but the changes that we made in March are really it for now.”

Comments

No comments yet

Most Read

Unity First Home Buyer special 4.15
SBS FirstHome Combo 4.29
ICBC 4.49
Kainga Ora 4.59
SBS Bank Special 4.69
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 4.74
AIA - Go Home Loans 4.75
Unity Special 4.80
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 4.84
China Construction Bank 4.85
Kiwibank Special 4.95
Kainga Ora 4.95
China Construction Bank 4.95
ICBC 4.99
Unity Special 5.29
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 5.29
SBS Bank Special 5.29
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.39
Kiwibank Special 5.39
ASB Bank 5.45
Westpac Special 5.45
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.45
SBS Bank Special 5.49
BNZ - Std 5.49
Westpac Special 5.49
ASB Bank 5.59
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.59
ICBC 5.65
Kiwibank Special 5.69
Kainga Ora 5.69
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 5.89
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.99
TSB Special 5.99
SBS FirstHome Combo 3.29
AIA - Back My Build 3.34
SBS Construction lending for FHB 3.74
CFML 321 Loans 4.20
Co-operative Bank - Standard 5.34
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.34
ICBC 5.39
Kainga Ora 5.79
Heartland Bank - Online 5.80
SBS Bank 5.84
Pepper Money Prime 5.99

More Stories

Can the NZ economy grow while house prices stagnate?

Thursday, July 09th 2026

Can the NZ economy grow while house prices stagnate?

The question of whether the New Zealand economy can grow much without a recovery in the housing market remains a live issue.

Thursday, February 19th 2026

RBNZ expects slower house price growth in the current recovery

The Reserve Bank thinks house prices will rise at a much slower pace during the current recovery than they have in past cycles.

Wednesday, January 07th 2026

Queenstown not off the radar for first home buyers

First home buyers are not being deterred by Queenstown’s soaring house prices.

Record levels of first home buyers taking out low deposit loans

Tuesday, December 23rd 2025

Record levels of first home buyers taking out low deposit loans

About half of all first home buyer lending has been done at a less than 20% deposit in recent months.