Are you looking into buying property in Auckland? Worried about mortgage rates? Recent news has shown us that RBNZ could potentially relax LVR rules concerning banks such as Westpac.
Loan-to-value restrictions on mortgage lending have probably had a bigger and more profound impact on the market than the Reserve Bank had expected in the first place. Due to this fact, they might be prompted to relax the rules. The RBNZ’s latest estimates put the impact of LVR restrictions as equivalent to a 25-50 basis point increase in the OCR, which is a touch stronger than the Bank’s initial assessment. With these new developments in mortgages, it ultimately makes New Zealand “an exception” to the LVR rule.
Major Banks Following Other Bank’s Rates
On other news concerning Auckland mortgages, ASB is recently following ANZ and Westpac in adopting higher fixed rate mortgage pricing. This seems to be the pattern these days with mortgages that are offered by major bank establishments. Just this morning, another major bank has followed the market signals higher that were originally started by ANZ. ASB has raised their fixed rates to the same levels as ANZ. The increase ranges from +14 bps to +25 bps. The new ASB six month fixed rate is now 5.55%, up 20 bps from 5.35%. Consequently, their one year rate has been raised +16bps to 5.85% from 5.69%.
How Does KiwiBuild Cut Housing Costs?
Phil Twyford argues that Labour’s plan to build 100,000 houses in 10 years could potentially cut building costs by NZ$47,000 per home. This could prove to be the catalyst for a structural shift lower in building costs for future generations. This will simultaneously generate the economies of scale in prefabricated building and bulk buying of materials at a reduced cost of up to 20%. “I think Kiwibuild offers the chance, not just to build the affordable new homes that we need, but to lead structural change within the building industry that will help to permanently lower costs and increase quality,” Twyford said in a speech to the Prefab NZ National Conference in Auckland.
With all of this recent news of mortgages, home owners can make better decisions when managing their housing properties.
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