"While the budget has definitely contributed to lower sales, its impact on prices has not been great, and there is no indication that investors are getting out of the market,"....well there you have it Mr English..from the horse's mouth so to speak...your budget did squat...back you go to the doodleshop and don't come out without some real policies that end the PI rort...off you go boy.

Hmmm I note: "...average price was down 3.6% from May and up 0.25% from June a year ago."

Headline could have been... "12 mths to June 2010 house values remain relatively static even with lower sales numbers"

But no. lets sensationalise to pamper to BH’s personal vendetta against property (& investors).

Wow I didn't realise that landlords had that super-power!!! - i.e the ability to defy laws of supply and demand, thus increasing yeild simply because their costs are rising. Next you're going to tell me they can run their investments at a loss forever without any negative consequences AMAZING!!

"While the budget has definitely contributed to lower sales, its impact on prices has not been great, and there is no indication that investors are getting out of the market," said Barfoot and Thompson Chief Executive Wendy Alexander.

“Factors that confirm this are the average price in June is the same as that for June last year, while the number of new listings, at 1194 for the month, is down 12.8% on those for May and the same as for June last year," Alexander said."

What a load of crock...investoprs over leveraged and speculators have had 2 1/2 yrs to sort themselves out...and the last 12 months was they knew very well something was going to happen in the budget and reacted accordingly...counted to 10 slowly then paniced in an orderly manner.
Of cause th budget had no effect...everything happened before it.
And the numbers over the last 2 1/2 yrs show that show that.
How the hell can these commentators be so damn out of touch??

Notice how price growth and sales numbers have steadily returned to pre boom yrs?

http://www.landlords.co.nz/read-article.php?article_id=3765

The mortgagee sales in Auckland in April may well have been up from March - but taking the first 4 months of 2010 in total and comparing to 2009 the figures in Auckland are down 18% - Northland, BOP, Manawatu, Otago and the Waikato are all up significantly - full details on Zoodle
http://www.zoodle.co.nz/cms/blog/latest-data-for-april-mortgagee-sales-s...

Completely misleading article - of course the # of sales will be down when the # of listings are down. BS journalism

Rents rise
"Barfoot and Thompson said the average weekly rent had increased NZ$5 to NZ$403 in June from May, which it said was the highest weekly average for eight months and up NZ$15 from the same time a year ago. “Rents are edging up at a time of the year when they tend to trend downwards,” said Alexander."

Lets actually look closer at these numbers
NZ$5 to NZ$403 over 1 month thats 1.2%
"heighest in 8 months"

up NZ$15 from the same time a year ago.
thats under 3%
Sure must have renters shaking in there boots and landlords rubbing there hands together reminiscent of Scrooge
Yeah right!
More a case of no news news.
Propaganda BS

An overall summary of this report would conclude that the sales market is quiet but activity is ongoing and the housing market is a safe place to invest money.

Rental income is improving.

No wonder the doom, gloom and despondency merchants are firing up on their posts.

I'm off for some mallowpuffs!

There are only 5 reasons to sell a home and these are: debt, divorce, death, departure or downsizing. With 245 mortgagee sales in April 2010 ( same as April 2009) there is an indication that debt is a major problem for many folk out there and if interst rates go up it can only get worse.

You'd think that B&T would tell the truth about the state of the market. We have been trying to sell a home and income investment property in Albany for 3 months. We have dropped the price from $745,000 to $699,000 and I will let it go for $650,000. Its been a disasterous investment. The yield is negative, its been vacant twice in the past 14 months (for 12 weeks empty we lost nearly $900 per week which had to come from our savings ...now almost depleted )The costs of repairs and maintenance, management fees, insurance, rates are constantly increasing, and now interest rates are set to skyrocket. Frankly residential property is not a good investment, its a dog

Can someone please show me the bit in Barfoot's statement that talks the market up? Oh please show me a tiny morsel of questionable integrity in their statement...I'm all ears!

Kakapo is spot on - the supply / demand balance is highly complex. It is far too implistic to simpley extrlaotae out populaiton growht and compare that to numbers of houses built.

the key, is to be talking about "realisable demand". You've got a whole lot of young people out there who would LIKE to buy a house, but can't for various reasons (student loans, simple lack of affordability of housing, unemployment etc etc). So on PAPER they represent demand but in REALITY they don't.

thats where all these bank economists get it very wrong , they base their assumptions on very crude data and a lack of understanding of the complexities of the social dynamics at play here.

Getting a bit tired reading these comments, same old same old with some angry tone. Chill out guys and go outside to play with your toys. Or better still, go back to work and make this country a tad more productive!

damn, where's that edit function!

105 comments in 2.5 hours. Looks like a lot of fear is creeping and not for those who have shrewdly got out at the top and waiting to pounce with their cash all ready to go. Be very patient though. This is just the start and the news in the last week or so indicates a long way to go down and down and down.

Ex agent and ex holder of excess real estate other than my home because unlike you and others I saw the writing on the wall. Having an education post school certainly helps.As I have said it is my experience that a lot of the PI's I dealt with are not educated and therefore have pretty ordinary jobs and have to have and hold onto property no matter what. They go through life with blinkers on. You cannot miss with property. Property only goes up in value. They need to get their blinkers off. Then they will see the real world and what they are missing out on. A life with no worries and no fear. Remember the 87 crash and the fear then. It is coming now in the world of PI.

B & T r Jokers I have genuine sympathy for your plight. asking Barfoot's to tell the truth about where the market is actually at, is like asking the devil the fastest way to heaven.

To confront it for them would be dissasterous,.. Managers are losing staff and moral is heading south and so for their own purposes the notion of the Market being in, or heading for crisis is not an option.
They will tell you they have been here before and the "good ones" stay in the game for the long term... and there's probably some truth in that,.. however I disagree that they have been "here" before as this hyper-inflated market is not relative on a scale of previous meltdowns.
The vendors have over-committed by eager Bankers only to ready to lend monies almost as risk ventures on property without it seems the knowledge of what is required to support it indefinatley.

I 'll say it again .The notion that something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.... is exactly why the world is where it is today.

Where I live in central Wellington there's currently several apartments for sale scattered around the neighbourhood. Each has had for sale signs in its windows/on side of building wall for 2-3 weeks now. As recently as a couple of months ago they would've been taken down after the first weekend as the buyers rushed in. That's all I need to see that things aren't what they've been.

While we are taking about Real Estate for 3, 4, 5 hours 144 comments goods of 200 Million NZ$ have been imported. HA HA!

WK

Honestly some of you guys need to look carefully at your atitudes towards "people" never mind how in the "wrong" you think they are they still desevre respect..some of you are behaving no better than these guys.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3883612/Passers-by-laughed-at-moto...

Chill

Rents in Auckland increased more then 10% month to month. This is scary, Iam lucky to rent in Wellington.
If rents continue to rise and house prices remain flat, soon everyone will be into property bussines.

Property is probably back where it was or will get back to levels 4/5 years ago. Take a look at the sharemarket, below levels 5 years ago. Heaps of investments gone bad in Finance Companies over last 3/4 years. Make your own choices and stick with them.
As previous poster said, the lack of respect and putting everyone down who has a different opinion/view adds nothing to this site.

by Bernard Hickey | 05 Jul 10, 2:36pm

"I try to control my tendencies towards dictatorship and allow a free-flowing discussion for all.
But I also want to foster a friendly community that allows a robust debate without personal abuse and/or inane comments.
What are your (plural) thoughts?"

My server calls me God by default
God and a dictatorship are very different
We have 2 basic rules..never insult a member...
1/
you can say "thats a stupid idea" and quailfy it, but never "you are stupid"
2/We used to have 2 warnings, but that for children, adults should only need 1 to pull into line...If they dont they are not adults ...gone, no if s no buts

Over 8yrs, 1500 members, 11,000 posts, banned 3 people.
The rules are part of signing up, which this format doesnt require, and suggest a stand warning below each article, above the "comments" heading or part of it.

Terralink says there were 246 registered mortgagee sales in April, which is comparable to 250 for the same month a year ago.
None of these sales are captured by REINZ or QV.
I assume that the reported B&T data include them.
The RE and QV data is highly suspect and therefore unreliable to show anything. Only one or two high priced houses selling can alter the whole RE QV results in a regions / suburb. Whose house recently dropped from $11m to %5.5m or thereabouts? But that $5.5m sale will help show an increase in average / median price. The same distortion can affect B&T results as well.
So it is hard to say what the market is doing based on QV or RE or B&T. The better reports come direct from the participants in the market which as above commentators have stated is highly complex and moves independently in different suburbs and different price stratifications. Some areas especially lower priced investment properties dropped 30% some 18 months ago in some areas. There are however more pressures pushing down now than up.

How many countries are there that has one and not the other?

Chagrin, are you philosopher or economist? Disrobe I say!

Anon @ 4.21pm - I knew someone out there could think their way around the world better than I, hence the 'on the whole' caveat...

Jandel - I presume you are asking me to disrobe metaphorically...? Either way I'll demur for the time being.

I am very disappointed that Bernard Hickey banned one of the bloggers on this site.
I found The man to be very pro property but he seemed to know what he was talking about and his comments were always amusing and worth reading.
I am sure that interest.co will be the worse for his early demise.
Is Interest.co only for people who agree with you.
You may wish to read the other bloggers on your site to see the abuse that is being directed at people who invest in property.
ARE THEY GOING TO BE BANNED AS WELL?
BRING BACK THE MAN.

Brent - the vast majority on this site are doomers, anyone with a contrary positive view is a troll. Most anti property people here want to see some sort of financial armageddon - maybe they have nothing therefore they have nothing to lose. Obviously not working or productive if they are on here all day.

We've had a 20008/2009 recession, we've had a sharemarket crash in 1987, an Asian crisis, World Wars, 9/11, Aids, Bird Flu, Sars etc, etc yet over the long term the fact remains property is a great investment.

The savvy make money in the down times, the doomers do nothing but a few years down the track wish they had. Nothing different this time around.

I suspect that characters like "the Man" are just desperate Real Estate industry-related people who are trying to destroy this website, because the industry really is getting desperate now that the reality of low sales and dropping prices is strengthening.
Sad but pathetic.

Its nothing to do with having different viewpoints. A guy called Murray who posted on here was a moderate property bull, but although I often disagreed with what he said, I respected his view and he was reasonable and fair.

Thats why I think Bernard would be justified in banning certain individuals. If he wants to keep this website alive and strong thats what he must do, because clearly certain individuals have a vendetta.

Yip, Westpac will definitely be conservative with their estimates...what would their mortgage loan book be worth? How many billions??? For them to come out and say 2% for this year and next is a big step, I reckon triple those figures...

Bernard you need to get rid of Rich PI Troll also as he is the same person as The Man. Do not be falled. This commentator is either an agent or a mortgage broker just trying to keep the PI point of view from collapsing in a world which is getting worse for them by the day.

This whole issue of housing on this site has become more of a personal issue between bloggers, involving insults, accusations and bragging.

I notice quite a few regular contributors have gone quiet. Perhaps, like me, they find it a little off-putting.

It used to quite stimulating and fun on this site but not anymore.
The literacy standards and educational levels of some New Zealander's are nothing short of embarrassing. I think the "struggle for existence" has lessened us as human beings

I feel for you Bernard, it can't be easy to deal with but you must find a solution for this descent into cliche and insult or you will lose even more contributors.

Goodbye all

I could not agree with you more Prosperopink. The Man and his mates have ruined the site. They never get off it and all they do is brag and belittle. Then the antis come out to fight back. One would have to agree though it is increasingly becoming a strong buyer's market and will become stronger as the year goes on.

Banning has noting to dip with a persons opinion or what side of the fence they sit on ...or if way the hell of beam... bad grammar or spelling
It has to do with basic Westminster standards of debate... common courtesy and respect.
If one cant accept these basic rules of civilised behavour....P off.

How can the values of NZ housing stay where they are when the economy is in such bad state and we get influential commentators saying the RB should not be putting up interest rates. Logic suggests pricing of houses will have to come back to reflect what the average NZer earns. And that is not much.