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A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; many interest rate changes, fewer farm sales but at higher prices, Auckland only unaffordable region for FHBs, swaps slip, NZD slips

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Monday; many interest rate changes, fewer farm sales but at higher prices, Auckland only unaffordable region for FHBs, swaps slip, NZD slips

Here are the key things you need to know before you leave work today.

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
Kiwibank and ASB both raised mortgage rates today. This is the second hike this month for both. ASB also raised its floating rate. SBS Bank also changed rates today, but what made them interesting is that they lowered their one year rate to a market leading 4.19%.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
BNZ cut their 9 month rate to 3.60%. Westpac cust its 5 month rate to 3.50%. ASB raised its 3 and 18 month TD rates, and cut its 9 month rate. UDC raised all its TD rates for terms of 18 months and longer.

LOSS CREEP CONTINUES
Suncorp Group, which owns Vero, has announced it has increased its provisions for the 2010/11 Canterbury earthquakes by NZ$112 mln. As with other insurers, this is largely due to it continuing to receive more over-cap claims from EQC. While the majority of these costs will be absorbed by Suncorp’s reinsurance program, it will still cost the company NZ$18 mln in its HY17 results. 

FEWER SALES, HIGHER PRICES I
Farm prices rose in the December quarter compared to the same period of 2015 although the number of sales was down. The latest Real Estate Institute of NZ figures show that 178 farms were sold in December, down -25% compared to December 2015, while the REINZ's All Farm Price Index, which adjusts for differences in farm size, location and type, was up +4% compared to a year earlier. (We kept a close eye on listings of dairy farms over the past year to see if low prices led to a rise in the number for sale. We saw nothing but normal seasonal change.)

FEWER SALES, HIGHER PRICES II
678 lifestyle properties were sold in December, down almost -10% compared to the same month a year ago, while prices continued to climb. The median price of all lifestyle properties sold in the three months to December was $583,000, which was a record high and up +6% compared to a year earlier.

AUCKLAND THE ONLY UNAFFORDABLE REGION FOR FIRST HOME BUYERS
In December, housing prices headed south in most parts of the country, providing a faint ray of hope for those struggling to get onto the property ladder, even in Auckland. We published our Home Loan Affordability update for December today. It took 20.6% of take-home pay for a first home buyer household to afford the mortgage on a first quartile house. That compared with 20.4% in November and 19.7% in December 2015. In Auckland's North Shore, the equivalent December cost was 50.6% of take-home pay, compared with 51% in November and 45.6% in December 2015.

WELLY ON HOLIDAY
With Wellington closed for is Anniversary Day holiday, news flow from the Capital (including Statistics NZ and the RBNZ) is non-existant.

A RARE BRIGHT SPOT
In Australia, commercial finance commitments rose +7.9% in December compared with the same month a year ago. However this 'bright spot' comes after 10 or the previous 11 months saw declines.

WHOLESALE RATES SLIP
In the lighter trading today, swap rates have slipped -1 bp across all terms from 2 year. The 90 day bank bill up +1 bps to 1.98%.

NZ DOLLAR SLIPS TOO
The Kiwi dollar has also slipped a little against the greenback. The NZD is now at 72 USc. On the cross rates, we are at 95.1 AUc, and at 67 euro cents. The TWI-5 index is at 77.5. Check our real-time charts here.

You can now see an animation of this chart. Click on it, or click here.

Daily exchange rates

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Source: CoinDesk

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7 Comments

Your headline reads "Auckland only place affordable for FHBs". I just about dropped my milo in shock.

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That's a real health and safety issue! Thankfully there are now 36 times more health and safety officers than there are proof readers.

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Fixed now.

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The converse isn't much of an improvement when Demographia ranks the entire country as severely unaffordable.

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Does the crime match the fine?

A $445,000 ratepayer-funded investigation into Hastings District Council's role in the Havelock North gastro outbreak has ended with the issuing of a $1000 fine. Read more

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Lunatic.

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The HBRC has a lot to answer for in wasting that amount of money to attempt to deflect the blame away from them. Way too much odious local politics locally now. I am annoyed with several aspects of the new HBRC, they need to walk the walk instead of talking.

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