A review of things you need to know before you go home Tuesday; NZCU Baywide changes rates, housing consents slump, Synlait ups payout forecast, KiwiSaver balances jump, household net worth sags, swaps slip

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
NZCU Baywide have raised fixed rates for all terms of 6 months to two years by between +25 bps and +40 bps.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
NZCU Baywide increased all rates from 6 mths to 2 years, by between +5 bps to +45 bps.

SUPPLY SIGNALS TURN LOWER
The number of building consents slumped in April and the Easter Bunny gets the blame. There was a sharp decline across the country, and at these levels Auckland's housing supply crisis is clearly worsening. Nationally, consents are down +10.8% compared with the same month a year ago. But at least they are not down like they are in Australia, where they fell -25.2% on the same basis.

NON-HOUSING BUILDING CONSENTS FALL TOO
Infometrics reports: "Non-residential building in April pulled back from its massive March result, with the seasonally adjusted value of consents plunging -40% from the previous month. Compared with last year, consents approved in April were down -11% to $411 mln, although some of this drop will have been due to changes in the timing of Easter. April’s result was below the average monthly level of consents over the last year, but the total value of consents over the last three months is still +28% higher than a year earlier."

LOOKING UP
Synlait Milk today said it expects its 2017/18 season milk payout level to be $6.50/kgMS. It has a current forecast for this season of $6.25kg/MS, a level it will finalise in September.

IT'S BIG, BUT ONLY A START
The air might be going out of house prices, but the value of KiwiSaver investments is where the action is now. These were up +20.8% in the year to March 2017, according to RBNZ data released today. The amounts invested overseas is up to 46.8%, no doubt aided by the fall-back in the NZ currency. Over 64% of this nest-egg is invested in equities, indicating KiwiSavers generally are happy to take on some investment risk to participate in higher longer term returns. About 26% is invested in fixed-income debt securities, and less than 9% is held in cash. The total value now invested in KiwiSaver is almost $41 bln. However, that represents only three years of National Super payouts provided in the 2017/18 budget which shows an annual cost of $13.7 bln and rising +4.8% in the past year.

HOUSEHOLDS SEE LIABILITIES GROW FASTER THAN ASSETS
There was an update of the Kiwi household balance sheet today. That shows that household financial assets are now up to $806.4 bln as at March 2017, a rise of +2.7% in the year. (Financial assets do not include housing values.) Financial liabilities however do include mortgages, and these are now up to $197.9 bln, a +7.7% annual rise. The net financial equity of all our households is $608.5 bln, a mere +1.1% rise in a year. (The RBNZ reports the 'value' of housing separately. And investment in residential property rentals are not part of this analysis as they are considered business investments.)

ANOTHER CORPORATE DEBT ISSUE
Summerset Group Holdings has announced an offer of up to $75 mln, with the ability to accept up to $25 mln in oversubscriptions, of six year, fixed rate bonds maturing on 11 July 2023 to New Zealand institutional and retail investors. The bonds will be unsubordinated obligations of Summerset, and will have the benefit of a guarantee and security package provided by the Summerset group.

WHOLESALE RATES LOWER
Local swaps rates have fallen today giving up all of yesterday's rises. The two year is down -1 bp, the five year is down -2 bps, and the ten year is down -3 bps. The 90 day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.97%.

NZ DOLLAR FIRM
The NZD stays firm at 70.5 USc. On the crosses we are at 94.9 AUc, and at 63.3 euro cents. The TWI-5 is still at 75.

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