The country's total mortgage lending stock has topped the $350 billion mark for the first time after growing last month by numerically the biggest amount so far this year.
The latest monthly sector lending figures from the Reserve Bank (RBNZ), show that total outstanding mortgages (including both for banks and non-bank lenders) rose by $1.177 billion in June. That's the most since November last year.
The increase in the latest month took New Zealand's mortgage pile to $350.042 billion.
While this latest month's figure would provide some evidence that the trough in terms of market activity has now been passed, the first six months of the year have been very slow.
During the six month period the total mortgage stock outstanding rose by $4.492 billion - which is the smallest numerical rise for the first half of a year since 2012, when the increase during the same period was just $2.66 billion.
The larger rise in the mortgage stock over June saw the annual growth rate for the stock actually stop declining for the first time in about two years (at which point the annual rise was running at 12%). It has now levelled off at 3.1%, which is nevertheless still the slowest rate of growth annually since late 2012.
Looking back again at the first six months of this year and comparing it with the first six months of previous years, the $4.492 billion growth in the mortgage pile compares with $8.504 billion in the first half of 2022 - so a lot lower.
But the comparison with 2021 is just crazy. The first half of 2021 saw the mortgage pile grow by exactly $18 billion, so averaging exactly $3 billion a month as the pandemic housing frenzy remained at full speed. That $18 billion is very much a record in a data series that now stretches 25 years, with the next highest figure being $10.045 billion recorded in the first half of 2007, shortly before the Global Financial Crisis.
The lowest growth in the housing stock witnessed in the past 25 years has been $1.907 billion in 2001 - but it's well worth pointing out that the total mortgage pile was just $67.5 billion then - so the pile's over five times bigger now.
In other highlights in the sector lending figures pointed out by RBNZ for June, business lending stock increased by $497 million (0.4%) in June 2023, but annual growth dipped for the seventh consecutive month, down to 3.0%.
Agriculture lending stock increased sharply by $564 million (0.9%), the largest monthly increase since June 2018. The annual growth rate rose further from 1.6% to 1.9%.
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