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Editors choice comments

Two implications to possibly note here.
There was still a net gain of 2765 people in June; so still some positive pressure from immigration on the (largely Auckland?) housing market.
Increasing numbers migrating to Australia; an increasing number of Kiiws expressing a view on the future of the New Zealand economy?

by: printer8

on Lowest migration gain for month of June since 2014 as population loss to Australia starts to trickle up
Whilst rental yields may be slowing rising they are well short of interesting landlords to invest.
For the majority of regions the net yields is well south of 5%. Take off expenses including insurance, rates, maintenance and periods of non-occupancy and this is, as retired poppy points out, is at best compatible but likely less compared to term deposits which are without the time and effort, and any risks associated with either poor tenants or loss of capital with any further cooling of the property market.
This is reality and I am not expecting any sympathy. Yes, rental property owners...

by: printer8

on Residential rental yields appear to have bottomed out and are starting to rise as capital gains dry up and rents rise
Page two goes on to reveal that the Pope is Catholic and where bears perform their ablutions.

by: GenerationXY

on ANZ economists suggest that our expensive housing is affecting the economy's productive potential
It's nothing to do with the new government and the terms Col, Taxinda etc are all baloney from individuals who have no idea about the realities of credit cycles. John Key bailed when he did because he knew (Like Tony Blair in 2006/07) that the debt binge in NZ was going to create a major hangover. He didn't want to get that legacy pinned on him, so he cleverly walked to the exit and handed the keys to the thrown room to poor unsuspecting Bill (who hadn't been a banker himself), and didn't really understand what had been creating the good times (It was just very loose lending Bill,...

by: Nic Johnson

on Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation came in at 1.5% in the year to June 2018, up 0.4% on the quarter before led by higher housing costs and fuel prices
The issue is not that "all fossil fuels are bad" or that "environmental radicals" are all crazy and should be ignored. The issue is that we have a learned dependence on digging stuff up and burning it - we can't comprehend how energy can be more efficiently extracted or used from the sun, wind, tides and even geothermal energy. This is compounded by companies and communities that grow to service these extraction industries - northern Queensland, Canterbury dairy farmers etc.
Take the issue of Peak Oil. This was never about running out of the black stuff, rather it was about the most...

by: Larry76

on Guy Trafford finds polarised views flowing from what some urban consumers say (loudly), and how they live their lives with the market signals they send to producers
Reading this article and looking at the income thresholds just highlights how out of control the housing market has become over the last thirty years or so.

by: MikeM

on KiwiBuild home buyers who meet the eligibility criteria will go into a ballot to be able to buy a home
The banks seem to have a lot to say for themselves at present. I wonder at what point next year they'll take some responsibility and say 'Sorry we overcooked the pudding.'

by: Nic Johnson

on Economists say another batch of low business confidence figures are a concern for future economic growth and it’s time for the RBNZ to pay attention
I wonder who we will see the first 3.99% 1yr rate from (excluding HSBC)

by: An_Observation

on Kiwibank is the third bank to adopt 4.19% as its one year fixed home loan rate as the reductions keep coming at the popular end of the fixed term options
It is triply ironic that a Japanese professor should trumpet the 'benefits' of immigration: the trifecta is
Japan has one of the least diverse, most restrictive immigration policies in the developed world. This is not gonna change anytime soon
Japan is an island. This is similar to NZ's situation, in that both nations have zero experience living just across an porous border, with neighbours who are vastly different culturally, who can easily outnumber you if given half a chance, and who have designs upon your welfare and support systems. It's easy to mouth "open borders", "diversity",...

by: waymad

on Koichi Hamada defends economic openness, while calling for concerted action to address what is fueling opposition to it
Interesting to hear today that Sir Peter Gluckman raised with officials the flawed science driving meth testing, long before his report. Yet no-one was interested at the time. Officials pushed 'standards' instead, actively disregarding evidence and many calls by scientists for evidence-based policies.
Likewise, the regulations requiring resident directors a few years back. Clearly absent the most basic critical thinking, self-evidently flawed and disregarding publicly available and well-documented evidence available and presented at the time. The AML extension likewise, which actively...

by: Ron Pol

on Anti-money laundering expert Ron Pol labels government's reasons for excluding trusts from its beneficial ownership regime 'remarkable for having been expressed out loud'
Ollie, I currently get 4.27% on a 5 yr TD paid monthly. To some it feels like the end of the times knowing TD yields exceed that of rentals!

by: Retired-Poppy

on Prices were firm with net rental yields ranging from 3.19% to 5.39% at Bayleys' latest commercial property auction
I personally know of two FHBs in Auckland, they are borrowing in the region of 800-900K for their home. It's just incredible how they can afford the repayments

by: Chairman Moa

on Total monthly mortgage borrowing figures hit their highest level in nearly two years last month, while first-home-buyer borrowing topped the $1 billion mark for the first time
There is way too much positivity and optimism in this article.
The usual doom and gloom merchants should be along shortly to shout it down, squawk it can't be done and parrot their special phrases.

by: Brock Landers

on KiwiBuild could provide a launch pad for some major new competitors in the building industry and that could force costs down
Yes Winston and so
Have you broken the duopoly that keeps building material prices so high?
Have you opened up cheap land to reduce housing prices?
Have you made building and consenting builds easier?
Have you inspired businesses to invest in technology and other means of increasing productivity?
Have you got those unemployed you were so keen about to start work - planting trees maybe ?
Have you focused on increasing productivity not simply pandering to the Unions on just wages?
Have you made changes to the taxation structure to encourage businesses to more R and D ?
Or have you been on...

by: kpnuts

on Acting PM Winston Peters says enabling young couples to buy houses for the equivalent of 5x their income is the Govt’s long-term objective, but it won’t happen during its first term
Does anybody else read THE MAN 2's posts in the trombone voice of the teacher from Peanuts?

by: Nzdan

on At Barfoot & Thompson's larger auctions the sales rates ranged from 22% to 57%
It really highlights the shortsightedness of governments and the necessity of bipartisan approaches to rectify these type of issue.
Referendums will always get voted down by those that are retired or closing in on retirement so changes to legislate either higher retirement ages or more contributions and lower payment expectations is the only thing that can be done and if a government is always worried that making these changes will lose them power, the bipartisan approach is the only way ...... but Im not very hopeful.

by: theglc

on John Mauldin continues his 'Train Crash' series, this week zoning in on the 'rainbows and unicorns' pension promises in Europe
'97% of customers WILL receive reductions'. Harding stated this clearly and repeatedly. Should he have qualified that by adding ' to the disaster component of their premiums ?' ..........in my view, absolutely.
He would have been well aware of what 99% of the population would have taken from his statements - that their overall premium would be reducing or not increasing.
I don't buy that he was just sloppy as there would have been extensive discussion within Tower about the corporate affairs strategy to pitch the message. Communication on issues such as this is carefully thought out and...

by: middleman

on Public wrongly lead to believe that 97% of Tower's customers will receive home insurance premium decreases due to new quake risk-based pricing changes, Jenée Tibshraeny says
Spot On. Having imported housing from a large overseas prefab factory that ships houses all around the world, what was immediately apparent was the difference in how different countries have their act together, or not, when it comes to making it easy to import.
For example, the Japanese thought that they might have a future disaster big enough that it might compromise their local ability to supply resources to rebuild - so they sought out countries that could supply the quality and quality needed and pre approved their entry.
What this meant is that within 4 months of the Japanese tsunami...

by: Dale Smith

on Twyford to launch KiwiBuild prefab tender; EU will 'react' to Trump's car tariffs threat; Merkel under the pump; US banks pass stress tests; UST 10yr at 2.89%; oil up, gold stable; NZ$1 = 69.1 USc; TWI-5 = 72.4
welcome back Olly.

by: rastus

on Westpac's chief economist says it's no surprise that the housing market is slowing; predicts Auckland and Queenstown will be most affected by foreign buyer restrictions
The worrisome comparison is us being at par with the OECD average growth despite our population growth running at twice the average and our unemployment rate being 1 percentage point below the average.

by: Advisor

on GDP growth dropped by 0.1% compared to the previous two quarters, coming in at just 0.5%; Per capita growth remains flat
@kane02. Because the big corporates infest the halls of parliament they can't claim the title 'private enterprise'. They have carved themselves a special place. Watch them run media campaigns every time there is something on the national scene that affects them.
Why then should they be protected from political commentary.
On the other hand try being in small business, then you find you are really on your own. That's where you find real private enterprise

by: KH

on The only consequence Shane Jones has faced for his attacks on corporate NZ is increased airtime & more column inches. Jason Walls doesn't expect him to stop anytime soon
Same rule in Australia and it's one of the reasons why they are building thousands and thousands of apartments around Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

by: Chairman Moa

on Proposed changes to the Overseas Investment Act would allow overseas buyers to buy new apartments off the plans or to develop new homes, but they would not be able to buy existing dwellings
It's a dodgy thing, that there is a 'confidentially order with the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) with respect of everything they are discussing in the current process.' It's clearly not in the public interest so who does such an order serve? Why the banks and their cosy regulators of course.

by: KH

on The Chairman of Parliament's Finance and Expenditure Select Committee has reversed his decision to request banking and insurance CEOs appear before the Select Committee
The east west link was going to cost way more than that per km. But when its a road no one cares.
Operating costs will be less than current bus costs - driver to passenger ratio is much higher with light rail and electricity is cheaper than diesel.
Even if the airport closed down the light rail system will still be busy as it has 20 other stops including the city. The existing trains are busy even though they don't stop at the airport!

by: JimboJones

on Report highlights 'considerable risks' of trying to get light rail from Auckland's CBD to airport in time for 2021 America's Cup & APEC Summit
Light rail costs in the Land of Oz are 'of the order of $AUD60m/km' in QLD: 2016 quote here from the locals.
Lets update that for 2019 and NZD: assume another 20% for construction cost inflation since 2016, plus pure novelty risk, and the AUD/NZD FX rate at today's number of 93.17. ($60m/0.9317)*1.20 = $NZD77.3m/km. Gulp.
So the Awkland Tram will, at a rough-estimate total distance of 21.5 kms (Google 'distance between Auckland airport and Auckland CBD site:.nz') cost at the above ciggy-packet calculation, be 21.2*77.3=$1,639m in 2019 NZD.
That's for rails only, then there's stock, opex...

by: waymad

on Report highlights 'considerable risks' of trying to get light rail from Auckland's CBD to airport in time for 2021 America's Cup & APEC Summit