sign up log in
Want to go ad-free? Find out how, here.

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; market-leading mortgage rate cut, overseas buyers scarce, property yields rise, swaps fall further, NZD stable, & more

A review of things you need to know before you go home on Friday; market-leading mortgage rate cut, overseas buyers scarce, property yields rise, swaps fall further, NZD stable, & more

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
ASB trimmed its 'special' fixed rates for 1 year and 2 years by -4 and -6 bps, bringing them into line with most of its rivals. But oddly, it actually raised its standard one year rate by +6 bps to 4.35%. Kiwibank went one better and adopted 3.79% as its one year fixed rate, a market-leading level.

TERM DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
None here today. But we think a shift even lower is quite likely in the next few weeks.

MORE SELLERS THAN BUYERS
Nationally, 183 residential properties were sold to overseas buyers in the June quarter compared to 1116 in the same period of last year. Of these 75 were in central Auckland, 114 in the Auckland region (62%). Interestingly, in the same period there were 327 sellers of New Zealand property by people who were not New Zealand citizens, 171 in Auckland. Remember that the Overseas Investment Act also allows Australians and Singaporeans to purchase residential property in New Zealand, and other overseas people to purchase in some new developments.

YIELDS RISING FOR PROPERTY INVESTORS
Prices are falling and rents are rising, pushing up residential property rental yields in Auckland and parts of Wellington.

NZ LAUNCHES "INVESTMENT PASSPORT"
Local managed funds schemes can now apply to be registered as a "passport fund" and foreign passport funds can apply for permission to offer their funds in New Zealand. This means that fund managers from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Thailand can offer eligible products to investors in each other’s economies, bringing more choice and competition to managed fund markets in the Asia/Pacific region.

NAME SUPPRESSION LIFTED
The name of one of the men facing bribery charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office can now be revealed after his request for name suppression was declined today. Sundeep Rasila (41), a former procurement relationship specialist at Auckland Council, is charged with accepting a bribe as a council official and obtaining by deception. His alleged counterpart, who has interim name suppression, is charged with giving a gift to a council employee. The charges relate to the procurement of USB flash drives from China. Rasila is yet to enter a plea while his co-defendant has pleaded not guilty. Both men have been remanded on bail until their next Court appearance. Rasila is scheduled to reappear in the Auckland District Court on 6 August.

ENDING WITH A WHIMPER
It is red ink across nearly all equity markets today. Last night the DAX slumped more than -1.2% and other European markets were almost all lower as well, even if not so dramatically. Then Wall Street ended the day down -0.5%. Now Asian markets are open and trading down as well with more modest drops of between -0.2% and -0.4%. The ASX200 is currently down -0.2% and the NZX50 is down -0.5%. The Kiwi market is looking at a +0.7% gain for the week while the Aussie market looks like it will book a +1.5% gain. So today's falls are really only minor corrections. So far this week the S&P500 is flat over the past five trading sessions.

SWAP RATES DROP FURTHER
Local swap rates are down further today, by -1 bp across the board and that makes it all new record lows for every duration, again. The 90-day bank bill rate is unchanged at 1.49%. Australian swap rates are up +1 bp across most terms. The Aussie Govt 10yr is down -5 bps to just under 1.25%. The China Govt 10yr is down -1 bp at 3.17%, while the NZ Govt 10 yr is down -2 bps to 1.56%. The UST 10yr yield is now at 2.07%, and up +2 bps since this time yesterday.

NZ DOLLAR STABLE
The Kiwi dollar has been stable today, trading sideways at 66.6 USc. Against the Aussie we are still at 95.8 AU cents. Against the euro we are soft at 59.7 euro cents. That trims the TWI-5 to 71.7.

BITCOIN SLIPS
Bitcoin has fallen back under US$10,000 today, down -3.2% since this time yesterday at US$9,702. The bitcoin price is charted in the currency set below.

This chart is animated here.

Daily exchange rates

Select chart tabs

Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
Daily benchmark rate
Source: RBNZ
End of day UTC
Source: CoinDesk

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

12 Comments

The charges relate to the procurement of USB flash drives from China.

USB flash drives? Good grief. I think I read that the monetary value was near $150k. How many flash drives does the council need? This actually raises all kinds of red flags.

Up
0

How many flash drives does the council need?

All of them, from the sound of it.

Up
0

Sharemarkets in for a volatile time. Falls no surprise today; Interest.co’s 90 at 9 summary of events is a good barometer as to reflecting the day’s likely trading and today it was very gloomy.
Agreed that fundamentals indicate future outlook for markets bleak but all those retirees and others with cash, and fund managers need to be putting their money somewhere :) Watch what happens if FED cuts, and locally, if NZRB cuts.

Up
0

If only 183 transactions were with foreign buyers in the June quarter this is going to place massive strain on the developers of large apartment complexes in the CBD. Watch out for more cancelled projects perhaps ....

Up
0

German manufacturing reports industry in freefall

https://www.ft.com/content/08010baa-aeb6-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2

Up
0

The world and local economy is entering some choppy waters. Some of us have called it, and you are wrong if you think this will not impact the housing market.

Up
0

And that was the week that was. The property experts having been rolled out one by one this week with the usual array of reasons why our national religion should remain embraced. Indeed we learnt that we are different to Australia( except our banks) . The bottles are all aligned With historic mortgage rates , improved yields and no foreign competition, I truly hope a few of the more fervent commentators , now throwing turds as evening approaches on the other threads comment less , go out, look at some compressed chip board and put their money or the banks, and buy a property this weekend, anywhere. On Monday when the non worshippers need a little doctrine , you can tell us what you purchased.

Up
0

Andrew j ,rebuilding/recladding will contribute to a nations GDP. Win win .

Up
0

I forgot, to infinity and beyond

Up
0

The Minister of Education has signalled that the official announcement and decision on the Reform of Vocational Education will occur on August 1 at 12pm & will be live-streamed.
This is likely to include the merging of all NZ Polytechnics & ITOs to be incorporated within this national entity.

Up
0