2020's top stories

We look back on an even bigger, more successful year in 2020 and reveal our most popular articles

24th Dec 20, 10:02am by David Chaston

2020 has been a year like no other. 2019 seems like an eternity ago.

In between, the planet has been rocked by the pandemic, and New Zealand wasn't spared even if we have fortuitously managed not to follow the idiotic path of the US and the incompetent path of the UK.

Our team at interest.co.nz has been following all this with an eye to explaining how it has and will affect our economy.

And our coverage has found a wide audience, including many new readers.

At the start of 2020, the two year mortgage rate was 3.55% and the one year term deposit rate was 2.60%.

At the end of 2020, the equivalent mortgage rate had fallen to 2.45%, and with eyes on the FLP, there are prospects it will fall further in early 2021.

The one year term deposit rate is now just 0.80% and its main 'competition' will be the OCR at 0.25% because that is what banks can now borrow at via the FLP. 2021 will undoubtedly see TD rates fall further. Many depositors have just given up, leaving their savings in zero-returning at call accounts

But the interest rate collapse was but a symptom of a wider struggle to keep the economy functioning. We have ended the year in reasonable economic shape and probably better than many (including me) thought during the first and second lock downs.

It has been our wider coverage of the economic changes that have attracted new readers and kept current readers engaged.

New Zealand is not a large country. We have just 3,940,000 adults 18 years and older. And yet in 2020 more than 3 mln of them used our news reporting or data resources at least once during the year (unique IP visits were 3.84 mln). That was a +48% rise over 2019. It is hard to imagine us ever beating this benchmark.

Readers dialed up 12.3 mln sessions and read 25.7 mln pages of content. These were also fat increases of +50% and +47% respectively over the 2019 levels, themselves all-time records for us at that time. By any measure, these represent further hefty rises

We aim to be an intelligent read for people who want to understand what is going on in our economy, and the outside forces that also shape it. Although we are still a desktop read to take full advantage of the tables, charts and other embedded resources we offer readers, readership on mobile was unchanged at 50%. What is remarkable about the use of our service on mobile is that engagement time of the small screen is high - in fact, it is slightly higher than for desktop, showing that intelligent analysis does have a place on a smartphone.

And here's something you might find surprising - more than half of our readers are still 45 year old or younger. Our readership demographics are not our commenter demographics (and that may help explain why you may think there is an outsized Trumpian predisposition among some commenters).

2021 hopefully won't have the unique combination of elections and pandemics, but we will be back with wider coverage of all the issues that affect the New Zealand economy, and with an expanded team.

We appreciate your support of our live-and-free service, and we wish everyone Happy Holidays and good weather where ever you are. If you value what you get for "free", we would appreciate your support via our Press Patron facility at the top of this page. (Obviously what we do costs heaps, and advertising is a fickle revenue stream. Your support is valuable beyond what you may realise.)

Although most of our staff are taking a break as well, we will have daily updates and some unique content in our regular style.

International financial markets may get 'interesting' in January and we will be covering that and what it means for New Zealand.

In the meantime, here are the ten articles that readers read the most in 2020:

10. Jenée Tibshraeny's reporting of the IRD's warning to Government of the risks the 39% tax rate create
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/108240/inland-revenue-raises-significant-concerns-over-people-using-trusts-avoid-new-39-income

9. Gareth Vaughan's report on the RBNZ's removal of the LVR restrictions in April
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/104635/reserve-bank-eyes-removal-loan-value-ratio-mortgage-restrictions-response-covid-19

8. My report on how credit card limits are changing to accommodate the unregulated BuyNow/PayLater schemes
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/104424/buy-now-pay-later-schemes-may-end-unseemly-crash-credit-card-capacity-jumps

7. Greg Ninness's December report on the realestate.co.nz listings data for November
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/108206/we-may-be-looking-beginning-end-current-housing-boom

6. My July report of ANZ's market-leading fixed rate mortgage reductions
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/105935/anz-cuts-all-its-special-home-loan-rates-two-them-down-market-leading-levels

5. My March report on the bank floating mortgage rate cuts following the March 2020 RBNZ OCR -75 bps slash
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/104064/first-cuts-retail-rates-have-been-announced-following-emergency-rbnz

4. Jenée Tibshraeny's report on the March Level 3/Level 4 lockdown announcement
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/104212/nz-moving-covid-19-alert-level-3-immediately-will-move-alert-level-4-48-hours

3. Greg Ninness's July report on the migration exit by residents
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/106062/new-zealand-residents-have-been-leaving-country-greater-pace-they-have-been-arriving

2. Jenée Tibshraeny's April report on the Prime Minister's assessment of what it will take to keep households insulated from the worst of the lockdown impacts
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/104686/jacinda-ardern-keeps-door-open-possibility-cash-payments-households-post-lockdown

And the most read article of 2020 was ...

1. Greg Ninness's April article reviewing what challenges landlords might face after lock downs
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/104499/end-lockdown-could-be-just-beginning-troubles-both-residential-and

... which was read 166,000 times, far above the most-read story of 2019 at 47,000 times.

Our resource pages continue to far outstrip our news article readership and these resources continue to grow impressively. Of note in 2020 is the growth of our auction monitoring database. This now rivals our huge mortgage rate database activity. Many of our regular resources like our dairy industry payout history page, auction results, bonds data, calculators, and farms for sale pages, as examples, all were far more popular than almost any news article. Your ability to dig into the data behind the news is what makes us special.

And finally, much of our service would not have been possible without the active support of the many readers who do so via the PressPatron platform. To you an extra special thanks for all your support in 2020. Ad revenues were especially fickle during the crises of 2020 and will always be a problem for us, so your direct support has enabled us to invest in the service in 2020 in significant ways. What you see and use is significantly enabled by your active support.

We are looking forward to next year.

Enjoy your holiday break. See you again in 2021.

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21 Comments

by Kate | 24th Dec 20, 10:34am 1608759256

Merry Christmas David and Co. What a year!

by Squishy | 24th Dec 20, 12:31pm 1608766280

Yes, Merry Christmas all. Hopefully you get the chance to put your feet up over the next few weeks.

by tothepoint | 24th Dec 20, 2:35pm 1608773749

Unsurprisingly, the most popular articles are closely linked to the NZ housing/property market.

Undoubtedly, 2021 will produce the same outcome: housing is a topic of longstanding and deeply entrenched interest to NZers.

All the best for a relaxing festive season to the fabulous team at interest.co.nz. You are unparalleled in NZ business journalism. Keep up the awesome work!

TTP

by JimboJones | 24th Dec 20, 8:10pm 1608793851

“unparalleled in NZ business journalism”: we can agree on something!

by Squishy | 24th Dec 20, 1:48pm 1608770931

...And your envy list? The top two or three articles/podcasts etc you've read or listened to, local or global and from any other source, that you wish you'd researched/written about. A professional nod to the beautifully written high art of journalism or that you found influential (e.g. well researched or deeply engrossing.)

by treadlightly | 24th Dec 20, 12:35pm 1608766523

I look forward to more of your articles from an MMT perspective in 2021 thank you. There are very few publications with your courage to stand up to the falsehoods of mainstream economists.

by james108 | 24th Dec 20, 2:03pm 1608771839

Great effort team, what a year. I don’t think unique page views translate to unique humans though. I’m sure I’m responsible for at least 3 unique views over the year at work/home/ families house etc.

by Ahuhyeah | 24th Dec 20, 11:25pm 1608805558

Yep I'm a visitor on probably 3 devices in a year too.

by Yvil | 24th Dec 20, 2:21pm 1608772895

Quite ironic that no one saw 2020 coming ; )

Merry Christmas to the whole team at Interest, enjoy your well deserved break

by Yvil | 24th Dec 20, 3:53pm 1608778434

So the most read article is about property - not surprising
The headline talks about trouble for landlords with an image of burning buildings - that would have attracted a lot landlord hating readers
I have re-read many of the comments, I invite you to do the same. Most comments are very negative, they're warning about large job losses, house price collapse, businesses failing en masse and of course landlords hurting badly. None of this has happened, can we not learn from it and make better, less apocalyptic predictions in the future?

by JimboJones | 24th Dec 20, 8:11pm 1608793887

As someone said yesterday: your apocalypse may be someone else’s paradise. Is wishing for a housing market crash so you can afford a home actually a negative comment?

by Albert2020 | 25th Dec 20, 5:38am 1608827896

I don’t think those predictions weren’t unfathomable at the time and the primary reason they haven’t happened here is due to our superior health response and massive injections of cheap credit. I’m sure citizens in the USA and parts of Europe might have a differing view to yours.

by Yvil | 25th Dec 20, 7:42pm 1608878524

JJ it's not about "wishing" or Albert about "having different views", my point was about the predictions of housing crashes being consistently wrong which is fact and us learning from it.

by Albert2020 | 26th Dec 20, 6:49am 1608918554

They are only wrong until they aren’t. Everyone with some financial nous knows that the NZ housing market is in an unsustainable bubble and their predictions of a crash (at least %30) due to a 1 in 100 health and economic event weren’t treated as unreasonable. The longer our housing inflation trends upwards unabated the worst the outcome will be, it’s called reversion to the mean. Hindsight is a beautiful thing Yvil (as evident by your incorrect decision to sell your house for fear of losing capital) but you also need to realise the world and therefore NZ have not averted the economic shock that COVID induced.

by Hook | 24th Dec 20, 4:27pm 1608780425

Maybe for 2021 interest.co could be a little less fixated on housing/mortgages/rent issues (it's been thrashed to death and nothing new is apparent) and include more articles on successful start ups or new leading edge companies. Either that or change it's name to "housinganalytics.co" so people are aware of it's focus

by Yvil | 24th Dec 20, 6:39pm 1608788379

Hook, Interest started by focussing on mortagages and deposits, hence its name: "Interest". It's always been property centred, that's why I, for one, read it

by Hook | 25th Dec 20, 10:30am 1608845403

Thanks for educating me on the origins Yvil but there's a thing called evolution and diversity. there's also a thing called "flogging a dead horse"

by TuaWai Smith | 25th Dec 20, 3:01am 1608818506

As an expat Kiwi I live part time in the US and I find this site to be 'interest'ing as I think EVERYONE needs to use a variety of sources to educate themselves. I think a wide range of topics are discussed here. Thank you for the platform David and co. I am thankful there are people willing to provide a choice of journalism, at least its not a bunch of lies put out by Murdoch and his hate mongering crew.

by waymad | 24th Dec 20, 4:48pm 1608781698

Sterling work all year, and especially that of Jenée, who seems to find the chink in the armour of whatever dragon she interviews. Here's hoping for a good 2021.

by ptamanz | 25th Dec 20, 4:28pm 1608866909

I sure did notice that the commenters on your site were quite a rabid right bunch, not reflecting the general population and election results.
I guess radio talkback listeners need to find a place to vent.
I keep coming back to the articles and try not to linger on the comments too much.

by Officebound | 26th Dec 20, 7:37am 1608921461

David and team, thanks for another year of stand-out journalism. Also kudos for offering customers an incentive to donate. I hope this has helped revenue streams.

Commenters, have again loved reading various perspectives and links to try come to an opinion myself.

Oh, and commenters who read daily and don't donate, whatever your reason for not donating is, it sucks, and you should donate :)