A review of things you need to know before you go home Monday; TSB Bank TD special, housing is hard, Aussies borrowing less, realtor collusion, swaps up strongly

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
ASB has ended their seven month special of 3.70% and replaced it with a new 'higher' six month rate of 3.55%. TSB Bank has leapt into that space offering 3.70% for seven months.

PUBLIC POLICY IS ONE THING, STARTING OR COMPLETING HOUSING PROJECTS IS QUITE DIFFERENT
New data from Auckland Council shows that while they consented 10,000 new homes in 2016, only 7,200 were completed and able to be occupied. They are also trying to count the number of new dwellings where construction has started, and that level is even lower. Consents are one thing; getting construction started now seems to be a lot harder, so that even the current low number of houses being completed may not even be achieved in the future. There isn't the labour or the materials to meet even half the demand, it seems. Interest.co.nz has two building sites within 200m of our offices that could take over 100 dwellings and both sites have been sitting there for years, literally. Wait times for concrete, for example, is reported to be over one month from order. This is despite record high levels of readymix concrete deliveries. The inability to build 'new' just puts pressure back on the trading of existing houses.

IT'S COVERED (IF YOU ARE INSURED)
The Insurance Council is telling people who have uninhabitable homes in Edgecumbe due to flood damage to contact their insurer directly for help with temporary accommodation. Most home policies as well as contents policies provide cover for temporary accommodation. Each policy wording will differ so people should check with their insurer, they say.

LESS LENDING
Just how much banks are pulling back in Aussie was revealed by data on finance committments to investors in Australia today. They are sharply lower, down -5.9%. And its not only investors taking a hit. The number of construction loans are down -5.7% and the number of loans for established homes is down by -6.9% year-on-year. Refinancing commitments are down by a whopping -12.5% over the same period. Overall that represents -AU$1.3 bln less loaned in February 2017 than February 2016, so it is starting to mount up even though the screws have only just gone on.

63.6% CLEARANCE RATE
Bayleys sold two thirds of the Auckland homes auctioned last week with a Takapuna house fetching $4.56 mln. A similar clearance rate was achieved for a recent set of apartment auctions.

IT MIGHT COST THEM ALL $20 MLN
So far, court settlements or fines in the real estate industry's collusion to block Trade Me Property have reached almost $18 mln. That is after the court fined a set of Palmerston North Harcourts licensees $1.5 mln. The cases are about collusion designed to harm customers. Settlements have yet to be agreed with Monarch Real Estate (also trading under the Harcourts banner), Online Realty (trading under the Ray White banner), Lodge Real Estate Limited and two individuals in the Hamilton proceedings. These proceedings remain before the Court.

RIP JOHN CLARKE
Sad to see a master pass. Won't be another like him, ever. We don't know how lucky we've been.

WHOLESALE RATES UNCHANGED
Swap rates have risen strongly today, and steepened. They are up +4 bps for two year, up +5 bps for five years, and up +6 bps for ten years. The 90 day bank bill has slipped another -1 bp and is now at 1.97%

NZ DOLLAR HOLDS
The NZD is a little lower at 69.3 USc. Against the AUD, the NZD has held on at 92.6 AUc. Against the EUR we are still trading at around the 65.5 euro cents level. The TWI-5 is 74.9. (We are working on getting our live rate graphs restarted. Apologies for the issue.)

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