A review of things you need to know before you go home Tuesday; UDC meeting 'closed'; latest affordability review; farm sales rise; lifestyle block sales slip; consumer confidence high; swaps up; NZD stable

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

MORTGAGE RATE CHANGES
No changes today.

DEPOSIT RATE CHANGES
SBS Bank ended its seven month term deposit special today taking, the rate back to 3.30%. It is a reduction from 3.70%.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Wednesday's UDC Finance investor meeting, on amending the Trust Deed to give UDC the option to repay about $1.3 billion worth of secured investments helping pave the way for ANZ to sell the finance company to China's HNA Group, is closed to media. ANZ says it's "a closed meeting to investors, with regulators, legal advisers and business senior management only in attendance". Supervisor Trustees Executors has apparently agreed to this. Investors who do attend are invited to post any observations from the meeting as comments on Wednesday's interest.co.nz 90@9, or on this bulletin tomorrow. Remember, this is a vote where investors are being offered a financial incentive to turn up and vote - but that incentive will only be paid if they vote to approve the transition.

DOUBLE IN AUCKLAND
Our May report on home loan affordability is out and this month we focus on how long to would take first home buyers to save the deposit. Nationally, it would take 22.1% of their take home pay to afford the mortgage on a first quartile house for a first home buyer couple aged 25-29. In Auckland it is double that at 45.2% of take-home pay.

FARM SALES VOLUMES RISE
Farm prices rise with dairy taking the lead albeit with some 'financier instigated' sales activity. Per hectare prices are here. The lifestyle block market has quietened down for winter.

HIGH CONFIDENCE CONFIRMED
A second consumer sentiment survey was released today, this time the ANZ-Roy Morgan monthly one for June. That shows similar positivity to the Westpac MM one released yesterday. This ANZ one shows consumer sentiment lifted in June, the second consecutive increase. An uplift in confidence points to more spending-based activity, says ANZ. While housing market momentum is slowing, there is still plenty for consumers to smile about: jobs, a high NZD that’s keeping prices down, and the Government’s $2 bin family package injection, to name just a few. House price expectations cooled in this survey.

RECORD PROFIT FOR SBS BANK
SBS Bank posted record annual profit of $27.4 mln for its March year, an increase of +37%. The bank and building society grew gross lending by +19% and deposits plus redeemable shares by +9%.

NEW ZEALAND'S LARGEST PORT
The Port of Tauranga has grown throughput to more than 1 mln TEUs per year. (A TEU is a 'twenty-foot container equivalent'.) It is the first port to get to this level.

PARLIAMENTARY EXCITEMENT
The Todd Barclay saga is gripping reporters at Parliament, and is the subject of Parliamentary questions and statements. The Police have made a statement. Suggestions of instability in Government ranks, especially in election year, gets people excited.

STILL RISING
In Australia, residential property prices rose +2.2% in the March quarter 2017, the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. That takes the annual rise to +10.2%. The city with the highest annual increase was Sydney. The total value of Australia's 9.9 mln residential dwellings increased AU$163.1 bln to AU$6.6 tln. The average price of dwellings in Australia is now AU$669,700 (= NZ$702,700. No one calculates an equivalent average in New Zealand.)

MISGIVINGS
China's One Belt, One Road initiative is not going quite to plan. Although New Zealand has signed up to it, Australia has misgivings, as do the EU. Those misgivings relate to a lack of transparency about the goals, investment and underlying objectives. China has been 'generous' with its money to get countries signed up - and that is 'helping' them turn some countries away from Taiwan, and to voting with China in a range of international issues. The implication of high-level bribery rather than principled negotiation is causing the rethink.

WHOLESALE RATES FIRMER AGAIN
Rates for all terms are +2 bps higher today. The 90 day bank bill rate is up by +1 bp to 1.94%.

NZ DOLLAR SLIPS
NZD is slightly softer today at 72.3 USc. On the cross rates, against the Aussie we are at 95.3 AUc, and we are at 64.8 euro cents. The TWI-5 is now at 76.7. And bitcoin is up +3% on the day at US$2,682 today.

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