Housing in New Zealand among the most overvalued in the world. A leading British publication has warned property prices in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland and Christchurch, are dangerously overvalued. The Economist last week released a house price index in 23 of the world’s leading economies. Of those 23 countries New Zealand was third, behind Hong Kong and Canada, as having the most overvalued housing. The Economist reported they used two yardsticks to measure property: One was affordability, measured by the ratio of prices to income per person after tax. The other was the case for investing in housing, based on the ratio of house prices to rents.   If these gauges were higher tha…

It’s less red tape and more land that is needed to help Auckland’s over-inflated property market, not subsidies for first-time buyers. Real estate company Harcourt’s CEO Hayden Duncan reacted to National’s proposed Kiwisaver Homestart grant, revealed last week by Prime Minister John Key. The package effectively increases the amount first-time buyers can obtain through their Kiwisaver contributions. Mr Duncan said the proposal was a band-aid and that it did not deal with the root of the problem in Auckland – development costs and red tape. “We have an unusual situation here where even our biggest and best developers are reluctant to do things because of the red tape challenges they face,…

Is the party over for the NZ economy? It has been one of the star performers in the OECD this year, but New Zealand’s economy could be heading for a fall leading economists predict. Big dairy payouts, the Canterbury rebuild, surplus net migration figures and low interest rates have all played their part in New Zealand having a so called “rockstar economy.” With annual GDP growth of 3.3 per cent and unemployment at 5.6 per cent New Zealand has been at the top end of OECD countries.   However the Canterbury rebuild is nearing completion, interest look set to rise next year and migration to New Zealand is predicted to fall. Dairy payouts to farmers have also dropped this year and are likely …