Property News | propertynoise.co.nz

Now we’ve seen a bit of weakness emerge in the housing market, the calls for removing the current LVR restrictions have started. I hope nobody takes any notice.

Sales volumes have fallen off a cliff, and prices have had the wind knocked out of them.

This is great news for first-home buyers, probably the best they’ve had in years.

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IMAGE SOURCE:  FINANCE.CO.NZ

First-home buyers are being told now is the time to strike with cheeky offers on houses, to see if they can get a good deal from an over-stretched investor.

Tony Alexander, BNZ’s chief economist, said in his most recent weekly update that the market was moving in favour of first-time buyers.

“A lot of investors have over-extended themselves in the past three years and their hopes of new investors taking property off their hands at a tidy profit have been dashed.”

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Wellington City Council will today become the first local authority to introduce a voluntary warrant of fitness for rental properties.

Mayor Justin Lester is set to announce the scheme this morning, in conjunction with the University of Otago, Wellington.

“We want to lift rental standards in our city and make better accommodation available for people. Every Wellingtonian deserves a warm, dry home,” Lester said.

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A building housing a Wellington brothel owned by the Chow brothers is up for grabs in the city’s “traditional red light district”.

The two-storey property became New Zealand’s first purpose-built gentlemen’s club since the prostitution law came in to effect 14 years ago.

Michael and John Chow, whose assets include commercial property, hotels and strip clubs, built their $200 million portfolio from the ground up, starting with the adult entertainment industry.

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More than a decade after they were made, the lonely streets of Blue Bay at Mahia could at last have homes for company.

Real estate agent Bayleys is offering 35 sections across a 2.9ha area of the waterfront Blue Bay subdivision as part of a mortgagee sale, with instructions that the sections must be sold.

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The planned waterfront holiday home subdivision, on land previously operated as a classic Kiwi campground at Mahia Peninsula. Photo / Supplied

Prime Minister Bill English has ruled out allowing the Reserve Bank to introduce further curbs to home lending, and has signalled it should have a plan to remove a key lending restriction already in place.

​The central bank has come under fire recently from real estate agents saying its loan to value ratio rules (LVRs) are squeezing buyers out of the housing market even as prices flatten and in some case fall.

The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) has called for a review of LVRs for first-home buyers, who must have a 20 per cent deposit.

Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell has said tightening lending criteria from cautious banks and the LVR restrictions were impeding the market.

READ MORE:
* Reserve Bank property lending restrictions explained
* Mortgage rationing bites make it harder to get a loan

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Prime Minister Bill English has told the Reserve Bank it should plan for an end to mortgage lending restrictions.

House price inflation has vanished in Auckland and is slowing in other main centres as loan-to-value restrictions, tighter bank lending criteria and a pre-election slowdown deter buyers.

In its latest Economic Overview report, Westpac economists said prices had fallen 4 per cent since January in Auckland and more weakness was likely to come.

“Combined with last year’s tightening in lending restrictions and uncertainty ahead of September’s election, rising borrowing rates have seen annual house price inflation slow to just 1 per cent,” they said.

READ MORE: Rob Stock: The nightmare of negative equity