An Auckland mortgage broker says lending restrictions are making it “impossible” to get bridging finance through banks, making it harder for people to move houses.
Bridging finance is typically used to fund a higher amount of debt for a short time when someone buys a house before selling their own home.
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John Bolton, chief executive of Squirrel Mortgages, says it is impossible to get bridging finance at the moment. Photo/Supplied
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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Wellington City Council is in the middle of a $400 million upgrade programme to bring all of its buildings up to modern standards.
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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Michael Chow, left, and John Chow are selling a building which houses their Il-Bordello brothel.
Long live the mall
Malls are in decline around the world, but they could be reborn as thriving town centres. Total Property looks at how New Zealand can bring new life to its shopping centres.
A 29-year-old Chinese man is about to transform two luxurious Sydney mansions, making it one of the greatest estates in Australia.
Shangjin ‘Jin’ Lin, heir to a billion-dollar Chinese property empire, bought two neighbouring properties in Sydney’s exclusive eastern suburb of Vaucluse and is planning to create one mega property.
The two luxurious mansions on Queens Avenue were bought for a combined $52 million on New Year’s Eve in 2015.
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The two properties with harbour views on Queens Avenue were bought on New Years Eve in 2015
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
Investors might see less opportunity for capital gains over the next few years, Westpac economists said.
The new property speculators’ tax, lending restrictions and the general election are all hitting the Auckland house sales market hard, according to the boss of the country’s largest real estate chains.
Chris Kennedy, chief executive of Harcourts, has cited these factors as reasons for a 43.5 per cent annual increase in the volume of unsold Auckland properties listed with his business.
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There’s been a 43.5 per cent increase in the volume of unsold Auckland properties. Photo / Doug Sherring
Real estate agents are wasting their breath calling for a removal of Loan to Value Ratio restrictions. There is no chance they will be removed prior to the election, nor should they be.
Though the housing market has cooled there is a risk that it will bounce back post-election as spring takes hold. That would be a disaster for first home buyers.
We know that population pressure is still far stronger than the rate on new building.
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Demands are growing for first-home buyer house lending restrictions to be relaxed. Photo / Michael Craig
Demands are growing for first-home buyer house lending restrictions to be relaxed, with one real estate agency boss saying Aucklanders now needed an average $200,000-plus deposit to buy their first home.
Barfoot & Thompson’s Peter Thompson, the Real Estate Institute and Century 21 national manager Geoff Barnett want Reserve Bank lending limits scrapped for newbie buyers and TailRisk Economics principal Ian Harrison has released a new report on proposed debt to income limits.
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Harcourts Group (Australia) has increased its market share such that it is now the third largest in both the number of sales made and dollar value achieved for the quarter to March 2017, according to new data.
CoreLogic has found that the network increased its sales by 0.4 per cent and value by 0.3 per cent, respectively. In addition, it noted that Harcourts is the only national group in the top five to have increased market value in the reported quarter.
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The median house price in Palmerston North has increased only a flicker in the last month, but competition for houses remains intense, with most selling well above the asking price.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures show prices stalled at $360,000…
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Houses are selling for well above their asking price in Palmerston North.
The Real Estate Institute is calling for a review of loan-to-value restrictions as property market turnover drops to its lowest non-Christmas level since 2014.
The number of properties sold across New Zealand in July fell by a quarter when compared to the same time last year, and the number of properties sold in Auckland fell by 30.6 per cent, the institute’s latest data shows.
That is the lowest level of sales, apart from Christmas periods, since August 2014.
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Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell says LVR rules are stopping young people buying houses.
A Wellington office tower, headquarters of one of New Zealand’s largest family-owned companies, is up for sale.
The Todd Building on the corner of Customhouse Quay and Hunter St has been put on the market by 678 Trustee, a company owned by Wellington property developer Ian Cassels.
The 16-storey property was built in 1988, and is leased to several well-known corporations including Todd Energy, Oracle and Kiwibank.
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Ian Cassels’ company owns the building, which sits on land owned by the Wellington City Council.
Barfoot and Thompson’s July sales report showed the average sale price for an Auckland Eastern suburbs home was $1.117 million in July, compared to $1.193m in July last year.
In the North Shore the average price was down from $1.3m to $1.06m. In South Auckland, it was down from $824,069 to $708,069.
What exactly this all means is up for debate.
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* Rob Stock: Lessons of home affordability report
* Rob Stock: Absurd financial pressure on parents
Is China’s crackdown on money leaving the People’s Republic causing the crunch?
Are anti-money laundering laws finally working?
Have the Reserve Bank’s high deposit-for-investor rules knocked them out of the game?
READ MORE VIA STUFF
Some people who bought recently now own homes worth less than they paid for them.
The number of properties sold across New Zealand in July fell by a quarter (24.5%) when compared to the same time last year, and the number of properties sold in Auckland fell by 30.6% (for the same period) according to the latest data from the Real Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) – source of the most complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.
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House sales volumes have collapsed by a quarter in the last year, prompting the Real Estate Institute to make a desperate call for an end to the Reserve Bank’s stringent lending restrictions for first-time buyers.
The Real Estate Institute has this morning released July national house data, showing how national house sale volumes fell by 24.5 per cent last month compared to July last year.
“The LVR restrictions have done their job of slowing the market, but now it seems they are acting as a handbrake which is why REINZ is calling for LVRs to be reviewed for first time buyers,” said REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell.
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REINZ has issued its data on July house sales, revealing volumes sold and prices. Photo/Chris Loufte
Aside from dealing with a lengthy winter, life as a retired sportsman is looking good for Jesse Sergent.
The two-time Olympic bronze medallist has successfully made the transition from professional cyclist to real estate agent.
One year on from announcing his retirement, Sergent said he had no regrets about how his cycling career turned out, nor his decision to move on.
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Jesse Sergent retired from professional cycling in 2016.
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