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As 2021 draws to a close, it looks as though we may finally be starting to see that long-anticipated easing of the housing market come to fruition.

The Reserve Bank have recently invited people to make submissions on their proposal to introduce debt to income requirements which banks must apply to new borrowers.

Let’s start with a question, should your bank have the right to judge the way you live? The Government has made law changes to protect vulnerable borrowers that come into effect on 2nd December, but that will have adverse consequences for homeowners and especially first homebuyers.

Launchpad, our unique home loan for first home buyers has already helped scores of people onto the property ladder just three months after it was launched and we expect it to help tons more.

I continue to hear stories about investors selling off their properties in disgust at the government’s proposed tax changes. But are investors about to bail out of the market?

There is a Catch-22 situation that first home buyers sometimes find themselves in. They want to buy, but they are nervous, and if they see others stepping back, they do too even though the explicit aim of the government is to give them more space to buy.

To get a deposit up to 20% in today’s housing market takes years. It’s a common story. You can afford to take on a mortgage but the bank won’t let you. Kāinga Ora isn’t an option for higher earners due to income caps and house price caps. It just isn’t fair, right? We saw a gap, so we're filling it.

We are now over five weeks down the track from the housing policy announcements of March 23. We still lack some certainty about things and perhaps that uncertainty helps explain some of the things we are seeing in the residential real estate market.

Saving for a house in the post-covid age isn’t easy. With house prices becoming stratospheric, the Kiwi dream might start to seem more like a pipe dream.

Launchpad allows deposits of as low as 5%, and is aimed at helping first home buyers who have good incomes but not enough deposit to meet the 20% often demanded by trading banks, or who don’t qualify for the Government’s Kāinga Ora scheme.

On March 23 the government surprised everyone with some draconian changes in the ability of property investors to deduct interest expenses when calculating their tax obligations. Will we really see big changes which could stop house prices rising for an extended period as the government would like? No.

This post will start with a little rant and then progress into trying to understand the downstream impacts of a big week for the housing market. Just in case you were under a rock this week, the government announced a major change in housing tax policy.