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There’s a pretty unanimous sense across the financial markets right now that there's another Official Cash Rate (OCR) hike in store for us this week. Chief Squirrel, David Cunningham, says that's the last thing we need.

Between a weakened construction sector, increasing migration and more businesses starting to retrench (both of which are helping to ease pressure in the job market), there are lots of signs out there to indicate that inflation’s coming under control. So, will there be another OCR increase?

With a great number of construction related businesses going into liquidation every week, negatives dominate in the house building sector and buyers need to apply extra caution as they contemplate getting a house built.

Even some of NZ's smartest economic minds hadn't picked that this latest spike in interest rates would be quite as swift and brutal as it's been. But according to Rodney Dickens, the writing was on the wall for all to see - so why weren't Kiwi borrowers warned?

Earlier today, the Reserve Bank made its second Monetary Policy announcement of 2023, opting to push through another double increase, and take our Official Cash Rate (OCR) from 4.75% up to 5.25%. So what does this latest OCR outcome mean?

The Reserve Bank has played things pretty much as expected with today’s Official Cash Rate (OCR) announcement, pushing through a 0.50% hike to take us from 4.25% to 4.75%.

While housing markets move in cycles, there is something very different about this downward leg of the housing cycle. But with the endgame upon us, will house prices stop falling?

Two week’s ago expectations for interest rate changes in New Zealand took a leap up in response to the June quarter inflation number coming in 0.5% higher than anticipated. This is a very rare event and the signal it has sent is that the pace of growth in our economy is too strong for the Reserve Bank to be confident of containing inflation below 3%.

The world has been printing money for several years, in anticipation of inflation and interest rates eventually rising. Neither of those happened. But the short-term has changed.

We are so fixated with property that talk of any kind of bubble quickly turns the conversation to housing. I’m going somewhere else. History is a great teacher.

Growing house construction is a substantial boom for the economy through extra business for materials manufacturers and distributors, architects, inspectors and so on.

I started writing this property-focussed column for Squirrel Mortgages back in June this year. If you’ve been reading it from then you'll still be surprised like I am that housing markets around the country are so strong, but not as surprised as those who haven't had the chance to read it.