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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%.

Almost three and a half months have now passed since the March 23 announcement of some radical changes in tax rules for investors in residential property. The expectation has been that investors will sell up in disgust, but there's no statistical evidence of a flood of properties hitting the market.

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?

Whenever things like the global pandemic, the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis, or tax policy alterations happen such as those announced on March 23, most of us can take a view on what the likely impact will be. Sometimes these views can be horribly wrong.

When it comes to discussions about housing in New Zealand it is almost heresy to say anything other than that there is a housing shortage, a housing crisis.

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.

I was asked to give a radio interview last week on the topic of the Green Party’s policies which they believe will make a sustained difference in house prices. The timing was perfect as I was just about to put pen to paper for my latest column for Squirrel – so here are my thoughts.

We all know that the residential real estate markets all around New Zealand have been rampant since just after the middle of last year. We've been here before and none of the 'remedies' seem to have prevented prices from rising at pace.

The last time 40% deposits for investors were introduced, Auckland house prices had been soaring for four years. This time, we're only a year into the current frenzied house price cycle, and interest rates are much lower than they were. So how much impact will reintroducing the rule have?

Economy expert Tony Alexander discusses the latest results from his surveys of mortgage advisers and real estate agents, plus how a change in LVR restrictions will affect New Zealand's housing market.

Each month I run a survey with the REINZ of real estate agents all around New Zealand, asking them what they are seeing. My latest survey, which yielded a good 369 responses, shows that FOMO, fear of missing out, remains as strong as ever.

Banks were actually already lobbying the Reserve Bank to reinstate LVRs because of their concern about the speed with which house prices were rising and the frenzied level of market activity.