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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.

Newsroom’s Alexia Russell sat down with Chief Squirrel JB to chat about what the Government's recent announcement means for first home buyers. Does it remove the stumbling blocks, or is it still hard as ever for young Kiwis to get onto the property ladder? Are there going to be any unintentional consequences?

One of the advantages which existing home owners have over first home buyers is experience. They have learnt that as a rule there is no “best” time to buy property and it is wise to simply get on with it as soon as one is comfortable with the debt to be taken on, and then manage changes along the way.

So much to think about, so much to consider. We’ve broken it down for you into a handy up-to-the-minute checklist that you can download, print and pin up on your wall at home. Once you’ve got all the nuts checked off, you’re good to go!

If there’s one thing we’ve been brutally reminded of this year, it’s that we live in an ever-changing world. Some things may never be the same. However, the world continues to turn, and people will continue to buy houses. Now more than ever it's important to line up those ducks to be bank ready.

There’s a lot of mixed messages out there about property at the moment. Some is from complete pessimists who think the world is coming to an end. Some is from the industry who are far too bullish and whose income is in some way tied to property. We’re arguably in the latter camp (given we’re mortgage advisers) – but we try to call it as we see it.