Low interest rates are shoring up house prices that might otherwise be deemed unaffordable, a Bank of New Zealand economist says.
BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said although many big forces were colliding in the housing market, the lowest mortgage rates in a generation were having a bigger effect than many people realised.
Property experts have called for first-home buyers to be exempt from tight borrowing restrictions, saying more than 1 million Kiwis have been locked out of owning a home.
Property Institute of New Zealand chief executive Ashley Church said the main barrier preventing roughly a quarter of New Zealanders from living in their own home wasn’t affordability, but loan-to-value (LVR) restrictions.
Housing market activity in the month of September failed to meet the high of previous months, with this year being dubbed “the year of unpredictability”.
