CoreLogic’s Quarterly Property Market & Economic Update notes that the “long-awaited slowdown in NZ’s residential property market has finally arrived” with the “first few months of 2022 genuinely weak”. The slowdown is evidenced by property sales volumes falling to decade lows, driven by “higher mortgage rates and reduced credit availability”. Accordingly, “the shift to a ‘buyer’s market’” that CoreLogic has been anticipating this year has “moved more quickly than we had expected, and is probably here right now… [which] implies considerably less pressure on prices. Thus, “with buyers now feeling they have the upper hand when it comes to offers, it’s no surprise to see that price pressures have faded away”. This would add around $1300 a month in repayments to the median priced New Zealand dwelling, in turn pushing many Kiwis into severe mortgage stress and shunting house prices sharply lower.

Source: Stuff April 29, 2022 05:20 UTC