An (in my humble opinion) much needed change of Government, an all-time classic win for the All Black’s and some great news today that the inflation monster is being tamed and rates have likely peaked should hopefully create some goodwill around the country after what has been a pretty challenging 2023 for many people.
Firstly, on the investment front I won’t get too deep into politics and focus on this from a property investor’s point of view.
Real estate numbers have clearly shown that both prices and sentiment have ticked up over the last few months but this has mainly been led by first home buyers with investors generally staying on the sidelines and rhetorically the general feedback we have been receiving is that most have wanted to wait until after the election which was a pretty fair call as not many would call the outgoing Government ‘investor friendly.’
Property listings have also been low so it will be interesting to see if there is now a surge, now that we have a bit more certainly how the political landscape will look regarding who will run the country, although some may wish to get a bit more understanding on exactly how National, Act and NZ First will make this work.
While we need to see the fine print, we can expect some version of the following changes:
All the above have positive impacts for property investors and should give some confidence back to existing landlords and those considering becoming investors.
In other news regarding interest rates, today (the 17th of October) was the key date the Reserve Bank would have been keeping an eye on to decide whether to raise the Official Cash Rate (OCR) and thus mortgage rates at their next review on the 29th of November. They had been expecting inflation to be around the 6% mark and with it coming in at 5.6%, this was well under what almost all commentators and experts had predicted. This may mean result in a small drop flowing through to mortgage rates in coming weeks as most banks had already baked in a higher inflation result than this which may result in a drop in the cash rate being earlier in 2024 than had previously been expected.
For those who are wanting to be ready to purchase or alternatively want to see what their ability to access mortgage funding is, feel free to touch base HERE where for no cost we can review your position and if you wish, assist in getting you ready to be able to invest.
For those who are available I am looking forward to coming down to talk at Property Brokers HQ in Palmerston North in a couple of weeks on Thursday the 2nd of November at 6pm. I will be talking alongside Property Brokers General Manager David Faulkner about the opportunities that exist now that the election is over. If you are available it would be great to see you there - for more information about the event - see here.
Hopefully by that stage we will also be celebrating another Rugby World Cup Final win!
