Housing matters- the big picture:
A global decline in interest rates and strong population growth in New Zealand has had an outsized impact on house prices because the supply of new homes has been slow to respond. This includes both opening up new land and building new homes.
Tax rules in NZ favour housing against other investments. House prices are influenced by employment and incomes, as well as bank lending rules and the availability of mortgages.
House prices were boosted by falling interest rates around the world in the past decade (post GFC).
The Reserve Bank of NZ moves short-term interest rates to keep inflation low and stable and support employment at its maximum sustainable level.
We consider the impact of our interest rate changes on house prices and how they affect the Government policy for sustainable house prices.
We do not aim to drive house prices up or to stop them falling.
The factors affecting house prices have changed. Building consents are now high, population growth has slowed dramatically, interest rates are rising and we are seeing house prices cool down in 2022, after a rapid rise last year.
We are carrying out a wide range of research to understand the key drivers of house prices. We need to be clear about what the Reserve Bank can and cannot do and what others could do to fix this problem, which has been many decades in the making.
Key findings of Analytical Note
- House prices are expected to respond more to monetary stimulus when housing supply is less responsive to prices. We test this theory using data for New Zealand’s territorial authorities.
- We confirm that monetary policy stimulus triggers stronger house price movements in those New Zealand territories where the supply of housing is relatively less responsive.
- We consider an unanticipated increase of 40 basis points in the Official Cash Rate (OCR). The real median house price in the least supply responsive areas declined by over six times that of the most responsive areas, 12 months after the OCR increase (17.2% compared with 2.8%).