Buyers scurrying to market

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's latest move has sent house buyers scurrying on to the market to finalise deals on properties...

Housing loan approvals jumped 30.6 per cent in the week to December 12 to 9,314, the highest weekly number since June 2007 when the housing boom was at its peak.

The value of housing loans approved leapt 33.7 per cent to £391.7 million, the highest level since the second to last week of December last year.

This was the first week after the Reserve Bank's 150 basis point cut in the Official Cash Rate and the first week after six month fixed mortgage rates fell to seven per cent.

It's too early to say this big jump represents some turning of the market or signs of a recovery in lending to the household sector.

This is the second to last working week before Christmas and is always a busy week as home buyers and bankers rush to complete deals before the Christmas break.

However, the volumes and value of approvals in this week were above the corresponding week a year ago (8,480 approvals worth £385 million) and only just below the corresponding week two years ago (11,193 worth £567 million).

There may also have been some pent up lending applications as buyers waited for confirmation of the size of the Reserve Bank's rate cut on December 4th.

But regardless of these factors, the strength of the gain in the last week does indicate some activity returning to the housing market.

Source: NZ Herald