Articles

Falling interest rates and limited growth in labour costs continued to keep overall transport costs in check in the September quarter.

The housing market has attracted plenty of attention in recent months. Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s desire for falling house prices was at odds with the Prime Minister’s hope for “modest, consistent” increases in house prices, with the latter seemingly buying into the view that the economy will struggle to grow if the housing market is stagnant.

New Zealand’s rarest stamp, the upside-down Lake Taupō, has changed hands again, but its modest long-term return highlights how investment performance can vary widely. As our Chart of the Month shows, some assets have delivered far stronger growth over the same period, even after accounting for inflation.

The Reserve Bank is walking a fine line between kick-starting the economy’s recovery and overstimulating growth by the end of next year, according to Infometrics’ latest forecasts.

In July, the government moved to streamline regulations around standards for building materials. The changes effectively recognise several overseas standards for building products as being suitable for application in New Zealand, including standards from Australia, Canada, Europe, the UK, and the US.

At Infrastructure New Zealand’s Building Nations conference in early August, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop reportedly denied that the government had pulled back from infrastructure and building, deepening the construction downturn.

Most costs for transport operators declined in the June quarter, with only unchanged road user charges and a modest increase in labour costs bucking the falls.

Mortgage rates, income growth, and house sales activity: the three underlying influences on residential alterations and additions (A&A) activity – more commonly known as renovations.

Although volatility remains a central part of the global economic and geopolitical environment, international financial markets have shaken off the worst of their fears and are becoming less pessimistic about the outlook for growth.

After hovering at close to zero throughout the first half of last year, expectations for residential construction activity from ANZ’s Business Outlook strengthened from July 2024 – as did many other indicators in the survey of business sentiment.