A big thanks to all of our valued Client’s – existing & new - for your support and business this year.

The office will be officially closed from the 21^st of December through to the 7^th of January, but if you need anything urgently you can call the office number (09) 448-5400.

Looking back at 2018

Another year rolls to a close and, from a financial point of view, it’s been a relatively stable one.

As a country we’ve enjoyed historically low interest rates coupled with a general softening of house prices. This combination has seen a number of our clients finding homes and moving from a “pre-approval” stage through to full approval and settlement.

At a time of sustained lower interest rates, it would be logical to assume that the banks would ease up on their servicing requirements, but this has not been the case. Unfortunately, this has been a period when a lot of the lenders are having to repay outstanding loans of their own to their parent company’s and tougher regulations mean they have to hold more funds. Theses factors, amongst others, mean that it has been another year of tightening affordability and, as Advisors, we have had to continue to work hard to find the best banking fit for our clients.

Looking forward to 2019

The Reserve Bank has been satisfied enough with the stabilisation of house-price rises to relax the rules when it comes to Investors. From January the maximum loan to value ratio on a stand-alone investment property will rise from 65% to 70%. For both owner-occupiers and investors, the banks can also set aside a larger portion of their books for greater than 80% lending (for owner-occupiers) and greater than 70% (for investors).

Interest rates are forecast to remain at similar levels for at least the next year, with any planned increases to the Official Cash Rate (OCR) pushed back to 2020. As always, world (and local) events can trigger a change.

To all of your family and friends, we wish a happy and safe festive season and look forward to helping you toward your financial goals next year.

New Zealand's collective household wealth has soared in value over the past decade, thanks mostly to an increase in the value of property assets. According to Statistics New Zealand, the net worth of New Zealand households rose from $886 billion in 2007 to $1.5 trillion today, a jump of 69 percent. Kiwis are not feeling the direct effects of these riches, however, with wealth tied up in real estate and pension funds, household debt levels high, savings rates low, and the distribution curve far from equal.

The end of a historic tax break for New Zealand landlords could have unintended negative consequences for tenants. While stopping the tax break on loss-making rental properties has been designed to even the playing field between investors and first-home buyers, costs are likely to get passed down to tenants. If the situation does improve for first-home buyers as a result of the changes, renters may also be adversely affected due to a decrease in the amount of affordable housing stock. 

Home sizes are shrinking across the western world, with rising populations, apartment living, and increasing prices putting renewed pressure on the size of the family home. While smaller houses are not necessarily cheaper, they do provide people with more choice in overheated property markets. Rather than seeing shrinking homes as a negative consequence of unsustainable population growth, people are embracing the trend for high quality, high density homes that just happen to have a smaller footprint.

Some people wake at the crack of dawn to exercise, with others waiting until after work in the late afternoon or evening. While exercise is great at any time of the day, it seems our internal body clocks can have a huge effect on the amount of calories that we burn. Finding the perfect time for your fitness regime is part art and part science, with each person needing to match their personal preferences with universal circadian rhythms and innate human physiology.

The recent death of an American missionary on a remote Indian island has brought the world's untouched tribes into the spotlight. Commonly referred to as uncontacted or lost tribes, this small group of indigenous peoples face numerous threats from the outside world. There are currently thought to be around 100 tribes living completely cut-off from modern civilisation. Most of the tribes live deep in the Amazon rainforest, with others existing in the Congo, the mountains of New Guinea, and islands off the coast of India.