WEBVTT - Inside the housing market: What you need to know about rates, CVs, and house prices 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:05.960 Hilda. 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.280 I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:17.240 daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. Rates have 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:21.560 increased across the country this week, with some cities better 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.560 off than others. Auckland Council has confirmed a five point 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:30.040 eight percent average residential rates increase, the same day that 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:35.199 Wellington's council struck a twelve percent lift in their rates. Meanwhile, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.440 Gisbon residents face an average nine point ninety five percent 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.720 rate increase, which equates to about four hundred dollars or 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.760 less for eighty percent of homeowners there, and the increases 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.559 have come at the same time as council valuations in 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:55.800 Auckland dropped by nine percent. But what do lower cvs 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.920 mean for your rates bill and what does it mean 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.800 in the context of the wider property market Today? On 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.880 the front Page, opuh's partner's economist Ed McKnight is with 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:11.200 us to bust some myths about valuations, rates and the 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:19.960 current state of the housing market. Ed, we've seen a 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:24.680 variety in rates increases around the country, which mostly all 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.480 came in effect at the start of the month. What 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.839 are some of the trends that you've seen this year. 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.479 Well, the most interesting thing is some areas aren't seeing 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.080 massive rates increases, like place like Wanganu we are only 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.480 up two point two percent. Auckland that are actually below 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.600 average as well, up about five point eight percent. But 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.240 some council areas have really ramped up rates. Down on 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.560 the West Coast, we've seen regional rates go up over 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.800 twenty five percent. My understanding is that Hastings Napier are 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.360 all up over twenty percent as well. Pretty easy to 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.920 understand why, given that they've had some really big issues 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.720 with weather related events recently. But even areas like Kluther 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.000 District way down South and Otago they have seen massive 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:09.679 rates increases there too. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:12.800 And the rates increase that's come for Auckland is a 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:19.000 few weeks after homeowners received their council valuations. Now what 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.160 is this CV and what does it mean for your 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:23.000 house price? 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.920 Yeah, it's real interesting. A lot of people are quite 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.880 surprised that they've got their new CV. Their house value 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.919 appears to drop, but they're still paying a higher rates bill. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.880 And what you've got to understand is that your house 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.200 price doesn't necessarily impact the exact amount of rates that 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.600 you pay. It does, but kind of in a roundabout way. 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.840 So the way that it works is that Auckland Council 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.600 or any of the councils will say how much money 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.639 do we need to raise this year and spoiler alert, 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.520 it's more than last year, and the CV is used 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.680 to say, well, how much of a share should each 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.720 homeowner have to pay? Well, if your house is a 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.520 bit more expensive than somebody else's house, you probably have 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.160 more money, so you pay a higher share of those rates. 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.040 So even though most. 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.320 People's cvs have gone down, their house values have gone down, 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.280 what really matters is, well, how much has rules changed 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.919 compared to everyone else's. So if your house value didn't 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.480 go down by the average of about nine percent, then 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.640 you will pay a higher share of your rates of 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.639 the rates in total and get an above average rates increase. 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:30.720 Right, So I was doing some research and I came 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:35.760 across some common myths or assumptions online about rates and cvs. 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.440 One was that because property values have reduced, your rates 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.120 will reduce as well. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:43.520 Is that right extically what we were just talking about. 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.680 There's another myth that councils really want house prices to 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.839 go up because then they get to charge everybody more 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.480 and more rates. But if your house value goes up 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.440 or goes down by ten percent, that doesn't mean that 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.320 the council charges you ten percent more if your house 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.280 value in or charges your ten percent less because the 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.880 house value has gone down. It's all about what is 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.280 the share of rates that you pay, and the cvs 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.080 are just the mechanism to make sure that people who 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.600 have more money and can afford more expensive houses end 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:15.840 up paying a higher share. 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.240 Is that a bit of an old school assumption though, 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.280 just because you live in a real snazzy house that 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.120 you've presumably got more money to pay rates. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.360 I think it's probably quite a simple way about going 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.840 about it, because there are lots of different ways that 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.960 you could decide, well, who pays more, who pays less. 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.240 I think it's a pretty fair way to go about it. Personally, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.919 I live in an above average house, and so I 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.279 pay and above average share. I have an above average 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.120 rates bill. I kind of think that's fair. Where it 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.279 does come a little bit unstuck, as if you're a retiree. 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:51.680 So let's say you bought a house for a packet 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.880 of raspberries back in nineteen eighties. Now your house value 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.960 might be way way way way more expensive. Now, that's 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.280 good because you've got some more equity. But if you're 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.280 a retiree, maybe your income's gone down. But there are 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.640 targeted packages of support, like you can defer your rates bill. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.360 If you are a retiree and you're struggling to pay it, 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.760 you can defer it and pay it once you eventually 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:16.560 sell that house. 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:22.359 Right, So, raising rates or raising property valuations, it's not 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:24.400 a council cash grab. 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.240 No, No, there is a I think you could say 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.080 there's a council cash grab going on in that some 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.840 areas are increasing rates by a quarter twenty five percent 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.760 because they want to spend more, so they're definitely grabbing 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.080 more cash. But it's not like the councils there being 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.520 like how can we push up house prices? Because if 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.120 we push up house prices, that naturally means that we 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.960 can charge everybody more rates. It's about the percentage that 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:52.839 each of us. 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:57.839 Pay the rates but will get. 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.920 It's not like because if you're values drop, it doesn't 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.520 mean your rate spills go down, rate bill goes down, doesn't. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.600 It just means it increases that are stole rate than 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:06.599 it otherwise. Whatever. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.800 Yeah, So pretty much, if you were If your CV foil, 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.040 say fifteen percent, you're alluded to the average there was 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.680 down about nine If your CV fel fifteen percent, you're 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.680 probably still going to see a rate spill increase, but 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.159 it might just be smaller than others. If your CV 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.200 foul five percent, you're going to see a ratespell increase, 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.000 and it may well be a little bit bigger than others. 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.960 So really this is set as at May twenty twenty four. 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.400 It's away of allocating rates across every home in Auckland, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:33.760 nothing more than that. 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.200 Were you surprised by some of the revaluations. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.320 I was surprised that some of them didn't go down more. Actually, 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.960 because the most recent rates were taken in about May 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.479 twenty twenty four, kind of mid last year is when 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.760 the current cvs that just came out were set. Certainly 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.080 in Auckland, the previous ones were set really close to 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.800 the peak of the property market, which was round and 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.960 June twenty twenty one. Well, since that point we've seen 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:08.560 property values in Auckland fall roughly about twenty percent. The 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.400 fact that the average CV dropped only nine percent in Auckland, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.680 I thought, actually that's a bit less of a drop 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:16.600 than I was expecting. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:22.240 And should renters care about CVS and rates? How does 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:23.440 it affect them? 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.240 Only to a very very small degree. If rates are increasing, 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.920 that means more costs on your landlord. You will see 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.440 some people say that, well, if the if landlord's costs 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.240 go up, they then pass that onto the tenants. But 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.280 at a market like we're in today, that doesn't really happen. 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.679 Renters rarely do hold the upper hand a bit because 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.200 we've got a lot of supply on the market in 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.200 terms of lots of landlords trying to find tenants, and 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.560 it's a bit slower for them at the moment they're 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:53.720 finding it is taking an extra week to get a 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.160 tenant in. And because of that, even though rates are 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.560 increasing in places like Auckland, you are rents tick down 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.920 a little bit. So I wouldn't be too concerned at 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.800 least in this market if I was a renter seeing 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.000 that rates have gone up. 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.160 Right, What about if you're on the market for a house, 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:16.160 you're looking for somewhere to buy, how do you leverage 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.840 cvs in your negotiation process? 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.720 Perhaps kind of depends what you're trying to do in 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:24.120 which side of the table you're on. 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:25.720 So it's something a bit cheaper. 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.160 Yeah, yeah, I'll. 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.239 May be a good example a Native mind was trying 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.200 to sell their property. They looked at their CV and 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.200 they thought, hmmm, we've done some renovations to this property, 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:37.920 so the CV looks a bit low. 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:39.280 I know what we'll do. 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.280 We'll go to the council and we'll try and get 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.920 that CV adjusted up and that will mean that we 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.000 pay a little bit more rates temporarily, but that will 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.080 look a bit better to the buyer because then they'll think, wow, 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.959 if the CV is up here, that means we're getting 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.440 a really good deal. And so one trick if you 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.240 are selling your property and you've done some renovations all 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.840 the market has moved up is it does cost you 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.000 the money. But if you get a registered valuation, you 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.040 can go to the council and say, hey, put my 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.880 CV up And even though it means that the next 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.760 buyer will have to pay slightly more in rates, often 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.160 that's going to help you in terms of positioning where 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:18.000 your property is. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.120 That sounds a bit sneaky, ed. 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.960 Is it? It's not sneaky. The CV is the CV 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.040 an actual fact. Buyers and sellers should not really care 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.800 too much about the cvs, because they're really out of date. 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.120 Even sitting here today, the CV of my house was 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.040 set twelve months ago, so that doesn't really reflect the 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.920 value of what the property is today. But given that 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.440 some buyers and some sellers really care about the CV 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.360 and think that that's an accurate reflection of the value. 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.480 If you are a seller, if you are a buyer, 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.400 then this is about how do you position how do 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.440 you position this house to either get the price that 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.080 you want or the sale price that you want. 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.520 Looking at house prices in general, how are things performing 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.120 at the moment? I've seen reporting, including from Opus Partners, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.040 on a two tier recovery happening around New Zealand. Can 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:17.520 you explain that to us? 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.360 We are seeing some parts of the country pretty much 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.120 flat or still going down. Parts of Wellington over the 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.959 last twelve months have seen property prices fall four five 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.120 in some cases up to nine percent. So we're still seeing, 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.960 especially Wellingtonian's doing it really tough. Compare that to a 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.439 place like in the cargol Over the last twelve months, 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.280 house prices up four percent since the bottom of the 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.720 market about two years ago. In the Cargo City, house 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.600 prices are up around about fifteen percent since the bottom 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.120 of the market. Dunedin's up eight percent, Queenstown's up eleven percent, 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.680 christ Church is up seven percent. So if you're sitting 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.959 here in Auckland's like i am, you're probably seeing a 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:56.960 very very flat property market. 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:58.920 But not everywhere in the. 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.520 Country is flat, and so we are in this period 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:03.960 where you're going to get a lot of conflicting information 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.120 about our house prices going up, are they going down, 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.120 are they staying the same. The other thing that's going 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.680 to contribute to that is that while we're in this 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.040 flat market, there are three different data providers that the 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.079 media will quote qv core Logic, which is ow called Totality, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.839 and the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. Because all 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:26.960 of these organizations release different measures, one data company might 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.480 be saying house prices are going up while another one 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.800 is saying they're going down. And we just saw that 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.680 last month where Cotality formerly core Logic, was saying yep, 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.320 house prices have ticked up zero point two percent over 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.000 the last month, and just a couple of weeks before that, 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.360 Rhymes came out and said house prices are down zero 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:44.280 point six percent. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.840 Right, So when it comes to reading into those valuations 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:53.120 and those kind of that criteria critiques. We've got to 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.080 keep it kind of like treat it like a political 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.880 poll maybe, so pick and choose things and really look 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.720 into the data really to see what we can get 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.160 from it, rather than just taking everything verbatim. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.440 Do you know, well, that's a really good analogy. 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.640 Never heard somebody explain it that way, But that's exactly 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.960 how you should think about it. Just like political polls 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.880 are up or down, they are just one reading. You 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.400 probably do want to look at all of the different 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.440 data sources together. The truth of the matter is the 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.360 property market is pretty flat. We are seeing that and 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.320 across a range of different measures. So I'll give you 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.760 another example. It's not just house prices that are pretty flat. 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.640 New build dwelling consents have basically flattened out and have 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.560 for the last year to eighteen months. We're now roughly 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.360 issuing the same number of new dwelling consents that we 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.800 were back in twenty nineteen. So during the big COVID boom, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.920 we saw this massive ramp up in construction that's now 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.559 come back and is settled down around that twenty nineteen 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.320 level housing stocks. Another one to look at. We saw 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.000 this massive ramp up of lots and lots and lots 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.800 of people listing their properties for sale over the last 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.360 year to eighteen months. That has now flattened out in 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.959 terms of the amount of housing stock. It's landed out 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.280 at a high level, but there's just a bit more 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.760 stability going on in the market at that moment. 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.400 There is an objection process for the CVS. If you 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.040 believe that the CV is incorrect for your property. Now 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.240 reasons that you might want to do this. The most 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.800 likely reason would be that the CV is significantly higher 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.839 than you would expect, which means you'd pay more rates 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.520 than you would expect, so you might want to object 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.520 to get the CV lower. The other reason is that 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.280 some parties in the market, and we wouldn't really agree 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.439 with this, but some parties do use the CV as 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.480 like a benchmark if they're selling their property, and they 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.120 might want to get it higher for that reason. Although 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:48.040 we would argue that better quality information means that the 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.600 cvs are less important for that purpose these days, but 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.120 put that aside, you might want to object to it. 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:56.800 Right when I moved to New Zealand, one of the 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:00.559 things I always heard about was the housing cre crisis 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.520 that was ten years ago. Granted, but it does feel 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.360 like we aren't talking about this crisis. We're not in 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.080 crisis mode these days, a thing stabilizing in terms of 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.680 those new builds and in terms of the housing market 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:13.160 in a whole. 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:13.920 Yeah, you did right. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.000 We've moved on to about seventy five other crisis we're found. Yeah, 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.120 and it's nice to see it. Australian, come the other way, 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.080 come over the side of the tasmhen. It's great to 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:22.840 have you here, Chelsey. 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:24.080 We have of us here. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:28.280 We are seeing that stability now in terms of the 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.120 level of housing stock flatted out, the level of new 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.680 build dwelling consents flatten out, house prices flattening out. It's 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.880 only when we really start to see a lot of 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.720 inflation house prices skyrocket that we start to really call 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.600 it a crisis. I do think in five, ten, fifteen 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.520 years time there will be another cycle where it comes 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.400 back and we're talking about a housing crisis again. But 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.640 at the moment, because a lot of things are flattening 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.080 out and stabilizing, our attention is elsewhere. It is a 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.560 great time to be a home buyer right now. There 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.640 is a a lot of housing stock on the market, 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.680 more than we've had for the last about ten years. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.640 While interest rates are coming down and so there are 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.520 there are more buyers stepping forward and saying, yes, we 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.160 are going to purchase. But that's not translating into higher 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.640 house prices, and that's not translating into fewer listings property 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.800 listings available on the likes of trade me or one 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:24.480 roof for real Estate dot courd Denz. 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.920 So finally, ed overall, how do you rate the health 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:30.520 of the housing market? 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.040 Oh, on a scale of what Chelsea? 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.160 Oh, go on, I haven't thought that far ahead. Give 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.480 it like out of ten stars or something. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.080 I would give it like a four or a five. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.920 It's not sick anymore in terms of house prices falling 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.920 massively and homeowner has been really worried about that. Across 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.440 most of the country, it's pretty stable across again, those 0:15:55.760 --> 0:16:00.000 number of listings online, properties selling again, it's all pretty safe. 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:01.440 I'd give it four or five. 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.840 But having said that, houses are still expensive, right, so 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.120 if you were a first home buyer look at the market, 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.280 you'd say absolutely not, it's one out of ten because 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.640 I'm still struggling to purchase the House. 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:14.880 Thanks for joining us, ed Thanks Chelsea. 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.160 That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.000 can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:29.080 at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.840 produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:34.080 a sound engineer. 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:36.080 I'm Chelsea Daniels. 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.800 Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.640 get your podcasts, and tune in on Monday for another 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:45.359 look behind the headlines.