Auckland home affordability improves - Massey researchers

Reserve Bank moves to cool an overheated property market may be having the desired effect. Photo / NZ Herald

Lower interest rates and less spectacular house price increases have resulted in Auckland home affordability improving by 4.9 per cent in the last three months.

The Massey University Home Affordability Report out this morning showed housing was becoming more accessible to buyers in New Zealand's largest city.

Auckland remains 52 per cent less affordable than the national average, down slightly from 56 per cent last quarter, but still close to its historic high.

"The margin by which Auckland exceeds the national figure has slipped back a little, but at 52 per cent less affordable than the whole country, it remains at a historically high level," the report said.

Some improvement in affordability figures over the past three months was due mainly to falling mortgage rates and broadly static house prices, the report said.

Susan Flint-Hartle, a Massey senior property lecturer, noted the effect on Auckland.

"Even Auckland falls in line with this trend - affordability in our largest city has improved by 4.9 per cent since our last report in June. Having said that, affordability in Auckland has still decreased by 16.6 per cent over the past 12 months," she said.

"While affordability trends show some improvement in this report, the relative levels of affordability across the country haven't really changed much. You must remember that these small improvements are coming off the back of historic levels of unaffordability," she said.

The report, which covers the period from June 2015 to August 2015, shows home affordability across New Zealand improved by 2.3 per cent over the quarter, but the national index still shows a year-on-year decline of 6.7 per cent.

See the full report here: