Reserve Bank deputy governor Grant Spencer says it's still too early to declare victory with the recent slowdown in house prices and the central bank will be monitoring demand pressures from migration and the ability of the construction sector to convert intentions into actual builds.
The central bank acknowledged the moderation in house prices when keeping the official cash rate at 1.75 per cent today, saying loan-to-value ratio limits on highly-leveraged lending and increasing mortgage rates had helped cool the market which has posed a threat to the stability of the wider financial system in recent years. New Zealand is experiencing a building boom, driven largely by the housing shortage in the country's largest city of Auckland which is failing to keep up with rapid population growth.
A key uncertainty for the bank is whether net migration starts to taper off, with the RBNZ's forecasters struggling as much as the rest of the market to accurately predict when the number of new arrivals will fall. The country's strong economy with 3.5 per cent average annual growth tipped over the coming four years remains an attraction, especially when Australia's fortunes remain subdued.
"Clearly, house prices have moderated," Spencer told BusinessDesk in an interview. "It's good news but as you know the LVRs on previous occasions have had an effect for six-to-nine months and then the markets come back because of the ongoing migration and supply having trouble keeping up, so that's again a potential risk this year and so we're being a bit cautious and not declaring victory."
While the inflationary aspect of rising house prices and the spillover into domestic demand might be showing signs of moderating, Spencer said the central bank was still wary of household consumption, which unexpectedly accelerated through the second half of last year.
