标题: ZT: House market unlikely to go pop - ratings agency [打印本页] 作者: NewLynnHse 时间: 2014-3-7 07:31:17 标题: ZT: House market unlikely to go pop - ratings agency
New Zealand's housing market is unlikely to mutate into a US-style bubble, says Standard & Poor's, although rising prices are at the upper level of the credit rating agency's tolerance, it told a briefing in Auckland today.
"We continue to believe there's some underlying demographic features that mean we don't have a US-style bubble in the property market," S&P senior director Peter Sikora told the NZ Capital & Credit Markets briefing.
He said annual growth in property values of 9.6 per cent, was "the upper range of our tolerance" but there were signs the market has stabilised, helped by the Reserve Bank's speed limits and higher capital requirements for banks.
Last month state-owned valuer Quotable Value said the annual pace of property values slowed to 9.6 per cent in the year ended Jan. 31 from 10 per cent a month earlier, and suggested restrictions on low-equity home lending may have started to bite.
The Reserve Bank introduced loan-to-value mortgage lending restrictions from Oct. 1 on concern rapidly accelerating house prices in Auckland and Christchurch may lead to an asset bubble and cause financial instability. The central bank is expected to start hiking interest rates from next week to cool the economy as inflation accelerates.
