Agents Walk Away from Landlords Who Miss Healthy Homes Cut-Off

Topic #1:  Good Returns 15th of April - Non-banks may offer lower rates under deposit insurance scheme

Topic #2: NZ Herald 15th of April - NZ’s house price median drops $30,000 annually, Auckland down 2.8%: REINZ

Topic #3: Oneroof 20th of April - ‘Too much of a risk’ - Agents to fire landlords who ignore Healthy Homes deadline

Topic #4: NZ Herald 14th of April -Kiwi card spending drops 0.8% in March, Stats NZ data reveal

Topic #5: Corelogic 16th of April -Buyer power dynamics are changing

Chapters

• 1:01 Topic #1: Good Returns 15th of April - Non-banks may offer lower rates under deposit insurance scheme
• 3:41 Topic #2: NZ Herald 15th of April - NZ’s house price median drops $30,000 annually, Auckland down 2.8%: REINZ
• 8:49 Topic #3: Oneroof 20th of April - ‘Too much of a risk’ - Agents to fire landlords who ignore Healthy Homes deadline
• 12:35 Topic #4: NZ Herald 14th of April -Kiwi card spending drops 0.8% in March, Stats NZ data reveal
• 15:27 Topic #5: Corelogic 16th of April -Buyer power dynamics are changing

Transcript

 Hi everyone. I'm Debbie Roberts, owner and financial advisor at Property Apprentice. Join us today for the week in review where I talk about current events for the everyday investor and home buyer. Our topics for this week, topic number one, from   📍 Good Returns on the 15th of April, non-banks may offer lower rates under deposit insurance scheme.  Topic number two, from   📍 New Zealand Herald, on the 15th of April, new Zealand's house price median drops $30,000 annually= auckland down 2.8% from R-E-I-N-Z.  Topic number three, from   📍 Oneroof on the 20th of April.

Too much of a risk agents to fire landlords who ignore healthy homes deadline.  Topic number four, from the   📍 New Zealand Herald on the 14th of April. Kiwi card spending drops 0.8% in March- stats New Zealand data reveals  topic number five   📍 logic on the 16th of April: buyer power dynamics are changing.

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 So first up for this, we in review from Good Returns on the 15th of April. Non-banks may offer lower rates under deposit insurance scheme. 

New Zealand is set to introduce a deposit compensation scheme, DCS in July, marking a major shift in the country's financial system managed by the Reserve Bank, the scheme will ensure deposits up to $100,000 per person, per institution, offering greater security for investors. Professor David Tripe, director of Gold Band Finance describes the DCS as a significant change that will reduce concerns about the safety of financial institutions.

He notes that while similar systems have been in place in over 110 countries, starting with the US in 1934, New Zealand is relatively late to adopt one. The DCS is expected to enhance financial stability by reducing the risk of bank runs. However, Tripe warns it could lead to a drop in deposit interest rates, especially for non-bank institutions.

With depositors now less exposed to risk, these institutions may not need to offer as high a return to attract funds. Although non-bank deposit takers will likely continue to offer slightly higher rates than major banks, the premium is expected to shrink drawing on past data from New Zealand's temporary guarantee during the global financial crisis, Tripe highlights that the interests rate gap between banks and finance companies narrowed significantly

at the time. Deposits over $100,000 will only be insured up to that threshold. So interest rates on larger deposits may remain unchanged as depositors may decide to split their large investments up across several different lenders or banks in order to protect their deposits. Additionally, higher risk institutions are not expected to lower their rates simply due to in increased insurance costs.

Investors won't need to take any action to be covered under the scheme, but may choose to move funds to other insured institutions offering better rates. Tripe also points out that banks and deposit takers may face operational challenges in onboarding new customers under current anti-money laundering rules.

While the long-term impact of the DCS remains uncertain due to limited precedent, Tripe anticipates a narrowing of the current interest rate differences across financial institutions, particularly between banks and non-bank lenders.

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Topic number two from the New Zealand Herald on the 15th of April. New Zealand's house price median drops $30,000 annually, auckland down 2.8% according to REI NZ or REINZ. New Zealand house prices have dropped again with the national median falling by $30,000. That's 1.4% to $790,000 in the year to March

according to new data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, REINZ. Of the country's regions, prices declined or remained unchanged in 10 and rose only six. It now takes a median of 41 days to sell a home that's three days longer than a year ago. Auckland, which remains the most expensive region, saw a 2.8% drop.

REINZ noted that first home buyers, investors and owner-occupiers remain active. Vendor expectations varied. Some met market pricing while others held out for higher offers, which isn't entirely surprising as there are some motivated vendors out there, but obviously not everyone who's selling a property has to sell.

Open home attendance also different across the city with some properties attracting strong interest and others receiving none. Auction attendance in Auckland was mixed, and market sentiment was influenced by economic conditions, lending criteria, and buyer confidence. Local agents remain cautiously optimistic about a slow and steady improvement. In regional markets.

 In regional markets, Northland Waikato Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay experienced increases and Wellington, Otago Canterbury, and Taranaki saw declines.

Some regions did show growth. Gisborne and the West Coast saw the strongest increase at 11.5%. In contrast, Nelson recorded the largest year-on-year drop. Listings also rose with a 5% increase in properties on the market compared to March last year, reaching over 12,000 properties. That's a lot of properties to choose from when you're buying.

This surge in inventory has reduced buyer urgency. With many buyers feeling confident they can find similar properties. If they miss out on one. It's still a buyer's market. Despite the rise in unsold stock, ryan's acting, CEO Rowan Dixon described the market as vibrant rather than stagnant. He noted increased attendance at many open homes and auctions and said that even unsold auction properties were drawing strong post auction interest.

Westpac Chief economist Michael Gordon, observed that house prices had been trending upward in recent months, supported by lower interest rates and also lower test rates from the banks, which means that increased lending is available. 

The REINZ house price index rose 0.2% in March. That's the fifth consecutive month of similar gains. However, a NZ Chief economist Sharon Zollner noted that while sales are improving, high levels of inventory are keeping prices constrained. She said listings were around decade highs, offering buyers plenty of choice and limiting price pressure.

She added there's now a downside risk to the forecast of a 6% price increase in 2025.  Meanwhile, Auckland's largest real estate agency, Barfoot and Thompson reported its strongest sale month in over three years, selling 1,213 properties in March. However, the Agency's unsold stock also reached record levels climbing from 5,300 in January to 6,200 by March.

That's a significant increase. So you know, that shows that there's plenty of buying opportunities out there still. Managing director Peter Thompson said that the Auckland market has responded strongly to better buying conditions. He believes the long awaited recovery has finally arrived with both sale volumes and prices reaching the highest level so far this calendar year. My thoughts are we are still likely to remain quite a balanced market for some time yet because of the large number of properties that are on the market.

So even though there's increased buyers, no need to feel pressured to purchasing anything.   📍  📍 If you'd like to learn more about investing in property, join me at one of our free events called How to Succeed With Property Investing. I'll discuss strategies for successful investing from my perspective as an experienced investor and financial advisor, and all of our free events are available live and online.

Check out www.propertyapprentice.co.Nz for upcoming dates and register today. We don't sell property, so it's all about increasing your knowledge to reduce your risk.  If you've already been to one of our free events   📍  📍 and you'd like to find out more about how we can help you to reach your financial goals, you can also book a no obligation phone call or meeting with my husband Paul Roberts via the website, and that's www.propertyapprentice.co.nz.

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 Topic number three, from Oneroof on the 20th of April. Too much of a risk agents to fire landlords who ignore healthy homes deadline. Property management firms across New Zealand are preparing to cut ties with landlords who failed to meet healthy Homes Standards by the July 1 deadline, the changes which have been years in the making aim to ensure rental properties are warm, dry, and safe, but some landlords are still lagging behind.

Harcourts Hamilton Rentals has already ended relationships with some non-compliant clients. Managing Director Melanie Rouse said all their landlords had been put on, put on notice due to the high risk of managing properties that don't meet legal standards. She estimated that four or five clients may be dropped if upgrades aren't completed soon, but hoped that the remaining would act before the deadline.

Healthy Homes Standards introduced in 2019 require rental properties to meet minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture management, and draft stopping. Landlords were given from July, 2021 until July 2024. To bring their properties into compliance. So there's really no excuse. You have had plenty of opportunity to sort it out.

If you were unaware of this, you need to get onto it. ASAP, if you've got a rental property that doesn't meet healthy Homes Standards. Because if you leave it till the last minute, you might have trouble getting tradies to install the heat pumps and all sorts of other issues could arise. In many cases, installing heat pumps or under floor insulation is enough to meet the requirements.

So it's not necessarily a massive cost to, to the landlords. Property Brokers is also pressuring landlords to comply, stating that around 10% of its clients are still non-compliant. David Faulkner, who leads the agency's property management division, said letters have been sent to those landlords warning that their accounts would be put on hold unless upgrades were completed.



He expressed concern that some landlords might ignore the law, suspecting limited government resources to enforce compliance. However, there is a huge risk that your tenants could take you to the Tenancy Tribunal and they would win. In that situation after the 1st of July, so just be warned. Ray White's property management head, Zac Snelling believes that most landlords will meet the deadline, but warned that late comers may face higher costs to get the work done quickly, or the inability to be able to get it done in the timeframe

as I mentioned earlier. He emphasized that while agencies prefer not to end relationships with landlords and leave tenants without compliant homes, they would not continue managing non-compliant properties. He added that if landlords find compliance costs too high, they may need to reconsider being in the rental business. Brett Wilson, national Manager of the Government's Tenancy Compliance and Investigations team confirmed that non-compliance constitutes a breach of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, and could result in financial penalties quite steep ones. His team will continue monitoring through inspections and documentation reviews. A government spokesperson noted that some exemptions apply. General exemptions cover cases where landlords intend to demolish or substantially rebuild the property and have applied for the necessary consents.

These exemptions can last up to 12 months from the start of the new tenancy, and landlords must include them in the compliance statement given to tenants.

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 Topic number four, from the New Zealand Herald on the 14th of April. Kiwi card spending drops 0.8% in March- Statsts New Zealand data reveals. Kiwi consumers cut back on card spending in March with most categories seeing declines compared to February,

according to data from Stats New Zealand showing that there is still quite a bit of financial pain out there in the economy. Retail spending fell by $52 million in March, 2025 with core retail industries also dropping by 0.8% amounting to a $46 million decrease. The largest decline was in durables fuel and apparel spending also fell with fuel down 2.3% or $12 million and apparel down 2.1% or $6.9 million.

Hospitality spending also decreased by 1.1% or $14 million. The only significant increase was in motor vehicle spending, excluding fuel, which rose 2.1% or $4 million. Consumables saw a slight increase while services such as repair, personal care, and funeral services had minor growth of 0.3% or $1 million.

Non-retail spending, excluding services dropped 3.3% or $7.6 million, primarily in medical, travel, postal and courier services. Overall total electronic card spending, including non-retail categories, decreased by 1.5% or $137 million. Card holders made 169 million transactions in March with an average transaction value of $54 amounting to a total spend of $9.2 billion.

Westpac Senior economists, Satish Ranchhod noted that the results were weaker than expected. 

March's decline in retail spending was widespread, particularly across discretionary categories. Grocery spending was the only category to see an increase rising 0.4%, although Rancho pointed out that prices for many grocery items had increased significantly in recent months.

He also noted that the economy appeared to have lost some momentum with core spending, excluding fuel, essentially flat since the start of the year, retailers have reported sluggish sales with cost of living pressures continuing to affect spending. Ranchhod concluded that the broader economic recovery in New Zealand is likely to remain gradual with many borrowers still on relatively high mortgage rates.

However, as more than half of all mortgages come up for re-fixing in the next six months, a shift to lower rates is expected to boost spending later in the year. 

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Topic number five from Corelogic On the 16th of April, buyer power dynamics are changing. In the latest pulse report, Corelogic new Zealand's Chief Property economist Kelvin Davidson, breaks down buyer classification data from the first quarter of 2025 revealing a slight decline in first home buyer activity or FHB activity as mortgaged investors start to reemerge.

Particularly the smaller mom and dad investors focused on existing properties. Corelogic's data shows fhb or first home buyers accounted for 25% of all property purchases in the first quarter of 2025. That's down slightly from 26% in quarter four last year, 2024. This marks the lowest level of first home buyer market share since quarter 1, 2023.

However, when you dig deeper into the data, it shows that the total number of properties sold has increased. So even though first time buyer market share is down a bit, year-on-year, the number of sales means that they purchased nearly a hundred more properties in quarter one this year than in quarter one last year.

So don't lose hope if you're a first time buyer and stay tuned. 'cause there's more on this to follow. Movers or owner occupiers shifting home made up 26% of the market while cashed multiple property owners, MPOs and mortgaged multiple property owners. MPOs saw increased shares at 14% and 23% respectively.

So in other words, that's uh, that's multiple property owners or property investors without mortgages or. Multiple property owners, property investors with mortgages. Okay. This trend was reflected across most of the major centers, though the Wellington region, including Lower and Upper Hut, and Porirua continues to be a stronghold for first home buyers.

With their market share held steady at 35%. 

The comparatively lower property values in the capital appear to be creating more accessible opportunities provided buyers feel secure in their employment. Falling mortgage rates down from over 7% to below 5% in the past six to nine months, approving particularly beneficial for mortgaged investors.

Supporting policies such as the reduced deposit requirements from 35% down to the current 30%, shorter bright line test period down to two years, and the full reinstatement of mortgage interest deductibility have helped tip the scales. However, the biggest game changer seems to be the reduced need for weekly cash top-ups.

At peak mortgage rates, investors might have needed to cover an extra $400 a week or more out of their own pockets. Now that figure's closer to $200 on average, which is still substantial, but more manageable. This is why understanding the numbers is so important when you're investing in property. If a property's negative cash flow also known as negatively geared at the same time when there's little or no capital growth,

that's a really quick way to suck the fun out of investing unless you're in a very strong financial position and you're in it for the long haul. The resurgence in investor activities being driven primarily by smaller players, . Mortgaged multiple property owners with two properties in total after their most recent purchase, have increased their market share from 6% in mid 2023 to 8% today.

Interestingly, the focus on new builds by mortgaged investors is easing. Those properties made up 30% of investor purchases in 2023 and 29% in 2024, but that's dropped to 27% in 2025 so far.  While the shift may be temporary, it reflects the tax changes that have made older properties more financially viable once again, especially since the cash flow tends to be stronger with existing properties compared to new builds.

As new builds are often they're, they're often 6% more expensive on average than existing properties. And oversupply of existing listings on the market may also be giving investors more attractive buying opportunities amongst established homes. The trends in quarter 1 2025 are in line with Corelogic's expectations.

First time buyers are likely to see a slight dip in their market share while mortgaged investors rebound from historical lows. But that doesn't mean first home buyers are disappearing with overall market activity forecast to rise by about 10,000 extra transactions this year, first home buyers are still expected to buy more properties in 2025 than they did in 2024, even if their share of the total market is a little bit lower.

Many of the key supports for first home buyers remain intact. Access to KiwiSaver for deposits and their priority access to low deposit lending options at the banks, provide strong footing. For investors the improving cash flow outlook, thanks to recently falling house prices and more recently falling interest rates

makes property an increasingly attractive option. Continued uncertainty in global markets, including potential tariff issues, is also likely to make property a more attractive investment option over equities or bonds. If you're a first time buyer navigating a shifting property market, or if you're an aspiring investor ready to take advantage of improving conditions, now's the perfect time to build your knowledge and confidence.  📍  📍 

Join us at one of our free events called How to Succeed With Property Investing. These events are all available live and online, so you can gain valuable insights and up-to-date strategies tailored to today's market conditions. Whether you're an experienced investor or just getting started, this free session will equip you with the key tools and insights to make con confident informed decisions.

Don't miss out. Register today and take the next step to achieving your financial success.  In our free events, I'll also tell you more about how we help our clients to achieve their investing goals. So if you're interested in finding out more about what we do, visit www.propertyapprentice.co.Nz today and sign up for one of those free events.

 If you've   📍  📍 already been to one and you'd like to know more about how we can help you on your journey book a no obligation phone call or meeting with my husband Paul Roberts through our website. That's www.propertyapprentice.co.nz.  Thanks for listening.