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Banks use test rates to make sure that home loan applicants could cope with movements in interest rates. Photo: RNZ Banks are lowering the test rates they use to check whether borrowers can afford home loans, and brokers expect more cuts to follow. Banks use test rates to make sure that home loan applicants could cope with movements in interest rates. They are set higher than the rates currently being charged. They had been about 8.95 percent, but this week two main banks cut by about 20 basis points and 25 basis points. It comes as wholesale rates fall on the expectation that the Reserve Bank will begin cutting the official cash rate towards the end of this year. Mortgage broker David Windler said he would expect other banks to follow. "The impact of that depends on how much debt you'r...

The reports began shortly before 8.30am on Thursday. Photo: AFP / Gerard Julien Microsoft says it is looking into reports some of its services are down around New Zealand. Products such as Outlook, Azure cloud computing and Teams were affected. There were thousands of reports of Microsoft failures across the country, according to DownDetector, a site which monitors internet outages. Parliamentary Services said the Parliament precinct was experiencing problems, suggesting a downed server might be to blame. It came a day after Microsoft services including Outlook and Minecraft were subject to a cyber-attack, and nearly two weeks after a botched software rollout by a third party took down millions of computers running Microsoft Windows. The reports began shortly before 8.30am on Thursday. ...

New Zealand's house values remain about 16 percent below the boom-time peak of $982,918 in January 2022. File photo. Photo: 123rf House values have fallen for the fifth month in a row, but cheaper prices are not expected to move an abundance of housing stock until interest rates get the chop. Corelogic's latest home value index shows there was a 0.5 percent fall in July, which takes the total decline from February's mini peak to 2.5 percent. The median value for stock nationally is now $827,515. Head of research Nick Goodall said a significant drop in interest rates was needed to get the market growing and moving again. "The dynamics are a little bit in balance as there's reason for demand, but that demand is held back by tight credit. "Even though investors might be in a better environ...

The debt situation has slightly improved, but more consumers are still behind on their power bills. File photo. Photo: Kelly Sikema / Unsplash The country's debt burden is stabilising, but consumers are faring better than businesses, according to new data. The latest report from credit bureau Centrix for June showed a slight improvement in the number of people in arrears, falling 9000 to 465,000 on the month before, although were still up 9 percent on a year ago. "Consumer arrears are not materially deteriorating, with only marginal increases and decreases noted from month to month," managing director Keith McLaughlin said. But he said there were pockets of distress. Mortgage repayment arrears were marginally lower at 21,500, although the number in financial hardship has risen by close ...

Auckland suburbs can all look similar from the air, but down on the ground there could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in differences. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski Would you pay more to live in Khandallah than Ngaio? Or St Heliers rather than Glen Innes? Data from Corelogic suggests buyers do - and the premium paid for a sought-after suburb can be hundreds of thousands of dollars more than its neighbours. Corelogic head of research Nick Goodall looked at the median value of three-bedroom houses in neighbouring suburbs. He found Epsom had a median of $1.92 million compared to a median of $1.52m in next-door Greenlane. St Heliers had a median $1.7m compared to $1.12m in Glen Innes. Mt Eden was a median $1.91m compared to $1.07m in Mt Roskill, Remuera was $1.8m compared to ...

The tower development is planned to include retail and eateries. Photo: Supplied / Precinct Properties Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has launched a new Māori-led investment initiative, Te Tomokanga ki Tāmaki - The Gateway to Auckland. Iwi deputy chairperson Ngarimu Blair made the announcement on Wednesday while speaking at the National Iwi Chair Forum hosted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei on Auckland's waterfront. It was followed by an announcement of plans to transform Auckland's skyline through the redevelopment of the contested Auckland Downtown Carpark into a 56-storey skyscraper with areas for retail and eateries. Speaking to a crowd of iwi and business leaders, Blair said the initiative was designed to be collaborative and was underpinned by tīkanga Māori. "As tangata whenua and iwi of the Waitemat...

Don Grant died working at Lyttelton Port on 25 April, 2022. Photo: Supplied/ the Grant family The Lyttelton Port Company has been fined in Christchurch District Court on Wednesday, after a staff member was killed on the job in April 2022. Don Grant died when he was struck and killed by coal, on the deck of a cargo ship. He was hit when coal was being moved from the port via a conveyor belt, and loaded onto the ship by a jet-slinger. The jet-slinger propels coal into the ship's hold. Don Grant remembered by family after death at Lyttelton Port At the time of the incident, Grant was working as a "hatchman", and was stationed on the deck of the ship. Grant was following LPC's procedures, and was standing in the position he was trained to. Maritime NZ director Kirstie Hewlett said investig...

File image. Photo: RNZ / Kate Newton A digger driver has died after his machine became submerged at Rotorua's Kaingaroa Forest. Forestry company Timberlands says the incident took place at its processing plant just after 11am. Emergency services were called to the address around midday. Specialists including the Serious Crash Unit, police and the National Dive Squad were called in and the driver was found dead. WorkSafe has been advised. In a statement, Timberlands said the man who died was a third-party contractor working on site. "We are deeply saddened by this tragic event. I have been to the site and spoken to many of the people on site," Timberlands chief executive Ryan Cavanagh said. "At this stage, what we know is a contractor was operating a long-reach excavator to clear a drain...

(file image) Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Business confidence jumped for the first time in six months as firms expect activity to improve from its lows and inflation to come down. ANZ's monthly business outlook showed headline confidence up 21 points to a net 27 percent in July, while firms' activity outlook rose 4 points. However, reported past activity fell further as firms continued to struggle in challenging economic conditions. ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said the survey was a mixed bag, as forward-looking indicators picked up, but past activity showed most sectors were doing it tough. "Most sectors continue to deteriorate, with construction and retail the weakest sectors by quite some margin. The economy-wide indicator is looking very soft," she said. The improvement i...

Building consents for new residences have fallen to a five-year low as a slowing economy and high costs knock demand. Stats NZ said consents for June were down 14 percent on May, and about 24 percent on a year ago driven by a slump in apartments, town houses, and retirement village units. "The number of both apartments and retirement village units consented in the year ended June 2024 is the lowest in the last nine years," Stats NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said. The annual number of consents has fallen from a peak of 51,000 in mid-2022 to 33,600 in the year ended June. The sharpest declines occurred across the country but most pronounced in Auckland down 27 percent, Wellington down 36 percent, and Canterbury down 16 percent. The business and commercial se...