A member of the Government's Savings Working Group says an impending housing shortage threatens to derail an improvement in household savings.
BNZ economist Stephen Toplis says builders are not keeping up with demand from natural population growth let alone the extra needed to replace homes in Christchurch, or for leaky building replacements.
He says that shortfall risks house prices shooting up again and people increasing borrowing once again to invest in property.
Mr Toplis says such a development would undermine the improvement in the household savings rate which has been evident since the housing market came off the boil in 2007.
