Confidence in the property market remains strong but looming restrictions on bank lending may have slightly cooled expectations of surging prices.
Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
Real estate company Colliers International has released two surveys for the six months ending in September, one covering the commercial market, and the other residential.
In both markets, sentiment has held firm in the run-up to tighter lending rules being imposed on banks by the Reserve Bank.
In the commercial property sector, a net 30 percent of respondents were confident of higher rents and yields, and stronger demand, compared with 32 percent in the survey released in March.
Confidence was strongest in Queenstown, at a net 71 percent . But Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland and Wellington also recorded strong results. Sentiment was weakest in Whangarei, where a net 8 percent thought the market would weaken.
On the residential front, a net 57 percent expected median prices to rise compared with 64 percent in the earlier survey.
As with the commercial property survey, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Wellington had the strongest optimism reading for houses.
Colliers' director of research Chris Dibble said the results were a bit softer ahead of the tighter lending restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank, which take effect on 1 October.
The new loan to value (LVR) ratios will require banks to reduce their level of low-deposit mortgage lending to owner-occupiers and property investors.
Mr Dibble said the strength in existing home prices was also being reflected in new builds.
"The new dwellings are really getting an uplift with expectations for more [price] increases over the next 12 months."
