{"id":475288,"date":"2026-06-13T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/475288\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T11:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:00:33","slug":"housing-market-loses-momentum-as-rates-and-policy-weigh-on-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/475288\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing market loses momentum as rates and policy weigh on activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Federal budget <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpamag.com\/au\/news\/general\/cgt-negative-gearing-reforms-one-step-closer-to-reality\/577726\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax<\/a> have added to existing pressures. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen those three rate hikes from the RBA\u2026 and then additional pressure from the budget changes,&#8221; Saunders said. &#8220;It&#8217;s adding to the pressure that was already there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The reforms are intended to channel investment into new housing and improve affordability over time, but Saunders cautioned that supply constraints remain a significant obstacle. &#8220;Until you address those supply issues, we don&#8217;t see it making a meaningful dent,&#8221; he said, pointing to high construction costs, regulatory complexity and infrastructure bottlenecks as key barriers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0376_639167634097632853.png\" style=\"width: 40%; height: 40%; float: right; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpamag.com\/au\/companies\/commbank\/421614\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CommBank<\/a> has also revised its house price outlook downward, now projecting flat national prices across 2026. &#8220;We now expect house prices to be flat over the course of this year,&#8221; Saunders said.<\/p>\n<p>Sydney and Melbourne are expected to record <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpamag.com\/au\/news\/general\/major-bank-predicts-brisbane-sydney-house-prices-to-fall-this-year\/576532\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">near-term price declines<\/a> as softer sentiment and reduced investor demand flow through those markets. Brisbane and Perth, where supply and demand are more tightly balanced, are expected to experience a smaller pullback.<\/p>\n<p>On the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpamag.com\/au\/news\/general\/new-buyers-risk-negative-equity-in-two-major-markets-cba-warns\/577739\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">risk of negative equity<\/a> for buyers who entered the market ahead of the Budget, Saunders said exposure is likely to remain limited. &#8220;It&#8217;s a possibility that some first-home buyers could be tipped into negative equity, depending on their circumstances,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we don&#8217;t expect this to be a widespread issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal budget changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax have added to existing pressures. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen those&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,3914,219,6338,111,139,69,7676],"class_list":["post-475288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economist","tag-economy","tag-housing-market","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}