{"id":586208,"date":"2026-08-31T20:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586208\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:32:13","slug":"kiwis-say-higher-interest-rates-a-matter-of-when-not-if-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586208\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwis say higher interest rates a matter of when, not if \u2013 survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than half of New Zealanders believe higher interest rates are inevitable, with a net 57% telling ASB’s latest housing confidence survey they expect borrowing rates to climb over the coming year.<\/p>\n

The Reserve Bank will review the Official Cash Rate on Wednesday, with ASB tipping a second straight rise.<\/p>\n

The net 57% survey result, covering the three months to July, was up from net 48% the previous quarter and the highest since April 2023, the bank said in its September report.<\/p>\n

The Reserve Bank kicked off its tightening cycle with a 25 basis point OCR rise in early July<\/a>, with ASB picking further increases at every remaining meeting this year.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Reserve Bank, led by governor Anna Breman, is tipped by ASB to lift the OCR again on Wednesday. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

ASB senior economist Jane Turner said the bank expected the OCR to hit 3.25% by the end of the year, a total lift of 100 basis points. <\/p>\n

“We expect the RBNZ will remain proactive and hike the OCR 25 basis points at each remaining meeting this year,” she said.<\/p>\n

ASB\u2019s acting chief economist Kim Mundy spoke to Breakfast about its latest housing confidence survey. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

She said the risks sat with a slower pace of hikes, “with the potential for the RBNZ opting to pause at some point”, particularly if domestic demand indicators stayed sluggish.<\/p>\n

The survey also found little doubt in where respondents thought rates were heading: 62% of respondents expected borrowing costs to be higher in a year, 14% expected no change and 5% picked a fall.<\/p>\n

House price confidence cools sharply, buyers still see opening<\/p>\n

\"House<\/p>\n

House price confidence has cooled as borrowers brace for higher interest rates. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

Turner linked the turnaround to the conflict in the Middle East at the end of February that drove up fuel prices and inflation forecasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It has largely been a question of when would the RBNZ would start to lift interest rates, rather than if.”<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates have already started to move. The average two-year fixed rate had risen 41 basis points since January and the one-year rate 21 basis points, the report said.<\/p>\n

The tougher interest rate outlook has dented housing price confidence, with net 9% of respondents expecting prices to rise over the next year, down sharply from a summer peak of net 30%.<\/p>\n

The survey drew responses from 2929 people nationwide between May and July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half of New Zealanders believe higher interest rates are inevitable, with a net 57% telling ASB’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69,244,814],"class_list":["post-586208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586208","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=586208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}