2018 – a year of uncertainty

In 2018, it wasn’t the housing market or the Reserve Bank that provided the volatility and unpredictable outlook.

While a two-speed, main centre vs the regions situation remained at play, the market trucked along through the year at a slow, steady pace. Price growth and sales activity are slowing, but the experts aren’t picking a crash or major correction.

In a similar vein, the Reserve Bank offered up only pleasant surprises: they kept the OCR on hold at the record low of 1.75%, made no further moves towards the introduction of debt-to-income ratios, and, once-again, eased the LVRs at the end of the year.

So rather than the usual suspects, it was the new Labour-led coalition government and its ambitious programme of reform aimed at addressing the housing crisis, which was pushing the wave of change.