Whether National or Labour is elected in a fortnight’s time, chartered accountant and tax specialist Matthew Gilligan of Gilligan Rowe & Associates says tax rules will change.

Part of the early-stage recovery in the housing market comes from loan-to-value ratio rules being loosened in June.

Mortgage adviser Jeff Royle, a significant player in the non-bank sector, says he has never come across a country so obsessed with interest rates.

Using Stats NZ’s urban-rural area classification, Infometrics has looked at New Zealand’s larger towns and cities and how they are projected to change.

For the first time this year the value of new mortgages for home buyers was higher than the same month last year.

While the OCR is expected to hold at 5.50% at next month’s OCR review, at least three banks – ANZ, Westpac, HSBC – believe it will rise to 5.75% at the November RBNZ meeting. That’s despite the Reserve Bank’s indication it is not expecting to hike further in this cycle.

ANZ reckons house prices will now lift 4% over the second half of this year. This is up 1% from its previous forecast of 3%.

One of the most annoying things for mortgage adviser Brenda Murney of Vega is how banks assess affordability.

Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr says interest rate cuts could start as early as May next year.

Mortgage completion rates are being used as a tool by banks to monitor the loyalty, effectiveness and servicing need for their adviser channel.

The FMA and Commerce Commission have given lenders a steer on how to help customers in financial difficulty.

Whether New Zealand is still in a recession or not will be known on Thursday when GDP figures for the second quarter of this year are revealed on Thursday.

As the residential market turns around from a deep downturn, properties for sale are spending less time on the market and prices have increased for the first time in 10 months.

The self-styled “most open minded lender” Bizcap has written 5,000 loans for small businesses worth about $235,000,000 since its arrival in New Zealand two years ago, but has also had a number of defaults.

Unsecured loans are the way of the future for small businesses, Lend Capital co-founder Bill Baker says.