Despite a rise in the number of complaints about mortgage and financial advisers over the year to June, Financial Advice New Zealand chief executive Katrina Shanks says they would have come off an extremely low base considering the number of advisers in the industry.

Interest rate rises are adding $900 a month extra to mortgage repayments for homeowners across the country with an 80% mortgage on a home bought two years ago and $1,600 a month for Aucklanders where house prices are higher.

A sense of normality may have returned to the Auckland housing market with June property sales more in line with traditional pre-Covid sales patterns, says Barfoot & Thompson.

The country’s major banks expect the RBNZ to keep the 5.5% OCR unchanged on Wednesday, which will be the first time it has remained unchanged since August 2021.

Since LVR restrictions were eased six weeks ago, the South Island’s biggest volume mortgage adviser company has seen a surge in business.

The Greens’ calls for rent controls have been persistent for years with little evidence provided to back up claims they work.

Property listings continue to drop and last month was the lowest June on record nationally and in 12 regions monitored by realestate.co.nz.

Despite headlines about recession, confidence lifted markedly in June.

The ANZ Bank says it is premature to believe that the Reserve Bank has done with OCR hikes and interest rates won’t rise any further.

Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee external member Robert Buckle says there must be post-pandemic assessments of the performance of central banks during Covid-19.

An unqualified member of Engineering New Zealand, has used the signature and identities of various chartered professional engineers to falsely sign off hundreds of homes in the central North Island, Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

The ANZ Bank says the latest data supports its assessment the housing market is tightening, which will lead to a 3% plus pick-up in house prices through the rest of this year.

The housing market is still finding a floor going by the value of last month’s new mortgage lending.

Retail business strategies are continuing to evolve in the post-pandemic operating environment, says JLL in its latest market snapshot.

The migration surge complicates the inflation picture, but is unlikely to be inflationary, says ASB.

Global short-end interest rates drifted higher last week as a handful of G10 central banks lifted policy rates, most notably Norges Bank and the Bank of England with 50bp hikes.