Large numbers of baby boomers are borrowing against their homes to buy investment properties as they head towards retirement rather than paying off their mortgages, according to property valuation company Myvalocity.
Research by Myvalocity shows that at least 10,000 first time property investors have entered the residential property market over the last five years and between them they have purchased 26,000 properties, which have been spread fairly evenly throughout the country.
That has seen the number of homes that are owned without a mortgage drop from 39% to 35% over the last decade.
Myvalocity CEO Carmen Vicelich said many baby boomers had owned their home for a long time and would be in a position to be mortgage free if they wanted to.
However the substantial price gains that had occurred over the last few years would have increased their equity significantly, and many we choosing to leverage off that to buy investment properties, she said.
The currently low interest rate environment had also encouraged some property owners to become investors, she said.
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22 Comments
I still cannot understand why the Interest Rates were forced down, when the banks own all the mortgaged houses anyway. Plus the Landlords in-debt home as well. The best circumstances for the banks would be to lift the rates, thereby the returns would last a lot longer.
If all those mortgage houses fall in price, it would be very foolish of the Banks to call in the loans as the rent will cover all the mortgages going.
Otherwise they would not have lent them the free money in the first place. Surely?.
Or does logic escape me.?
Plus, I think you are blowing things out of all proportions, because there are only 10,000 with skin in the game.
You see the theory goes that if interest rates are lowered spending goes up and inflation goes up. Except that the way the money enters circulation is via housing. Of course you mix people who don't need any more consumer goods because they are older, and those that need a retirement income because they having saved enough to maintain your lifestyle, then you end up with no benefit from the lower OCR.
We're heading into an era of slightly higher interest rates and more inflation. There's most likely a credit crunch a few years away as well so I'm not sure how things will work out for new property investors.
But we boomers are creating history Keyo. We are the golden age conquistadors, laden with bullion looted from following generations.
Think how much more miserable you'd be without having our glorious story forming part of the nations dystopian future. Sort of Cambodia without Angkor wat.
I'll take the bait. I've got twice the productivity of the average boomer yet about half the purchasing power. Thanks to them selling the country to China the young locals will never be a voting bloc. They've also bought my generation up to be a bunch of wet noodles. Thanks to the Boomer's greed the people I work with (of equal skill and intellect) have been split into two camps; haves (inheritance) and the have nots. Gone are the days of working your way into wealth via productivity being rewarded. Frankly if all the boomers died tomorrow I'll be popping my $8.59 Lindauer.
Try getting on with anything in NZ... Can't build that kitset house there - covenants. Single story house - better put up a fence, scaffolding, safety nets and harnesses. Can't import that branz does not approve.
Sounds familiar. I remember thinking the very same thing about lazy old farts sitting on their backsides pontificating while we young turks worked like galley slaves. And the envy at those inheriting as well. Chateau cardboard instead of lindauer but essentially the story hasn't changed much by the sound of it.
i hope the bait has something in it, "I've got twice the productivity of the average boomer yet about half the purchasing power".... so whats that tell you keyo, ill tell you because you obviously don't know "you're not smart enough" and wanting people to die to enhance yourself shows disgusting traits you have. Best to go and ask the people you envy how they did/are doing it...and for the sake of NZ cheer up...
Your turn will come keyo. Just wait a couple of decades and you will find yourself right there. With some dopey young person taking pot shots at you with the shotgun.
But if we accept your approach then I suggest you shoot a few school children instead. For safer as a policy for you, as you won't be progressing back to being one of them
As we get LVR and possible DTI restrictions and any other method the RBNZ can conjure to choke the life out of demand (and also crush Auckland's already pitiful new supply) investment in rental properties should become more profitable - for those who can afford it.
Rents are going to go up - for everybody else.
Or at least that is what happens until we decide to leave.
The currently low interest rate environment had also encouraged some property owners to become investors, she said.
Yes, indeed
A monetary policy regime narrowly focused on controlling near-term inflation removes the need to tighten policy when financial booms take hold against the backdrop of low and stable inflation. And major positive supply side developments, such as those associated with the globalisation of the real side of the economy, provide plenty of fuel for financial booms: they raise growth potential and hence the scope for credit and asset price booms while at the same time putting downward pressure on inflation, thereby constraining the room for monetary policy tightening. Borio page 12 of 38.
Were RBNZ academics navel gazing from their sinecure of incompetence, while better others profiled their downfall?
"Tonight, Helen Clark should look in the bathroom mirror and ask: "What have I done for housing affordability in the past eight years?" She'll have answered before she's squeezed out the toothpaste. Nothing.
2007
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10455931
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