Property expert disputes survey indicating NZ house prices are more unaffordable than ever

January 21, 2020

Ashley Church shared his insight into the survey with TVNZ1’s Breakfast.

A New Zealand property expert is disputing a global survey indicating that buying a house in New Zealand is more unaffordable than ever.

The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey released yesterday points to New Zealand homes being unaffordable to buy when comparing the median house price with median household income.

One Roof Property commentator Ashley Church told TVNZ1’s Breakfast that the survey is missing some important factors.

“It doesn’t factor in two things. It doesn’t factor in increases in wages over time, but more importantly, it doesn’t factor in interest rates,” says Mr Church.

“We’ve had this dramatic reduction in interest rates over the last 20 years.”

He said the most expensive period of time in which to buy a house in New Zealand using the same numbers was actually the mid-80s.

“That figure’s been dropping and at the moment the proportion of income that it would take to actually service a mortgage in New Zealand based on the median house price is about 37 per cent of household income.

“It got as high as 52 per cent in the 80s.”

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