Treasury has released the results of an analysis of ownership and investment in housing based on the Household Savings Survey (HSS) conducted by Statistics New Zealand in 2001.The paper’s findings on New Zealanders’ assets and liabilities suggest rates of home ownership, property investment and housing debt levels in New Zealand are broadly comparable with those in Australia and the United States,
Tuesday, August 1st 2006, 12:00AM
by The Landlord
and with a wider set of countries.
An exception is that younger age groups in New Zealand hold more investment property than their counterparts in the USA and Australia.
In New Zealand, almost one in 10 couples owned rental property in 2001, while one in five owned some form of investment property. Forty-four per cent of couples and 56% of individual homeowners have debt-free residential properties.
According to the report, from 1980 to 2005, the annual average rate of household saving based on estimates from household balance sheets was 12.4% of personal disposable income, after removing the effect of changes in house price.
On average, a rise of $1 in housing net equity is associated with 10 cents of apparent equity withdrawal.
