Brad Olsen

I think it will be making some households very uncomfortable, that thought of possibly being in negative equity.

It really does highlight the perfect storm we seem to find ourselves in.

We've had house prices increase nearly 30% over the last year or so, but for the last two months, slight monthly, month-to-month falls, and you are seeing as well those interest rates start to rise.

A lot of first home buyers have had to add

Absolutely put everything on the line to get onto the housing market.

I often refer to it as having to pole vault onto the bottom of the housing market ladder because you're spending now on average 12 years saving up your mortgage deposit.

So you're having to sort of find and scrimp and save every dollar.

You get on the housing ladder, you've got a very, very expensive property, over a million dollars in most cases.

And now interest rates are turning around.

Now house prices are shifting away.

So for new buyers recently, they might well find themselves with a house that is worth less than they originally paid it, but with some pretty big mortgages to pay, especially as interest rates rise.

Absolutely.

And I think, you know, the Reserve Bank's expectations around house prices have massively shifted from last time.

Back in November, their call on house prices was far, far more upbeat.

They thought they were going to continue to go up and up and up before they eventually showed some sort of slowdown or flattening in house price growth to be picking, you

Falls now is quite a big move, but it is also in keeping with other expectations.

And I guess a big driver of that expectation on the housing front is because of those rapidly rising interest rates.

We've seen a one-year fixed rate increase by over 100 basis points in the last year.

That's starting to really impact.

people who are trying to get lending because they're going, well, gosh, I've got to pay a lot more now to actually service the mortgage.