Brad Olsen

And I think, you know, worthwhile putting some numbers around this.

By our estimates, you know, people who have bought property in the last few years, their mortgage repayments are going up by a few thousand dollars a year.

a fair bit of money they're going to have to find from somewhere to finance it.

And I think what we're seeing moving forward is that for the first time in a generation, interest rates are heading up.

Now, when they're heading down, it's all fine.

You don't need to worry too much about what your strategy is with your mortgage rate because you just sort of let it tick over and you expect it to fall.

Now, though, you're starting to see them go up and lenders and borrowers are going, well, actually, what am I best to do?

Am I best to go for, say, a one-year fixed rate where it could, well, spike quite a bit higher quite soon?

Or, and this is increasingly the conversation that some people are having in New Zealand,

If we know that interest rates are going to go up and we can see that they're going to go up relatively fast in some ways, maybe it's better to have a bit more stability.

Maybe I'll lock in for two to three years a bit more.

That'll give me that stability of payments.

I know exactly what I'm paying for two to three years.

Now, yes, there's a premium on that that you have to pay.

but stability seems to be the name of the game for some people because at least they can plan the rest of their family budget around those financial expectations.

One year fixed rates instead are providing a bit more uncertainty and volatility.

So you are seeing people very much interested in that stability frame.

It's very, very different from the conversations we've had in the past around interest rates.

I think it will continue to further stoke inflation higher.

And that'll mean, again, more potentially higher increases or certainly more attention from central banks needing to be paid to try and get inflation under control, higher prices.