Cooking the Books podcast: Should you still buy a house in a post-Covid 19 world?

Everything has changed for the housing market. Photo / Michael Craig

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's what you should expect from the housing market, and how to adapt to it. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Your house may be your castle, but it's also the biggest investment many of us will make, and it comes with the commitment of mortgage debt.

So as we try to ride out the severe shockwaves from Covid-19, you won't be surprised to learn the current situation is also a gamechanger for housing.

Listen to the podcast episode here

For one thing, unemployment is going up, and every time that happens house prices tend to go down.

With tourism stopped, AirBnB is a nonstarter. Many former hosts are either switching to go into the long-term rental market, or opting out entirely and putting the property up for sale.

Either of those would be a big force for change on their own, but now we have that and many other issues forcing change all at the same time.

So let's rip the band-aid off and start with the bad news, although I promise there is some good news in this, so stick with us.

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to Herald property editor Anne Gibson.

We discussed what's happening with housing in lockdown, what experts are forecasting for the future, and what this means for both first-home buyers and current property owners.

For the episode, listen on the podcast player above.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts app, or Spotify, to make sure you never miss an episode.

NeedToKnow3

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website