I put it down to the double whammy of banking deregulation and ripping into social housing. From the 90s on property speculation has been the name of the game.

It does seem like this year could bring a paradigm shift. We might have come to the end of the road with lowering interest rates and the social housing system appears to have totally fallen apart and been overwhelmed at the same time.

A decent property market correction will be good for everyone in the long run, but it's going to be difficult for a lot of people. It'll be interesting to see how middle New Zealand handles it when the crisis is at their door and not just 'out there' for more unfortunate people to worry about.