Be afraid
OPINION: Your old mate hears some of the recent uptick in farmer confidence has slipped since the political polls started leading a bit to the left, away from the current coalition of National, Act and NZ First.
Between 2018-2024, lending to housing grew 45.54% while lending to agri grew 3.44%.
He says, put plainly, over the last 6 years, the main banks collectively advanced an extra $111 billion to houing and just $2 billion to agri.
"These structural issues also make lending to agri (& business) more expensive (the margins are almost double in agri on average and in some cases can be higher), even though agri lending losses are actually very low. This is a massive fiscal drag on the NZ productive sectors."
