When I was putting together my submission on the Timaru District Council's (TDC) Long Term Council Community Plan 2009-2019 (LTCCP) last year, I noticed that the TDC was planning to take on a serious amount of debt. The TDC currently has just under $58 million in total liabilities (as at 31 March 2010) and this expected to balloon from $65 million at the end of the 2010 financial year to $158 million by the end of the 2016 financial year. At the end of the planning period, in 2019, total liabilities are expected reduce by a fraction to $150 million. More...

The National Economic Data chart shows the median house price levelling out, a rapid decline in household debt servicing levels and a sharp rise in unemployment.

The Timaru Property Sales chart shows that median prices have come off their peak and while properties are selling reasonably quickly, the volume of sales is fairly weak.

Data sourced from www.reinz.co.nz and www.rbnz.govt.nz