A proposed change to the age of eligibility for the pension and a plan to allow foreign buyers into the housing market for the priciest properties may be casualties of coalition talks between National and NZ First, economists say.

Final election results on Friday confirmed that National and Act will require NZ First to form a government.

Commentators say that's likely to put questions marks around a number of policies.

Shamubeel Eaqub, an independent economist, says it's likely that the proposed phase-in of a higher age of eligibility for NZ Super will be first to go.

"It’s not a big bottom line for National, it never has been.

“It was not a central part of campaign promises, and was kicking in gradually over time, anyway.”

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen agrees.

He says it's one of the major dividers between the three parties now shaping up to form the next Government.

“That is a pretty easy one for National and Act to throw away to get [NZ First leader] Winston Peters over the line. Every politician has thrown it away at some point and kept the age where it is for political expediency. I don't think this time will be any different.”

Eaqub says a bigger question was around whether Peters would allow National to act on its plans to allow foreign buyers to purchase homes for more than $2 million, with a tax. NZ First was part of the Labour-led Government that banned the sale of existing homes to foreign buyers in 2018.

The revenue from that policy had been part of National’s calculations in its plan for tax cuts.

Council of Trade Unions policy director Craig Renney worked as an adviser to the government last time NZ First was in power.

He says it's “deeply unlikely” that NZ First will let foreign buyers in again.

“If they don’t, they’re basically going to say that’s $3 billion out of their tax cut. If that’s the case, their tax cut is finished.”

It's also likely to be more reluctant to allow immigration than National and Act.

He says another area where NZ First could have an economic impact is through support for the regions.

It backed the Provincial Growth Fund when it was in government, and campaigned for a Provincial Productivity Growth Fund.

“How they do that with the money that is available we don’t know.”

Eaqub says, between 2017 and 2020, NZ First’s main achievements had been to inject money into the regions and hold back what Labour had been able to do. “I expect that’s the role they’ll play this time as well.”

Olsen says whether a boost in business confidence continues will depend on what the new Government does and how quickly.

“We could well see business confidence hold up higher than it otherwise would have, purely because of politics. Business confidence is more related often to political cycles than economic activity.”

Eaqub says people need to stop pretending the Government is the “be all and end all” of the economy.

“It is not. It plays at the margins – if anything we are going to see the general conservative approach to fiscal management remain. Maybe the winners and losers change, but does the net effect on the economy change? I’d be very surprised.”

Renney says NZ First being in the coalition will not affect the macroeconomic outlook but could affect how New Zealand responds to it.

“It could mean we see less of the hyper-liberalisation as a means of responding to that challenge that you would have got under just National and Act. National and Act’s approach in their manifestos at least has been to say we will solve problems by liberalising markets, removing labour constraints and reducing costs for businesses. The extent to which they will be able to push that through in the same way with NZ First is a real point of debate.”

-Susan Edmonds/Stuff.