NZ Property Investor September 2020

keep on carrying on

It wasn’t the news that most New Zealanders expected to hear. Late on the night of August 11, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that community transmission of Covid-19 had returned to Auckland. And that meant lockdown 2.0 with Auckland at alert level three and the rest of the country at level two. Like most New Zealanders, I was dismayed and concerned by the news. On a personal level, the prospect of yet more weeks of attempting to home school my son while putting together a magazine was not an appealing one! On a professional level, my first response was that it signalled more upheaval for the production of the magazine. That’s because the first lockdown meant that at NZ Property Investor we weren’t able to publish print copies of the magazine for…

mortgage deferral scheme extended

The scheme was due to expire on September 27, but it has now been extended by more than six months until March 31. It will apply to borrowers already on the scheme as well as new applicants. Reserve Bank deputy governor Geoff Bascand confirmed they had given guidance to allow lenders to offer temporary deferrals, “without those loans being viewed in default”. After the scheme ends, banks will still be allowed to offer deferrals to borrowers, but those loans “will not have the same concessionary regulatory treatment”. Bascand is calling on lenders to consider borrowers’ long-term interests when reviewing deferral extensions and new requests. “For many borrowers, resuming, or continuing payments in some form will be the most suitable approach, rather than taking up a deferral of their loan payments. “A deferral should not be the…

greens want more landlord regulation

The policy has some ambitious goals, most of which revolve around social housing. One is to deliver enough affordable rental homes to clear the social housing waiting list, which currently numbers 18,000 people, within five years. Another is to stimulate a sustainable non-profit rental sector by offering Crown financial guarantees for community providers to build new rental properties. But they also want to “make renting fairer” by requiring landlords to be registered and by extending the current regulatory framework for real estate agents to include property managers. Further, they want to introduce a WoF for rental properties as an enforcement mechanism. This would require all rental properties to be independently assessed for compliance with the Healthy Homes Standards. Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson says successive governments have sold off too much social and community housing,…