NZ Property Investor

Social housing, community housing, public housing. Whatever name you want to call it, providing housing for vulnerable people is embedded in New Zealand’s ethos. While Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing New Zealand) does a great job of creating homes for those in need, the ever increasing cost of housing in our country is making it hard for supply to catch up with demand. Enter private landlords. Partnering with community housing providers (CHP), private landlords can do much to help address the shortfall in social housing by leasing their properties to a CHP. The government has incentivised this by allowing landlords who lease their homes to CHPs to continue claiming back interest as a tax expense. While this announcement has caused consternation for some private landlords (it’s been called a “bribe” on the…

Despite all participants at recent Housing and Urban Development Ministry (HUD) workshops urging it to lobby the government to include private landlords, senior officials say it is not in their remit to recommend it. The reason: private landlords are covered by the Residential Tenancies Act, says Residential Property Managers’ Association president David Pearse. HUD ran workshops to discuss submissions on the proposed legislation. More than 100 were received during the first few days. Pearse says Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams, who is promoting the legislation, found it unusual for everyone across the industry to agree private landlords should be included or at least registered, but he got the impression there will be no change to the proposed regulations. She invited the association to make submissions. The government’s proposed regulations include property managers being licensed,…

The focus on new builds with a record 49,733 homes consented throughout the country in the 12 months to the end of February begs the question is New Zealand still a nation predominantly of vast green fields and farms or is the urban spread taking a more significant hold. Valocity researchers Wayne Shum and James Wilson have looked at how the surge in new builds is impacting the ratio of urban versus rural land. The 48,899 consents issued by the end of last year well and truly broke 1974’s 47-year record of 40,025, and the record is still climbing with Stats NZ data showing nearly 1,000 homes a week are now being consented. The focus on new builds is not surprising given the government’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development that enables greater…

Tenants who trashed a Christchurch landlord’s Linwood property now owe him over $10,000 in rent arrears, insurance excess and two exemplary damages claims. Courtney Hanna and Mark Francis had a fixed-term tenancy for Twinky Holdings’ Stanmore Road property until March 20 this year, but it was terminated by the Tenancy Tribunal in September last year when they abandoned the home. The abandonment and the state the premises were left in caused the landlord’s sole director and shareholder severe financial difficulty and an enormous amount of stress, the tribunal found. Twinky Holdings was awarded rent arrears to September 15 paid from the bond and the premises were re-let in December. The landlord, in a new Tenancy Tribunal hearing, claimed $4,484.29 rent from September until new tenants moved in from Hanna and Francis, which was…

March solidified the market changes of the past three months as pressure on property prices eases, inventory levels rise, demand softens and sales activity drops. The latest REINZ data shows house prices dropped 4.8 per cent between February and March on a seasonally adjusted basis. Median prices across New Zealand increased 7.9 per cent annually, from $825,000 in March last year to $890,000 in March this year. The median residential property price for the country, excluding Auckland, increased 14.1 per cent annually from $679,000 in March last year to $775,000 in March this year. REINZ chief executive Jen Baird says prices are easing and the market is returning to a more settled pace. “The rate of growth is slowing, sales activity is down and median days to sell is up. The impact of tighter lending…

HOUSE PRICES: UP Median prices for residential property across NZ increased 7.9 per cent annually, from $825,000 in March last year to $890,000 in March this year. Moving from February to March, the median property price rose a marginal 0.6 per cent. However, the seasonally adjusted figure shows a drop of 4.8 per cent, indicating a weaker price increase than expected moving from February into March. OCR: UP The Reserve Bank has lifted the official cash rate (OCR) by 50 basis points to 1.5 per cent. The bank is expected to lift the OCR again this month. INTEREST RATES: UP The country’s biggest home lender, ANZ, raised its mortgage interest rates as soon as the OCR increased last month. Its one-year rate is 4.55 per cent, two-year 5.25 per cent, three-year 5.55 per cent and…