NZ Property Investor March 2020

It’s impossible to deny that New Zealand remains in the grip of a housing crisis. There’s no escaping the visible rise in the number of homeless people sleeping rough. And there’s no way to avoid the tales of people desperately searching for safe and adequate accommodation. The problem is not just a general shortage of housing stock, it’s that there’s a severe shortage of affordable housing. As a result, the demand for social housing has skyrocketed. But neither the Government nor community housing providers (CHPs) have enough properties to meet the demand. That situation makes for opportunities for investors who are interested in putting their rental properties into the social housing stock. We’d been planning an article about this for months as we thought it an interesting option to look…

The call came from the Helen Clark Foundation report, which looks at New Zealand’s housing affordability crisis. It blames housing speculation, fuelled by the availability of cheap credit, for driving up prices. Report author, Dr Jenny McArthur, says this has led to a speculative investment cycle that must be deescalated to address the crisis and proposes solutions to disrupt the speculative cycle and safely lower housing prices. These solutions include a capital gains tax, debt-to-income limits for high income households and a progressive refinancing scheme to reduce household debt burdens for the primary home. However, NZ Property Investors’ Federation executive officer Andrew King says these are misguided calls with, potentially, unintended conswequences. It has always been, and probably always will be, difficult to own your first home, he says. “This…

1 Government brokers to match landlords with tenants A newly established housing broker service will be reaching out to private landlords to get them on board to support the Government’s $300 million homelessness action plan. 2 Threat to assault ends problem tenancy Terminating the tenancy of badly behaving tenants can be a dangerous and difficult business as demonstrated by a recent Tenancy Tribunal case. 3 Getting heating right Heating requirements for rental properties are currently a source of confusion for many landlords and property managers, so REINZ has issued a reminder of what is required. 4 Why house price growth will continue House price inflation is unlikely to radically slow this year after a strong end to 2019, according to leading economist Tony Alexander. 5 Demand for rentals running hot Rents…

Your monthly round up of property investment related events around the country. MARCH PROPERTY INVESTOR NIGHT March 3, Christchurch; March 4, Ellerslie, Auckland; March, 11 Tauranga; March 17, South Auckland; March 24, Hamilton; March 30, Dunedin and Wellington. 6.30pm Free to attend. Book at www.positiverealestate.co.nz/NZPI HOW TO PROFIT FROM PROPERTY March 21 Free to attend, includes lunch. Five Knots, Auckland, 9am-3pm. For more information visit https://ronovationz.co.nz/seminars/ PROPERTY INVESTMENT AND EDUCATION SEMINAR March 11, Auckland. Hosted by Gilligan Rowe & Associates. Free to attend, 6.45pm. For more information and to register: https://www.gra.co.nz/property-investment-seminars For more information about listing your event, please contact Lisa Wise lisa@tarawera.co.nz. Last date for entries for April 2020 issue, March 12.…

The bank rejigged its fixed and variable home loan rate offerings in late January, putting investor and owner-occupier rates on a level playing field. That means investors are now able to take advantage of fixed home loan rates from as low as 3.39% per annum for 18 months and floating rates from 5.30% per annum. At the time of going to print, one-year rates are 3.49%, two-year rates are 3.55%, three-year rates are 3.89% and the 18-month rate is 3.39%. BNZ general manager home lending Martin Elliott says the bank wanted to offer “clear, compelling and competitive home loan rates” in the current market. The bold move comes amid signs of a comeback for the investor market. In the last three months of 2019, new mortgage lending increased significantly, reaching…

An Auckland property management company managed to succeed in only part of its claim against a pair of tenants who smoked meth in their rental property, contaminating it in the process. James Pilcher and Elizabeth Foster rented the Royal Oak house from May 2018 until August 2019. Prior to the start of their tenancy, the landlord had the property meth tested and the results were clear. At the end of the tenancy, the landlord again tested the property and this time there was evidence of meth use throughout. However, the detailed test showed that most areas tested were well below 15xg /100cm2 . The exception was the hallway where the tested samples were 23µg /100cm2 and 16.7µg /100cm2 . On professional advice, the property was fully decontaminated. This prompted Auckland…