Forum Replies Created
News article taken from Property talk site this morning:
“Housing market still strong
New figures from the government’s valuation agency Quotable Value show the housing market is still strong with November recording the highest growth rate this year.QV’s November property statistics indicate that residential property values increased 15 per cent annually, up from 14.5 per cent growth reported in October, with the average sale value for a property hitting $315,089.
The property value growth rate for November is the highest growth rate reported by QV this year, and is a turnaround from the slowdown that occurred in October, where growth was down from 14.9 per cent in September.
“Fifteen per cent is a significant level of annual growth, and is an indication that the market is remaining buoyant despite thoughts that the market may have been beginning to level out,” said QV spokesperson, Blue Hancock.
In most areas property value growth rates were above those reported in October, including main centres Hamilton (27.7 per cent), Christchurch (19.3 per cent), and Wellington (12 per cent).
The growth rate in Dunedin eased to 13.9 per cent from 16.2 per cent in October, while Auckland City property values grew a comparatively low 4 per cent.
Wanganui continues to be one of the leading centres in the country, QV said, with property value growth of 38.3 per cent, while Whangarei (34.5 per cent), Gisborne (28.4 per cent) and Rotorua (27.7 per cent) are continuing the trend of areas with an availability of affordable residential property experiencing the highest value growth levels.
12-Dec-2005 National Business Review”there are always good deals around. i agree they are not as thick on the ground as they used to be, but they are definitely there
Cheers
CDCheers
CastleDreamer
Christchurch Resident – occasional Christchurch and South Island opportunities. PM me for further informationthanks Westan,
there has been an amazing amount of discussion re interest rates. i know that i for one am considering fixing up a few more of my NZ loans, probably for a year or two at most. I personally dont like to fix for five years or more. I dont have a crystal ball, and dont want to try to predict that far ahead as to what the markets will be doing.Cheers
CD
CastleDreamer
Find out more about New Zealand investing… go to http://www.nzpropertytogo.comInteresting thread guys, thanks for bringing it back in focus. I dont know if Nigel and Westan have met ever in the flesh, but knowing Westan and his family for the past couple of years, I am happy to vouch for his good intent and actions. I spent a week in the US with Westan and some others last month. Cowboy Tour? Not at all. Certainly we visited some places that i would not invest in, but then I am not you (the other readers here) and we all have our own investment criteria and journeys. I will be investing in the USA and I will be accessing the networks provided by my colleagues. I really do not see the need to go out and reinvent the wheel if it is already rolling well where i need to be. I am a full time investor, this is what i do for a living. But i dont feel the need to have to go and do it myself if i can leverage my time and money on the joint efforts of a team of people and a network of capable contacts. Westan is able to provide me with that, in the same way that i have provided that in NZ for the past year or more for NZ investors. I see that as opportunity. I am a higher risk investor. I will take chances and invest where others may not – but it is with good investigation and due diligence.
this has been an interesting thread. lets keep the focus on topic though.Cheers
LisaCheers
CD
CastleDreamer
Find out more about New Zealand investing… go to http://www.nzpropertytogo.comWell, given that i love NZ so much i moved there – and to Christchurch, its been an interesting last few months looking at the markets and what has been going on.
christchurch continues to present opportunities – but i am seeing these as renovation opportunities – which are much harder to manage and do from a distance. I am not so keenly buying for the longer term in Christchurch at the moment, unless the right property comes up under value, or with the ability to add value through refurb etc.
I spent 10 days in the US last month with Westan and a group of people looking at investment opportunities. Now, I went with an open mind, but not overly certain that I would invest so far from home – and I came back believing that there are a couple of key areas in the US that I would very happily invest in – and will be investing in.
Is the US market better than the NZ market – that’s a bit broad a question…. certainly there are some very good opportunities in the US in particular states and areas that I will be taking up because I believe they are better than I can get in NZ at the moment.
Everyone has opinions about places to invest. I am still getting PMs from people asking about starting investing in NZ. i would suggest that now is not the time to be starting a property empire in NZ. There are some good opportunities certainly. But there are no big winners in the short term at every corner like there used to be.
I will keep investing in NZ while I live here. But for my money I am seriously looking elsewhere now as well.
that’s my two cents worth….Cheers
CD
CastleDreamer
Find out more about New Zealand investing… go to http://www.nzpropertytogo.comI would add that there are a couple of qualified accountants here on the forum who have NZ experience, and would be good people to get taxation advice and structuring advice from. Read lots of books and ask lots of questions, but at the end of the day, make sure that you use the right people to gain advice from – and its worth paying to get that advice as Nigel and Sigrid admit!!! I know, i’ve been the recipient of bad advice from people I should not have gone to because they were not specialists at what I needed.
Cheers
CD
CastleDreamer
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comI would add that there are a couple of qualified accountants here on the forum who have NZ experience, and would be good people to get taxation advice and structuring advice from. Read lots of books and ask lots of questions, but at the end of the day, make sure that you use the right people to gain advice from – and its worth paying to get that advice as Nigel and Sigrid admit!!! I know, i’ve been the recipient of bad advice from people I should not have gone to because they were not specialists at what I needed.
Cheers
CD
CastleDreamer
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi Robert
the depreciation of 4% is based on the amount you paid for the house rather than the replacement construction cost. For example:
if you buy a house for 50,000 and the valuer determines the land to be worth 5K, and the chattels to be worth 2K, then that leaves you with 43K of house. Now it may be that the house would cost 80K to reconstruct if it burned down for example, but you have 43K to be able to depreciate at your 4%.
If you sell the house to me for 75K, then a valuer can determine the new land/building/chattels figures as a proportion each of 75K, and I start from scratch with my new figures and my 4% depreciation…. and so it goes…Cheers
CD
CastleDreamer
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi there,
I have owned NZ property in both structures.“To answer your qustion if you buy in an Australian structure your not in the New Zealand tax structure your in ours.”
Actually you would be in both systems then. The Australian Trust that owned property in NZ requires a full NZ tax return complying with NZ Tax Laws for a foreign trust. However the Trust then has to do an Australian return as well (one good reason not to have an NZ trust – save on tax returns!!) the Aussie Trust then distributes the income to its beneficiaries who pay tax at their personal income tax rates.
Both the Aussie and NZ structures were able to take out loans without difficulty.
The benefit of NZ complying Trust is that it can chose to hold the income in the trust and pay tax at Trust rates.
The Australian trust cant do that I am told.
So definitely a benefit to buying in NZ using NZ structures as nkibel has said (my information is based on my own experiences and my own accountants advice. You should check with your own advisors to be sure that what you do suits your circumstances)
Cheers
CDCheers
CD
CastleDreamer
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comnkibel,
why would you say that if you want to negative gear a property stick to Australia?
it is possible to bring some of the losses home to Aus from a negative geared NZ property (the loss incurred if interest payments exceed income).
If a property in NZ is going to have a good likelihood of capital growth but was going to be negatively geared, why not consider that instead of one here that by comparison you think would not have the growth?
Can you tell us why you think that you would not bother with negative gearing in NZ property?
Cheers
CDCheers
CD
CastleDreamer
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi Mortgage Advisor…
the bank will do its lending to you on the lower of the two figures as we know. Unless you are a resident investor (therefore leaving us Aussies out of it) you will only get an 80% lend max (generalisation here as I have heard rumours that some banks will now consider 90% lends to Aussies – but applications are underway not approved yet!!). Like Australia customers with an 80% lend don’t pay LMI, so to answer your question, I have no idea!!! as I have never had to pay LMI as never loaned greater than 80% LVR!!!
Cheers
CD
Castledreamer
nzpropertytogo.comhi there,
some banks in NZ will allow you to immediately refinance after settlement to the allowed LVR against the registered valuation.
for example
block of flats: contract of 175K, valuation of 210K, bank will lend and settle on 175K figures. bank will then refinance later on the 210K figure. the time between settlement and refinance will vary between banks.
CheersCastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi all,
Kiwiproperty has a new book out. If you are interested you will need to pm them directly.
Advertising in the text is not in the spirit of this forum. Kiwiproperty is more than welcome to post threads and answers that contribute to the forum, and put their web address in the tag line.CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comIf you sell today at least you know the market. Do you have a crystal ball for reading the future?
If you are prepared to bet that 12months time will bring better circumstances then by all means wait and see, but at least take a position in the market.CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comOur pleasure to help out with any thoughts that might be useful!!
CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi Donna!!
Nice to see you outed yourself!!
thanks for the finance info tip.
CheersCastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi Richmum
I’ve been driving up and down the north island and all over parts of the south for a year or more now, and I can only agree with Westan – get a hire car.
I add one more thought – get a decent hire car with at least a 1.8 litre engine and the ability to handle the hills.
I have driven 1.6l pulsars, subarus, corollas, and when i swapped to 1.8l astras or corollas, my enjoyment of driving increased, fatigue decreased as the car is easier to drive as it isn’t working at 100% capacity all the time.
another thought – get on google and find a couple of sites that tell you how long it takes to drive between towns – here in OZ 100ks on open road is about 1 hour as we know, in NZ 100Ks could be 90-100 minutes depending on whether road is through lots of small towns or hilly – and they are much more windy roads too!!!
Have fun planning your trip!!CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi Aptam,
you aren’t required to have insurance prior to settlement in NZ for your property. But to make the seller more comfortable with my asking for access to rip stuff up and paint and what not, i have offered to cover the insurance cost for that period. If the vendor is happy with an early access clause for refurbishment and doesn’t baulk at that, then I would generally not worry about offering to pay their insurance.to me, every deal is about some sort of win win, so you always need to have something to offer the vendor to appear to be trying to be accommodating and fair. that’s just good business, so I use the insurance opportunity to help with negotiations, and also to make sure that the property is actually insured before I access.
what would happen if you accessed and did damage to the property or burnt it down by accident – and then you found out that the vendor had let their policy lapse – i don’t even want to go there, so I check it out first as part of my due diligence…..CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comHi to all who have posted here.
after a general read through the thread, i can say that I am really excited for the opportunities that the KA2ers will have in New Zealand in July.
To clarify that though – I don’t necessarily refer to the huge buying opportunities that may be around – its a very different market to when many of us started back in late 2003 early 2004 in NZ.
I have just finished a week in NZ with a new investor to the market here. We looked right accross the market from 65K homes in smaller towns to off the plan developments in big cities, subdivisions, buy and holds, renovators, shipping houses onto the section, building new kitsets, whatever.
the biggest learning opportunity for K my friend, was that each of us has a very different style and need to find that, find what will work for you personally.
We haven’t purchased anything this week – 12 towns and no 10% yeilding properties this week, unless you make them out of opportunities – there haven’t been any places where we have been able to walk in and look at the pictures on the wall of the agencies and see 10% properties.I also add my caution here as well:
many investors do know that Kiwi Adventure is happening, and I am certain that properties will be put to the market specfically in expectation of your arrival KA2ers.Here is an example from KA1: house purchased by a kiwi investor for 53K was sold to a KA1er for 65K three weeks after settlement by the kiwi investor.
there are definitely lots of opportunities but like Del said Caveat Emptor!!
In my own personal investing life, the biggest opportunities have indeed come from networking and sharing – i have been able to share in a much bigger investing world by sharing than if i had stuck to my own little world – and I have friends for life for my troubles!!!
have a great time planning and preparing for KA2 and go forward knowledgeably and with excitement – this is your time and opportunity to grow and rebuild your own ideas and mindsets – have fun!!!
Cheers
CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comaptam hi.
banks consider more than two titles on one property a greater risk sometimes because it is more ‘commercial’ rather than residential – and I am told by a couple of bankers that that means they are saleable to a smaller market – ….. i have had 80% lends with three flats, but never with four or more, despite chasing around to try and find someone that would!!CastleDreamer
NZ Investor
http://www.nzpropertytogo.comanother reason to consider why an investor would take finance in the country of purchase (NZ) is the lessening of exposure to currency fluctuations.
If the lending is in the same currency as the property being purchased then a move in AUD/NZD relationship has less impact. By taking only the 20% deposit plus costs from Australia you only expose 20% of your ‘property value’ to the currency transfer….CastleDreamer
NZ Investor and Property Spotter
