Hi Jamie Dellam

I am from Christchurch but live in Sydney and the return there is pretty good at the mo.
We (me, brother,parents 33% each) bought a wee flat in Bexley, Christchurch for 180k in April, it was tenanted for 190 per week but they were problem tenants so I went home for a few weeks and we got them out of there (their lease had expired so they were week to week, thank god) I spent some quality time with Dad painting and just generally tidying the place up and we had plans to ring an agent to manage the palce when an older man that Dad knew through work enquired about the place.
He is 63 and will stay forever, he was in a very cold dank place and he was getting sick from the lack of heating but he was paying 160 rent and couldn't afford anymore. Well I got in touch with WINZ (NZ version of Centrelink) and enquired about rental assistance and he qualified for it so now he is still only paying 160 per week but the govt pays 70 to bring the weekly rent up to $230. The tenant loves the place, we installed a heat pump for $1600 and paint etc would have bought the total of our reno to 2k but we now have a long term tenant who always pays on time, no need for a property manager ,and regular income. Plus a recent valuation showed the value as 220,000 so we are stoked with the place.
NZ is a great place to invest, especially if you have a good deposit, try to get your hands on a copy of the May issue of Australian Property Investor Magazine as it has a big spread on NZ investing.
If you have the time and the money you will come out on top.

Good luck,
Emma