Forum Replies Created
Hi Paul
You said:
That is a great article to summarise this industry. Cheers Muppet made my dayThanks for that. Just trying to keep our Australian cousins informed about the play in Auckland.[biggrin]
I know of some Australian investors who have bought between 120 and 140 apartments in Tokoroa.
No comment at this stage.[bonjour]
I don’t think they know of the propertyinvesting or the propertytalk forum sites. If they had they might have had second thoughts. Then of course they might know something that none of us know.I have a friend who is looking at buying an apartment in the Auckland CBD. I hope he will be very careful as to where he will be buying.
Regards
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Hi Dave
The Local council is usually the best place to start..
However try asking the question on http://www.propertytalk.com which is a NZ based forum.
Regards
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Hi Paul
You said:
What both of these places have over other towns like Tokoroa (which for the record I would not touch with a barge)Ummm, what is the problem with Tokoroa?
A group from Australia have recently bought a large number of units in Tokoroa.
I wonder what they know and everybody else doesn’t if in your eyes you wouldn’t touch Tokoroa with the proverbial barge?Regards
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Hi Grossrealisation
New Zealand’s biggest and most popular property forum is at http://www.propertytalk.com.
It caters not only for those investing in NZ but for other parts of the world as well.
Regards
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Hi Hirirose
Opotiki is a typical small NZ town.
It has a river flowing very close to it.
Close to the ocean.
Population of about 4000.
Serves a large country area which is mainly bush and forestry, kiwi fruit orchards, some dairy farms and sheep farms.
Areas along the coast line near Opotiki are being developed for housing.
Rents bear no relationship to the value of the housing.
Nearest towns are Whakatane 40kms away, Gisborne 145kms away and Tauranga about 115kms away.
It used to have a hospital and a dairy factory but both now closed.The coastal ripple which originated from Auckland down through Tauranga and Whakatane is now reaching Opotiki.
Also very nice beaches near by.
Regards
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Hi Pradeep
What has the Gold Coast to do with the Kiwi Property forum?
Regards
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Hi Pete
The latest news on interest rates in NZ from the goodreturns web site:
Floating rates to remain up
Weekly Home Loan report: The prospects of lower floating rates have been pushed further into the future.Tuesday, 20 September 2005
By Janine Ogier
The Reserve Bank quarterly monetary policy statement proved to be a “steady as she goes†announcement last week, with most analysts now picking the official cash rate will remain at 6.75% until mid-2006 and thus providing little hope for lower floating rates in the near future.
The central bank continued its hawkish tone as it waits to gauge the impact higher oil prices will have on the economy as it contemplates annual inflation nudging 4%.
Few market economists are forecasting the RBNZ will act on its hawkish stance. In fact, most see the central bank switching to an easing cycle next year as predicted slower growth eventuates.
The post-election dramas will keep the country on tenterhooks for a couple of weeks at least, as Helen Clark meets and negotiates with the smaller parties in the hopes of creating a coalition or minority Government.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve has the markets’ attention this week. Generally the world’s dealers expect the Fed to raise rates on Wednesday morning New Zealand time and this has ramifications for the local interest rate market and how attractive the Kiwi yield curve remains for overseas investors.
Plus, information on how the Fed intends dealing with inflationary pressure from Hurricane Katrina and higher oil prices may provide some insight into RBNZ strategies on the same problem.
Looking at mortgage rate changes in the last week, at the longer end of the market HSBC cut its four- and five-year rate to 7.40%, while BankDirect trimmed its three-year rate to 7.25% and its five-year rate to 7.2%.
Now three-year rates range from BankDirect and Kiwibank’s 7.25% to Westpac’s capped rate of 8.40%.
Four-year rates are spread much more narrowly between between Kiwibank’s 7.35% and Silver Fern and NZ Mortgage Funds’ 7.75%, while five-year rates range from BankDirect’s new 7.2% to GEM Home Loans’ 8%.
Not all the week’s moves were lower – Asteron, Premier and United had short-term rate increases, Resi edged its rates higher, while Equitable put some of its rates up and some down.
BNZ increased the two- and three-year rates on its Classic product to 7.60% and 7.55%, respectively. Classic is the home loan it has been using in the Unbeatable campaign, as opposed to the standard loan which has Fly Buys and Global Plus points attached.
Late last week Bank of New Zealand chief economist Tony Alexander added a second suggestion that the chance of a “good discounted rate†may eventuate in spring mortgage campaigns to his hint of something afoot 10 days ago. Considering BNZ’s track record of discounting, watch this space.
Regards
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Hi
I suggest you use the search function and look for postings by Quiggles as well as the USA.
Also do a search on Somersoft for the same thing.
Quiggles has made some very interesting postings on his trails and tribulations of investing in the USA.
You can also PM Westan and join his mailing list as his team is already sourcing property in the States.
Regards
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Hi Luke
Please note that the biggest mill in Tokoroa that employs about 950 workers is not closing.
However another of CHH’s mill(the plywood mill) has closed one shift with the loss of 40 jobs. Some of these workers will be leaving Tokoroa and moving to Australia. There will still be 200 other workers continuing with the other shifts.
And yet another CHH mill – a remanufacturing mill is closing and being relocated in Rotorua.
These changes have come about because of the housing down turn in Australia.
If you want a chat, send me a PM and we could set up a meeting.
Regards
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Hi Guys
Please be aware that CHH have at least 3 mills in Tokoroa.
1. Pulp and paper mill = 1000 employees. Most of the WORKERS life in or near Tokoroa. The MANAGERS life in Rotorua and Taupo and use company vehicles to come to work. It is this group that Graeme Hart will target NOT the workers.
2. A Plywood Mill = 240 workers of which 40 are being made redundant because of the townturn in Australian new houses being built.
3. Framing Mill = 25 workers. This mill is being transferred to Rotorua.
Tokoroa is NOT dependent on one mill.
The main mill employs about 1000 workers and there is NO ideas for it to be closed. Whereabouts 20 yrs ago it employed 5000 workers.
Although 4000 workers from this one mill have gone, Tokoroa as a town is still here and will remain so for at least another 25 years.Regards
Regards
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Hi Guys
The latest about Graeme Hart’s buying up off Carter Holt Harvey.
CHH sales possible after Hart completes review01.09.05
Graeme Hart, New Zealand’s third-richest man, plans a “comprehensive review” of Carter Holt Harvey after his $3.27 billion takeover bid for the nation’s biggest timber company.Offer documents filed with the stock exchange yesterday show Hart’s review may result in CHH selling some businesses or making acquisitions.
The disclosure came as CHH said it would close its remanufacturing plant at Tokoroa with the loss of 24 jobs to cut costs as demand from builders in Australasia slowed.
Rank Group, Hart’s investment company, offered $2.50 a share for CHH. He has already agreed to pay the same price for a 50.5 per cent stake owned by US giant International Paper.
“Rank expects it will undertake a comprehensive review of Carter Holt Harvey” after the takeover, the documents say.
In addition to asset sales, the company may consider selling shares or borrowing more.
Hart said he would not increase his offer, which is conditional on acquiring at least 50 per cent of the shares. CHH stock rose 1c to $2.54, suggesting Hart will struggle to get most minority shareholders to accept his offer.
CHH said Grant Samuel & Associates would prepare an independent valuation of the company and an appraisal of the offer. Rank will probably send its offer to shareholders in the second half of this month and CHH directors will make their recommendation about the same time.
The axing of the 39-year old Tokoroa plant is the latest in a series of closures as CHH cuts costs to counter a slowing in housing construction.Only yesterday Statistics New Zealand said new home construction approvals had slumped 15 per cent in July from a year earlier. Excluding apartments, the number of approvals was 22 per cent lower than a year ago. Meanwhile, July approvals in Australia fell 9.5 per cent from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
Output from the Tokoroa plant, which annually makes 3000 cubic meters of product including finger-jointed board for mouldings and door and window surrounds, will be shifted to another plant at Rotorua.
“Our remanufacturing sites are facing a strong dollar, increased import competition and softening housing markets,” said CHH wood products chief executive Tom Nickels.
Closure was the best option “given the age of the Tokoroa equipment and the challenging market”.
The Tokoroa closure could take to 249 the number of workers the company has axed at its sawmills and board plants in Australia and New Zealand this year.
CHH acquired a 20,000 cubic meters-a-year remanufacturing plant as part of its $165 million purchase of four mills from rival Tenon in April. But Robyn Orchard, of CHH, said the decision to close Tokoroa would have been made anyway.News source:
http://www.nzherald.co.nzRegards
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Hi dohickey
The 40 workers laid off were at the plywood mill.
They were laid off because of a downturn in the Australian housing market not needing so much plywood.There is a fair bit of uncertainty in Tokoroa at the moment as nobody knows what Graeme Hart will do with the Kinleith pulp and paper mill.
About 900 workers work at the mill compared with 250 that were at the plywood mill.
In its heyday in the early 1980s the Kinleith mill employed about 5000 workers. and after much restructuring this was trimmed down to its present number.
Houses are still being sold quickly but with the latest news I am not sure what is going to happen.
Regards
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Hi Guys
Kathy, Property Manager at Harvey’s won’t manage houses or flats in certain streets of Tokoroa.
Regards
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Hi Guys
Tracked down a newspaper item about the Labour Party’s housing scheme:
Labour vows first-home deposit help
23 August 2005
By REBECCA PALMERLabour is promising to introduce an equity share scheme in which the government could provide first-home buyers with up to half the deposit needed to buy a house.
Housing Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday that the scheme would help low and middle-income people who found it difficult to save for a deposit.
But details are still sketchy. Costings have not yet been done for the scheme and eligibility is yet to be decided on.
However, applicants would have to be registered with the new KiwiSaver scheme, a voluntary work-based savings scheme due to start in 2007.
Mr Maharey said that under the scheme Housing New Zealand would take an equity stake in a house and buyers would be required to repay Housing NZ’s share if they sold or moved out of the property.
The size of the government’s equity contribution has yet to be decided but a spokesman for Mr Maharey said it could be up to 50 per cent of the deposit.
The scheme would not be limited to those living in state houses.
National housing spokesman David Carter said Labour had thrown the policy together in desperation.
“Where is the information? Where are the facts about who qualifies, how much will be loaned or how much it will cost?”
Labour’s scheme sounded “very similar” to the Home Buy scheme of the last National government, which allowed tenants to buy the state houses they were living in with the aid of a suspensory loan worth up to $15,000.
National announced a month ago that it would reintroduce the Home Buy scheme if elected, Mr Carter said.
Mr Maharey said Labour’s scheme would build on other initiatives announced in the Budget, including giving couples who were first-home buyers and members of the KiwiSaver scheme a one-off deposit subsidy of $10,000.
He also announced yesterday that Labour would increase the number of low-interest grants and loans available through the Housing Innovation Fund.
News source:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3385986a11,00.htmlIt says the Government may contribute up to 50% of the deposit.
Regards
Hi westan
Is it 50% or 5% the Government may assist with?
I can’t see any Government in NZ contribute 50% of the cost of house.
Regards
Hi Westan
I get into PI a few times a day to keep an eye on this forum.
Propertytalk is keeping me very busy as well.
as well as several thousand in Australia and Asia,Appears to be that a few thousand Australians are employees of CHH as well.
General feeling is that Graeme Hart(new owner of CHH) tends to hang on to his new acquistions.
To gain value from this one he will have to hang on long term until pulp and timber prices go up.
Regards
Hi Guys
Latest news item.
Hart deal puts mill towns on edge
Graeme Hart’s $1.6b swoop wins control of Carter Holt.
18.08.05
By Mathew DearnaleyProvincial New Zealand is holding its breath over an audacious takeover of Australasia’s largest forest-products conglomerate by this country’s richest man.
Former tow-truck operator Graeme Hart, who at 49 has amassed an estimated wealth of more than $2 billion, has grabbed a controlling interest in Carter Holt Harvey.
Mr Hart’s reputation for breaking up conglomerates and laying off workers is making unions nervous, as mill-town mayors reserve judgment on his acquisition.
Carter Holt Harvey employs more than 6000 workers in New Zealand, as well as several thousand in Australia and Asia, and owns four pulp mills and more than two dozen sawmills and board plants.
Bancorp managing director Craig Brownie, whose organisation advises on mergers and takeovers, said Mr Hart had a track record, through food giants Burns Philp and Goodman Fielder in Australia, of selling non-performing assets and restructuring management.
He was also known for cutting employees.
South Waikato District Mayor Neil Sinclair, whose territory encompasses Tokoroa and the nearby Kinleith pulp and paper mill, said his community would be hungry to hear of the new owner’s intentions.
“This is the big boys doing things – we will have to watch how it settles down,” he told the Herald.
But he expressed optimism that, as a New Zealander, Mr Hart would act with the interests of this country’s economy in mind.
Kawerau Mayor Malcolm Campbell indicated a similar sentiment despite uncertainty about Mr Hart’s aspirations.
“At the end of the day, if Graeme Hart is there, at least decisions are being made in New Zealand and not in some boardroom in a far-off land where they don’t even know where Kawerau and Tokoroa are.”
Regional Development Minister Jim Anderton also acknowledged uncertainty about Mr Hart’s intentions but said last night he hoped the new majority owner would develop CHH as a New Zealand business.
Despite low international prices for raw timber, Mr Anderton said there appeared to be good long-term prospects for value-added forest products, which he hoped Mr Hart would be keen to develop.
“He seems a smart cookie – and anyone who takes a long-term view of the industry will be looking in the right direction.”
Union leaders are not so optimistic that Mr Hart will put patriotism ahead of other considerations.
The deal is one of this country’s largest corporate takeovers, equalled only by that of Contact Energy.
Mr Hart’s Rank Group announced yesterday that it had paid $1.65 billion to buy out United States-based International Paper’s 50.5 per cent holding for $2.50 a share. It must now offer other shareholders that same price in a full takeover bid potentially worth $3.3 billion.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union secretary Andrew Little said he feared Mr Hart might try to extract short-term value by splitting up his new company, leaving it vulnerable to future downturns.
Dairy Workers Union secretary James Ritchie, who has lost members in layoffs at NZ Dairy Foods under Mr Hart’s ownership, said it was “nonsense” to expect patriotic considerations to influence his business strategies.
“Graeme Hart is an international player. He’s a very smart operator. He’s in it for the money.”
But Mr Ritchie said that as long as managers made enough money, Mr Hart appeared happy to leave them to run the business.
Kinleith combined unions committee chairman Graeme Holmes said International Paper’s announcement of plans to sell its stake had unsettled some Tokoroa people, but others thought there was little to lose as the mill’s workforce had already shrunk to a bare minimum.
News source:
http://www.nzherald.co.nzRegards
Hi Guys
If you are looking to buy in Bulgaria then buyer beware:
Bulgarian Real Estate Market Shivers in Floods AftermathBusiness: 8 August 2005, Monday.
The real estate market in the areas worst hit by floods has seen a considerable shatter.
According to realtors as quoted by Investor.bg online edition, such natural disasters influence the local market only in the short term.
In view with the damaged infrastructure and risks of forthcoming floods, prices of land and property there will keep on decreasing, experts said.
Yet the future of the real estate market in disaster-hit areas is dependant on the state policy to be adopted for recovery of the infrastructure. Calamities of the kind may also have a positive impact, so far as the renovated infrastructure network will attract foreign investors, real estate agents commented.
Meanwhile, they forecast that just few of the flood-suffering people would make a decision to purchase property in the capital city, despite the calamity deprived them of homes.
News source:
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=50994Regards
