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King's $8.9m mansion for sale
October 2010
The King of Tonga is selling his mansion in Epsom - but there will be no open-home shows unless you are a serious buyer.
Siaosi George Tupou V has put his Auckland residential property, on a 1.58ha block of land, up for sale.
The hidden property, down a private driveway at 183 St Andrews Rd in Epsom, is near the Landscape Rd intersection and John O'Brien, a Bayleys agent in the Viaduct on the commercial sales team, is advertising it as exceptional.
But which suburb the place is in appears to be up for debate.
QV lists the property as being in Mt Eden. Auckland City says it is in Royal Oak, and Mr O'Brien says it is in Epsom.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Allied Farmers hocks off ex-Hanover loan to finish repaying Westpac
October 2010
Allied Farmers has sold a former Hanover Finance loan to an undisclosed party, allowing the company to complete repayment of its facility with Westpac Bank.
Allied, which unsuccessfully tried to reinvent itself as a major lender by taking on the Hanover and United loan books in a debt-for-equity swap, said it's entered a conditional agreement to sell one of the Hanover loans, which will cover the $2 million left owing to Westpac.
The transaction is expected to conclude next week, and Allied will give an update on its funding arrangements.
"I have been very pleased with progress over the past few months, which has seen us reduce our senior debt to Westpac from almost $17 million to nil post this deal, and removes a number of constraints from the business," outgoing managing director Rob Alloway said in a statement.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Building consents keep falling - down 9pc in August
October 2010
The number of consents issued for new homes has fallen to its lowest level in more than a year, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today.
The seasonally adjusted number of new housing units, excluding apartments, fell 8.9 per cent during August, well down on the 6 per cent fall recorded in the month prior.
SNZ said consents for 1193 new dwellings and 36 apartment units were authorised during the period.
When the volatile apartment category is included, the seasonally adjusted number of new housing units authorised fell 18 per cent, following a 2.4 percent rise in July.
Statistics New Zealand's business statistic manager Louise Holmes-Oliver said the trend for consents issued for new homes, excluding apartments, has been falling since March, following increases that began in April last year
The current level is 39 per cent lower than the most recent peak during June 2007.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Allied close to clearing debt with sale of loan
October 2010
Allied Farmers hopes to pay off its remaining $4.2 million debt to Westpac through the sale of one of its ex-Hanover loans.
The rural services company yesterday said it had reached a conditional agreement to sell the loan from its subsidiary Allied Farmers Investments to an undisclosed party.
Managing director Rob Alloway said the sale would allow it to pay back $1.65 million in senior debt and a further $2.5 million overdraft, allowing it to cut its ties to Westpac.
"There has been constraints placed on the business by having a senior lender. We have been quite keen to get out of that arrangement," he said.
Allied has been in talks with Westpac since June and will have paid back close to $17 million if the loan sale goes through.
The agreement is still subject to due diligence and legal documentation.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Australian icon seeks higher NZ profile
By Anne Gibson - August 2010
Sydney businessman Leslie Janusz Hooker, nicknamed LJ, is accustomed to being introduced as LJ Hooker.
But people are often surprised, he says. "They expect to meet someone in his 70s. I'm 40. I say that yes, [the original] LJ Hooker was my grandfather."
The Australian is executive chairman of the real estate franchise that operates here, in Australia and Asia.
With an advertising campaign thanking Mr Hooker for being the best, New Zealanders are selling their houses via an agency which, like Dick Smith, takes its name from an identity with little profile on this side of the Tasman. That identity was originally Sir Leslie Hooker, who died in 1976.
Now, his grandson wants prominence here. "I'm the first LJ in the family since my grandfather ... I was lucky," he said of his name, adding that his father's name is David Hooker.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Real estate agents head to China to sell NZ's top homes
By Susie Nordqvist - August 2010
Real estate firms are increasingly turning offshore to secure sales amid a drought of willing buyers in the New Zealand market.
Harcourts says a six-day expo of more than $800 million worth of premier New Zealand property in Shanghai is generating "serious interest" from VIPs in China with a number of offers already been made.
Harcourts' franchise Cooper & Co on Auckland's North Shore is marketing a portfolio of 57 residential, lifestyle, rural and commercial property and development projects to more than 1200 Chinese millionaires and billionaires interested in investing or immigrating here.
Harcourts New Zealand chief executive Hayden Duncan said a limited pool of local buyers for high-end property in the New Zealand market meant agents were looking outside the square to secure sales.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Kevin Atkinson: Home truths forcing everybody to adjust
August 2010
The New Zealand residential building industry has evolved in the wake of the global credit crunch.
In the world before the global credit crunch, many New Zealanders racked up large debts to build massive houses. Land developers, local councils, builders, building products suppliers and related tradespeople experienced boom times as our cities expanded.
The mortgage money filtered through every part of the industry and everybody paid more than they really should have been paying.
The global credit crunch has prompted an evolution, or necessary correction, in mortgage lending in New Zealand. In this new era it is unlikely banks will ever be so cavalier with their lending terms.
Plus, the recession has prompted many Kiwis to save more and spend less. Now the residential building industry and consumers are adjusting to this new world.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Auckland least affordable area
August 2010
New Zealand home loan affordability improved in July by its biggest amount in 18 months to its best levels since September last year as fixed mortgage rates dropped and house prices eased, the Roost Home Loan Affordability report shows.
Affordability improved significantly in Queenstown, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Wellington and Canterbury because house prices fell.
But affordability worsened slightly in Northland, Manawatu, Otago and Southland because house prices rose.
Auckland is now the least affordable area in New Zealand, taking that mantle from Queenstown for the first time since January 2002.
Affordability is set to improve further through the second half of 2010 if house prices keep falling in a "buyers market" and further concerns about the global economy drive market interest rates lower.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Hotchins offered sale tips
By Matt Nippert
"The record breaker" and "add meat to the bones" - contrasting pitches suggested by prominent real estate agents keen to sell Mark and Amanda Hotchin's half-built mansion on Paritai Drive.
Bayleys agent David Rainbow said he would prefer to market the house as-is and let the new owners finish construction to their taste.
"The bones are there, you put a bit of meat on it," he said. "I'm sure Hotchin has good taste, and the builders have good taste - but whether it's the buyers, who knows?"
Celebrity real estate agent Michael Boulgaris said the scale and location of the finished property - likely to be a "record-breaker" in terms of sale price.
Boulgaris guessed the house could sell for up to $40 million, but said he would try to downplay appeal to the nouveau riche by going with the slogan: "It's stylish, it's not in your face, it's quite timeless."
The house has been on the market fewer than 48 hours, but agents are already excited by the prospect of a massive commission.
The Hotchins' spokesman Klaus Sorensen said no one had been appointed to sell the property, but he had already been approached by agents and "several high net worth individuals" looking to buy.
"The phrase to apply would be 'feeding frenzy'. I can see the fins in the water already."
The seven-bedroom mansion has been a lightning-rod for criticism of Hotchin after Hanover Finance, the company he co-owned with Eric Watson, was frozen in 2008 owing $554m to 16,000 investors.
Sorensen said his clients would sell once construction ends later this year.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Just how super can this city be without vision?
By Pete Bossley
It seems ridiculous for a city to cast itself on to the turbulent seas of mayors' visions.
I was part of a trio representing the Auckland branch of the Institute of Architects in its submissions to the royal commission when it was working towards its fine model for the reconstituted city (that is the well-considered one that got away when eviscerated overnight by the politicians).
The basis of our submission (which was described by a commissioner as one of the most useful they had heard) was that in the eventual structure of the new city - no matter how many sub-cities, mayors and local bodies finally eventuated - there should be a number of clearly defined mechanisms which encouraged, no, demanded, that the design of the city be paramount in the long-term vision.
Surely, the design and maintenance of an overarching vision for Auckland is at the heart of the exercise to improve the governance of the city. Any organisational structure will only be successful if it recognises and promotes the idea that the city, in all its multi-faceted aspects, needs to be designed in the widest sense of the word.
This involves much more than the physical, and should include issues of social, economic, and cultural import. It needs to cover all aspects of the city, such as physical qualities, organisation, environment, identity, affordability, security and safety, and should reach across all socio-economic layers.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Property title transfer system 'safer than paper'
By Anne Gibson
New Zealand's property title transfer system is secure and changes have improved it, a Government official says.
Robbie Muir, the Registrar-General of Land, said electronic title registration was introduced in 2003.
"The system has been operating very successfully since then and is widely supported by the legal profession and the banking industry," he said.
Muir was responding after the Law Society prosecuted a lawyer who had withdrawn a caveat on a farm. The lawyer had no authority to withdraw the caveat and did not hold a Landonline authority and instruction allowing him to pull it, the society found.
Rod Thomas, an Auckland barrister and AUT lecturer, said he was worried about the system and the case gave weight to his fears.
But Muir said the pre-2003 paper-based system was more vulnerable to fraud than the electronic system.
"There was the potential for forgery and the land registry did not have reliable means of verifying the authenticity of land owners' signatures or establishing that proper identity checks had been undertaken.
The paper-based system was effective for its time, but cases of fraud and forgery did sometimes occur, albeit rarely," Muir said.
"The Landonline system has more effective checks and balances. Access to the system is restricted to lawyers and conveyancers who have established their credentials and obtained the necessary digital certificate from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
NZ needs 10,000 new houses - report
By Susie Nordqvist
About 10,000 new homes need to be built in New Zealand to keep pace with population growth and ease the current housing squeeze, a report released by Westpac shows.
The report says the number of houses built halved in the two years to 2009, while population grew 0.4 per cent as fewer Kiwis crossed the Tasman.
The resulting squeeze on housing - only the third since reliable data began in the 1960s - had boosted the average number of people per house in New Zealand from 2.52 to 2.55 during 2009.
A rapid growth in construction activity was needed to ease the squeeze, the report says.
"By our calculations the current rate of house building will be enough to keep the number of people per house constant through 2010, but will not be enough to bring it down," the report says.
Westpac is picking a 23 per cent growth in residential construction for 2011, and even that would only just be enough to keep up with population growth.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Reserve Bank should leave rate hikes till Sept: NZIER
Businesswire
Global economic uncertainty reduces the need for New Zealand interest rates to start rising in June, as is currently anticipated, says the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research in its latest Quarterly Predictions, released this morning.
"The New Zealand economy is recovering. But dangers are clear and present," said the institute's principal economist, Shamubeel Eaqub. "The current global financial, political and social turmoil are the key risks.
"We believe there is no urgency for the RBNZ to raise interest rates in this environment," Eaqub said. "A gradual hiking programme from September would allow time to gauge the impact of the current risk flare, a preferable option to rushing rate increases that may have to be reversed."
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Sellers dropping prices as market hits tipping point
By Susie Nordqvist
Sellers are being forced to cut their asking prices as a glut of unsold properties produces sluggish sales in the residential sector.
The average asking price for sellers fell 3.6 per cent to $407,349 during May, while the number of sales dropped by more than 1000 in April when compared to the same time last year, latest figures from Realestate.co.nz's NZ Property Report show.
The current asking price is five per cent below the peak of the market in October 2007.
The change indicated sellers were finally starting to drop asking prices to solicit more interest from buyers.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Iwi ready to discuss eviction orders from seaside paradise
APN, NZPA
A Maori trust that wants to terminate leases of its tribe's land at a Bay of Plenty seaside settlement has said it will meet residents to discuss the issue.
About 30 homeowners at Little Waihi, east of Tauranga, have been told by Te Arawa Lakes Trust, which manages the assets and resources of the Arawa iwi, that their annual licences to occupy will be terminated within a year.
Trust chairman Toby Curtis said: "The trust intends to meet those concerned ... and is willing, as it always has been to date, to consider a positive way forward."
The move to end the licences has upset residents, including fourth-generation resident Jackaileen Elsworth. "We're dumbfounded, we're shocked," she said. "We just did not expect that."
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Property tax change will deter offshore investors, says group
By Susie Nordqvist
The Government's move to scrap depreciation on listed commercial property is "completely out of whack" with the rest of the OECD and may make it harder to attract offshore investment, the Property Council says.
New Zealand will become one of only a handful of OECD countries without the ability to write-down the value of buildings next year, which commercial property owners says will cut straight to the wealth of their sector.
"The rest of the world provides for it and we are now an outlier, a bit of an oddity and it makes it that much harder for us to attract offshore capital," council national president Chris Gudgeon said.
A New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report commissioned by the Property Council earlier this year shows Slovakia and the UK are the only other countries where depreciation tax breaks cannot be claimed, while in the Netherlands only limited rates can be claimed.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Confidence in housing market weakens
By Brian Fallow
Confidence in the housing market has weakened as people await details of expected tax changes in the Budget on May 20 and the start to a series of interest rate rises from the Reserve Bank.
ASB's quarterly survey of sentiment in the housing market has recorded a marked drop in the proportion of people expecting house prices to rise over the next 12 months, to a net 35 per cent from 51 per cent three months ago.
Likewise, fewer see it as a good time to buy a house - a net 29 per cent, down from 33 per cent in the previous survey.
Expectations that interest rates will rise were almost unchanged at a net 59 per cent.
ASB said the survey results were in line with recent data showing a slowdown in activity in the market, largely driven by continued uncertainty about the potential for tax advantages for property investment to be removed in the Budget.
The median number of days it takes to sell a property has been edging up since the spring and is now around the long-run average.
Read more...Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
House buyers may be holding off until Budget
By Anne Gibson
Tax fears may be deterring landlords from buying, one real estate agency says.
Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson's managing director, blamed a monthly price drop on the Budget expectations.
Auckland average house sale prices dropped by more than $3000 last month, said the city's biggest agency.
They were down from $545,156 in March to $541,486 in April. But Mr Thompson said April often showed falling volumes but relatively stable prices.
Investors would know more after the Budget, he said.
"The Budget will give certainty to the market once people have analysed any changes it may contain. Those familiar with traditional Auckland trading patterns will read nothing significant into this month's trading."
The Budget is expected to change the tax treatment of rental property after the Tax Working Group's report in January said that in 2008 the $200 billion invested in rental housing yielded net rental losses totalling $500 million.
Barfoot's results showed the opposite trend to the latest monthly Real Estate Institute data out on April 16, which reported the national median price jumping $10,500 from $350,000 in February to $360,500 in March.
Auckland house sales dip last month, prices rise
Auckland house sales fell last month, coming off a stronger track in March, suggesting property investors are becoming tentative ahead of the 2010 budget, which will curb tax breaks.
The volume of sales fell 27.6 per cent to 671 in April, while the average sale price edged down less than 1 per cent to $541,486, according to Barfoot & Thompson, Auckland's biggest real estate firm.
Still, the average price was a record for the month of April.
"The budget will give certainty to the market once people have analysed any changes it may contain, but this April has the familiar feel of the start of the normal autumn/winter easing in demand," said Peter Thompson, the firm's managing director.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
April 2010 Market Update
Auckland residential property sales in April followed their traditional pattern and fell significantly on those for March.
“Sales volume in April at 671 properties was down on that for March by 27.6 percent,” said Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Barfoot & Thompson.
“It is a pattern that has occurred every year for the past 10 years, and this year’s decline is in fact lower than what normally occurs*.
“While the average price at $541,486 was down on that for March, by less than 1 percent, it was more than $38,000 higher than the average in April last year.
“This April’s average sale price is the highest ever for an April.
“The combination of falling sales numbers and stable prices is common for April, and those familiar with traditional Auckland trading patterns will read nothing significant into this month’s trading.”
Soure: http://www.barfoot.co.nz/
Aussies interested in Hillary's home
They've claimed Phar Lap, Crowded House and even taken our national dessert, pavlova, as their own.
Now it appears Australians are muscling in on attempts to save the Remuera home Sir Ed Hillary built and lived in until his death.
The house has been at the centre of a tug-of-war since it was bought by neighbour Terry Jarvis for $1.9 million last March. Moves to demolish it sparked a public outcry, and Jarvis received several offers from people keen to move it to a new site.
Real estate giants row over worth of auctions
First National - which has about 70 offices nationwide - has released a survey of its members which it says shows auctioning a house is the least effective way of selling.
But Barfoot & Thompson has hit back, saying auctions are a preferred method and have little to do with a successful sale.
Meeting the market with a realistic price is far more important than the mode of sale, says Barfoot director Peter Thompson.
Court case angers apartment owners
Feelings are running high at Waterside Crescent in Gulf Harbour, where one leaky-apartment owner is taking most of his neighbours to court.
Management consultant Bill Rehm, who bought two units in a block of eight in 2002 to help fund his retirement, has sued five of his fellow owners for carrying out inadequate and illegal repairs.
As the former San Franciscan gave a tour around the canal-based complex last week, one neighbour yelled at him across the fence and another accused him of "frivolous lawsuits" and ruining the neighbourhood with his "American ways".
Architect raises spectre of balcony collapse
Balconies on a block of leaky apartments have been so badly repaired that they could collapse like another Cave Creek disaster, says an architect who has distanced himself from the project.
The repairs have been defended by the engineer in charge, Northbridge Building Consultants director Peter Beran, who says the work was approved by the Rodney District Council and homeowners could not have afforded the full reclad recommended by other experts.
But a report by building consultants Maynard Marks on the eight leaky units at Gulf Harbour, north of Auckland, says the repair job appears to have ignored design specifications approved by the council.
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