News
Navigating New Tax Changes: What You Need To Know
From 1 August 2024, new tax changes have come into effect in New Zealand, bringing adjustments that could impact your payslip, tax codes, and overall take-home pay. Here’s a clear breakdown of what’s changed, what to keep an eye on, and how to ensure you're set up correctly. What Are the Changes? The key change is an increase in the income tax thresholds, which means you cou...
Here's why you won't really pay 'extra' tax on your second job
What tax rate will you pay if you take a second job? The good news is that you don’t pay a higher rate of tax just because a job is your second job. Your tax bill is calculated based on your total income. Annual income up to $14,000 is taxed at 10.5%. Anything you earn that is over $14,000 a year and less than $48,000, is taxed at 17.5%. Annual income between $48,000 and $70...
In a nation obsessed with house prices and capital gains, why is a sector of our ageing population denied any capital gain on the sale of their home?
In a nation obsessed with house prices and capital gains, why is a sector of Aotearoa’s ageing population denied any capital gain on the sale of their home and left waiting up to a year for what they do get? The laws around retirement villages are set for review but, as Heidi Bendikson reports, any changes may be too late for some. Read More: https://www.stuff.co.nz/busine...
Frustrated by inaction at home, some turned the US courts to help save the Māui dolphins. And they won. But what does it mean?
The list of victories in marine conservationists’ never-ending struggle to halt the degradation of oceans is very short. And so the decision of a United States court to place a temporary ban on New Zealand seafood exports from Māui dolphins’ habitat was greeted with first astonishment – taking even litigants Sea Shepherd by surprise – and then celebration...
Why Millennials have fallen in love with their grandparents’ furniture
Millennials and Gen Z are driving soaring demand for secondhand and restored mid-century furniture, with brands beloved by their grandparents’ generation such as Parker, Chiswell and Wrightbuilt attracting shoppers. Characterised by clean lines, pieces made from teak wood and vinyl plastic, with an overriding emphasis on comfort, styles from the 1950s to 1970s are hot property on so...
Three suburbs where house sales have dried up most
Buyers are holding back as house prices fall and interest rates rise. But if you’ve put a house on the market lately and struggled to find buyers, spare a thought for those in Cannons Creek, New Windsor and Newmarket. Corelogic data comparing sales numbers over the past year to the total number of houses in those areas shows these three suburbs have had the slowest housing markets over ...
Explainer: What in the world is inflation and why do we care?
It’s been a tough week for homeowners and anyone with a wallet as the Reserve Bank raised the official cash rate and announced a recession was looming. And it is all thanks to inflation, which reached a 32-year high of 7.3% in July and currently sits at 7.2%. We asked an economist all the things you might be too afraid to ask about inflation and why it is affect...
Why the official cash rate is important
What will happen? At 2pm on Wednesday, the Reserve Bank will publish its review of the OCR, as well as its final monetary policy statement of the year. Whether commercial banks raise their interest rates in response isn’t a given because banks get their money from a variety of places, including overseas markets. They are also competing amongst themselves for people to bank with them, s...
Cheat sheet: What's really happening to your KiwiSaver balance?
KiwiSaver balances have been moving around at an alarming rate so far this year. Data up to the end of August showed the average KiwiSaver balanced fund was down 8.5% this year and last month was the worst since Covid for investment markets. Here’s what you need to know if your KiwiSaver balance has given you a surprise lately. Read More: https://www.stuff.co.nz/busin...
From passing up 20 property valuation requests a day to receiving one
Requests for property valuations have collapsed, according to a valuation franchise owner in Auckland. Rene Mclean owns a branch of Property Indepth and operates mainly in the south-east of the city, and said last year his team could be declining 20 requests for valuations a day because they did not have the capacity. He said these days he was receiving about one request a day, and ...
Why Gen Z won’t pick up the phone
Imagine you’re having a busy day. Between meetings, a haircut, and the dentist appointment you’ve already cancelled three times, you can barely stop to sip your coffee. Suddenly, your phone rings. Without even checking who it is, your body involuntarily cringes. The audacity to call you on your very busy day! What can’t be said in a text? Call declined. This is the Gen Z...
Property investors offered 20-year interest-only loan
One of the country’s biggest non-bank lenders is going against the grain, and offering property investors the chance to lock in long-term, interest only loans. Rising interest rates and economic uncertainty have prompted banks to ask many investor customers to move from interest-only payments to more expensive principal-and-interest payments on their mortgages. Read More: https://w...
'Build to rent' landlords get tax reward for offering tenants long-term tenancies and more flexibility
Housing Minister Megan Woods has announced ‘build to rent' investors will get an exemption from interest deductibility rules provided they meet certain conditions. Developments will need to offer tenants long-term tenure and allow tenants more flexibility around what they can do in their dwelling. Build to rent is well established overseas and the Property Council says this could be a...
Passive House-style benefits for 30% less than the cost of a new certified build
Harpal Kler owns a large, multigenerational certified Passive House in Coatesville – Stuff wrote about the project in 2017. So he doesn’t need convincing as to the benefits of a super energy-efficient Passive House build. But he says he always believed there has to be a cheaper way to achieve similar results, and now he has done it. He has built a secondary dwelling on h...
Desirable tenants become scarcer as 'accidental landlords' add to rental glut
The rise of “accidental landlords” may be contributing to a rental property glut that is likely to tip the country into a renters’ market, CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said. Goodall said the pattern could be read from similar numbers of properties being removed from the market, where total listings were up 77% on a year ago, and a concurrent ris...
How to provide effective feedback and why it is so important
Business leaders are in a unique position to influence the progression of our teams, a big part of which includes giving feedback to others to ensure we are fostering a healthy and cohesive working environment says Frances Bearne. OPINION: Today’s reality presents many challenges that affect our businesses and, as a result, our staff. Returning to the office after so long at home has imp...
Do I really need to get both a LIM and a building report if I’m buying a house?
Belinda Moffat is the Chief Executive of the Real Estate Authority, the independent government agency that regulates the conduct of real estate professionals. Here, she answers your home buying and selling questions. Q: Hi Belinda, I found a property that I want to make an offer on, and my friend told me to make sure I get a LIM report and a property inspection. What’s the difference, an...
More landlords face making a loss on rentals as interest rates rise, Deloitte says
Sharp interest rate increases, combined with the phase-out of mortgage interest deductibility, are likely to leave more rentals losing money as landlords find rent payments no longer cover expenses and tax bills, Deloitte analysis shows. Deloitte partner Robyn Walker says if home loan rates hit 5 per cent (which experts predict will happen within a couple of years) it will not take long f...
House price estimators can differ by hundreds of thousands, so which to use?
One of the first things a potential buyer does when looking at a property is check price estimates online, but depending on the provider, these can vary from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The estimated price of one Lower Hutt property currently on the market differed $690,000 between the provider with the highest estimated market price and the lowest. Each price estimate supp...
Are we worrying about inflation too soon?
OPINION: Unmasked English football fans rioting and lobbing racist taunts at each other is a depressing sign of a world returning to normal, but when it comes to the issue of inflation our concerns are very different to the ones we had pre-pandemic. As countries start opening up, the world is talking about inflation in a way it hasn’t in recent years. New Zealand is no exception. On Wed...
New amenities and health and wellbeing big positives for Christchurch
Whether it’s because of new amenities, affordable housing or quality of life, a new survey has found Christchurch residents are feeling better about their city. Christchurch has scored highest of the main cities for health and wellbeing in New Zealand’s latest national Quality of Life survey, and recorded by far the biggest improvement in how the city is ranked by its residents. I...
First home buyers have the advantage as investors hit pause on buying spree
Investors appear to have hit pause on new purchases as they come to terms with the Government’s housing shake-up. Last week the Government announced that it was extending the bright line test on investment purchases to 10 years and changing the tax rules around interest costs. Tom Rawson, director of Ray White Manukau, in South Auckland, where investors have been highly active in the ...
Buyers splashing out on trophy homes in top Christchurch locations
Wealthy buyers are splashing out on luxury and lifestyle homes while overseas trips remain beyond reach, real estate agents say. While first homebuyers and investors are heating up the lower end of the real estate market, agents are also reporting emerging demand for high-quality residences and holiday homes with extra features. “We’re seeing people who typically would have been t...
BNZ joins Westpac, ANZ and ASB to demand 30 per cent deposits from investors
Bank of New Zealand has joined ANZ, Westpac and ASB in hiking the deposits needed by residential property investors for rental property loans. From December 7, investors will need a 30 per cent deposit for a loan on investment properties. Ordinary home buyers will still qualify for home loans with 20 per cent deposits. BNZ customer, products and services executive Dan Huggins said that given...
Cheaper suburbs leap ahead as leafy suburbs languish in Christchurch housing market
Real estate values in million-dollar Christchurch suburbs like Fendalton and Scarborough hill have lost ground while buyers scoop up deals in areas such as Hoon Hay and Aranui. With increased demand starting to push up prices, the value of a home in the city has risen by an average 4.3 per cent in the past year, according to property analyst CoreLogic. CoreLogic’s figures show several i...
New Christchurch apartments criticised for having 'poor' urban design
Many apartments built in parts of Christchurch since 2016 have “monolithic” appearances and “inadequate or poor” design, according to a new report. The findings are no surprise to residents who have long complained about intensive developments being put on properties where a single home used to sit, causing problems with parking and clogging narrow streets. The develop...
Covid-19 drives sales of lifestyle blocks to record high
Sales of lifestyle blocks reached an all-time high in July, sales data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) show. Chief executive Bindi Norwell said: “For a while now we’ve been hearing stories of people purchasing lifestyle properties as a result of Covid-19 and now we’ve seen this translate in the data. “Over the last few months sales of lifestyle pr...
Covid-free New Zealand tempts foreign property buyers
Real estate listings website Realestate.co.nz says there seems to be a link between publicity about New Zealand’s Covid-19 status and surges of interest in local property from offshore buyers. Spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said international buyer numbers had been monitored closely since the country went into lockdown in March. April 2, when the country had its largest number of new Covid-...
Property market recovering, but September will be the true test, says REINZ chief
It's a time for cautious hope for the property market. But we're still waiting for the true test. New Zealand's lockdown measures created an initial, brutal hit on the economy. But the success of those measures meant a recovery into a virus-free community, with the opportunity for a strong economic bounce back. We have the luxury of free movement, even if our borders have closed. As a resul...
Signs the elusive tūī may slowly be returning to Canterbury
Sightings of the elusive tūī in Canterbury may be on the rise, with the population of the native bird growing faster in the region than any garden bird counted in New Zealand in a decade. According to the State of New Zealand Garden Birds 2019 survey, the country's longest-running citizen science project, overall numbers of the boisterous bird were still “very low”, but sightings s...
Why Covid-19 is unlikely to hurt Christchurch house prices
Over the last month and a half, New Zealand's housing market has seen significant changes, the full impact of which may not be clear for some time. The results of OneRoof's Mood of the Market survey this week shows buyers and sellers are worried about the economy and house prices but, for now, their property plans remain unaffected. This suggests that severe price drops of 20 percent or more...
Interest Rates
The chances are strong that following some small reductions in one- and two-year fixed mortgage rates this week, further reductions will happen soon. The Reserve Bank is clearly frustrated at behaviour by banks, writing the following in their discussion of the expansion of their money printing operation“We expect to see retail interest rates decline further as lower wholesale borrowing co...
First-home buyers hoping for chance to get into property market
First-home buyers have spotted their chance to get into the market, Trade Me data shows - but whether they'll be able to make it happen is another question. Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said younger buyers were browsing the site more than usual as interest rates hit record lows and the Reserve Bank removed loan-to-value restrictions. “In the week following the Reserve Bank&r...
Don't put too much faith in economists' predictions, one economist says
Economists often get it wrong. There's good reason to think that the current claims suggesting a decrease in house prices could be incorrect. That might sound ironic, coming from an economist. But, let's look at the facts. Economists spend a lot of time forecasting the future. But, when you look back at previous predictions, especially in uncertain times, we often get it wrong. In Januar...
No ordinary subdivision: $720k just for the section
Anyone with a spare $600,000 can choose among some of the last residential plots on the Queenstown side of Lake Wakatipu's Frankton Arm. The third stage of the Remarkables View subdivision, directly above the new Frankton Marina, is currently for sale. Nine sections have sold while 11, including four unit-capable lots in the previous stage, are still for sale. Prices in the new stage – of...
Advantages to selling your house over Christmas
Don’t fret if you’re trying to sell your home as the tinsel’s going up. There are some little known advantages to selling through Christmas and New Year. There are challenges to selling your property through Christmas and the new year. Many agents close up shop and have a break, people get distracted with presents and parties, and let’s face it… most of us are ju...
First KiwiBuild homes welcomed in Queenstown
Kiwi Build will create affordable housing for some people in Queenstown, but they need to be cheaper if they are to be within the reach of many workers in the resort, the mayor says. Housing Minister Megan Woods was at the former Wakatipu High School site on Wednesday to formalise the Government's agreement to build 105 Kiwi Build homes within a 350-home Ngāi Tahu developme...
Subsidised equity scheme offers interest-free mortgages
Subsidised equity scheme offers interest-free mortgages for chosen homebuyers About 50 Christchurch households over three years could benefit from a new scheme offering subsidized home deposit top-up loans in return for an equity share. The scheme, funded with just over $3 million each from the city council and Government, is aimed at helping those unable to save a deposit but&...
July boost in house sales may signal early onset of renewed growth
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) says a slight upswing in house sales during July could be an early signal of growth in the market. The number of homes sold across the country was up 2.5 per cent in July, compared with the same time last year, going from 4120 to 4224. The regions with the greatest increase were Nelson (25 per cent), Gisborne (14.9 per cent), Canterbu...
About 100,000 rental properties likely to miss insulation deadline
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) estimated up to 100,000 properties did not meet the standards. Despite shortages and insulation providers struggling to meet demand MBIE has said it will not be granting extensions. With those breaching the rules facing thousands of dollars in fines, the Real Estate Institute has been encouraging property managers ...
Relationship Trend Between Asking & Selling Price
This is a joint collaboration between the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) and realestate.co.nz.Between our two organisations we have the most up-to-date and accurate property data and we have come together to give New Zealander`s a snapshot of what’s really happening in the market with regards to the asking and selling prices of properties.This report provides an interesting ...
The Queenstown Property Market
The effects of slipping sales volumes and reduced capital value growth margins have become evident across New Zealand’s entire property market in recent months, and although Queenstown has been relatively less affected by this trend, it is not immune. While still experiencing higher growth than other areas of New Zealand, the recent figures have certainly fallen back to what is consider...
Seasons Greetings from the team at Smart..
With Christmas fast approaching we turn our attention to the prospect of yet another year having shot past at an unprecedented rate. Where did 2018 go? Did someone remove a few months from the calendar while you were distracted or is time actually speeding up?When we were young we always experienced new things. Every day we did something new and the number of tasks we completed in a subconsciou...
Tourism and population growth sustain peaking Queenstown property market
Unprecedented tourism and population growth underpin a sustained peak in the Queenstown property market, according to a new report. The annual Colliers International Market Review and Outlook says infrastructure development, economic growth, low interest rates and increased construction activity are also behind the historically high Queenstown and Wanaka markets."Demand exceeds supply across th...
Day Tripping in Canterbury's Wonderland
As the old song goes, 'Baby, it's cold outside'. But just because New Zealand is wearing its winter coat doesn't mean you have to hibernate. Especially in Canterbury, which comes alive during the winter months. Here are our picks for some of the hottest things to do in Canterbury this winter.AORAKI / MOUNT COOK NATIONAL PARKWinter is possibly the best time to take in the beautiful vistas on the...
Letting Fees Ban
In late March 2018 the Residential Tenancies (Prohibiting Letting Fees) Amendment Bill was introduced by Housing Minister Phil Twyford, and the bill has since passed its first reading. As the name suggests, the bill proposes a ban on landlords or property managers charging letting fees to tenants. A letting fee has historically covered the array of services provided by a property manager ...
Get Inspired Over The Long Weekend.
From easy to ambitious, we have a list of different projects to get you inspired over the long weekend.Whether you're preparing to sell or staying put, ticking items off the to-do list is very satisfying, but when it comes to home improvements, working smarter, not harder, is the best plan of attack. One of the simplest, most cost-effective improvements of all is paint! Freshly painted rooms l...
Top 10 Tips For First Time Buyers
Most would agree it is important to make an informed choice when buying a house, especially your first home. To get you on the right track we have put together this list of 10 tips for first home buyers. 1. Do Your Research There is a wealth of information online just waiting to help you in your search for a new home. Cross reference house sales and prices for similar sized properties, proper...
The Christchurch Property Market
Described by a growing number of experts as “flat”, the property market in Christchurch has undeniably moved into an advanced post-earthquake phase. According to sales and property valuation company Quotable Value (QV), sales volumes have fallen along with some home owners experiencing minimal (if any) growth on average house prices as well as properties generally taking much long...
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