July 5, 2025 • 40 mins
Apartment blocks are being heralded as the best way to get on the property-ladder, but is there a better route?
Will these properties be worth it? How confident can we feel with where the market's heading with intensification?
Additionally: Wellington house prices are dropping, but what risks are there for buyers?
Andrew Dickens is joined by Property Expert Nichole Lewis...
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
at B Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good afternoon. I'm Andrew Dickens. I'm in for Tim Beverage.
Tim Beverages on holiday with the family and he's taking
them skiing in the Mackenzie Country. He's at Round Hill.
He's been posting photographs. He's had blue sky days, the
snow is good and he hasn't lost any children yet,
which is actually a miracle. When you take kids skiing,
you're a very brave man, Tim to take people take
(00:33):
children skiing, because I've tried it too as well. It's
not easy. So I'm here until six. The number the phone.
If you wish to phone, oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty, you can text ninety two ninety two. There
is a small charge that does apply, so it's better
to phone, and you can email me Dickens at Newstalks
at b dot co dot enz. So welcome on in.
This is the one roof radio show and it's now
(00:54):
eight minutes after four and in the studio with me
is Nicole Lewis, who is a property investment advisor and
hello to you, Nicole. Yes, the red button says it's funny,
isn't it rare? Button says go to the microphone on
green button says off. It's different from traffic lights. Hello, Hello, Hello,
welcome on in thank you. I want to start off
(01:15):
by asking whether the housing crisis is over. The Herald
is leading with this today. It's on the front page
and also on page three. I think it is. And
Bernard Osmon has written after talking to council valuers and others,
and he says that there's been a one hundred thousand
houses built in the Auckland region since the density laws changed,
(01:36):
and I think Auckland is. In fact, people all over
the country are well aware of this. This is where
houses disappear and suddenly four, five, in some cases thirteen
townhouses turn up, and that means more houses, more houses
on the market, more bedrooms, I like to say, more
people being able to sleep. So, with one hundred thousand
extra houses in New Zealand in a very short period
(01:56):
of time in Auckland, but probably the number is greater
over the whole of New Zealand in a short period
of time, the question can be asked, is the housing
crisis over? And what would you say to that?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I would say the housing crisis has a temporary halt
on it.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh yeah, So do you think that in some stage
again once again looking at migration figures, et cetera, looking
at population growth, that at some stage the supply will
not match the demand.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well, typically these things are cyclical, And yes, I am
certainly noticing right now there is an oversupply, there's no
question about that. Does that mean that's going to continue
on in the future. Maybe not when demand heaps up,
when migration starts climbing again. Maybe there will be a
short period of time when we have an undersupply before
(02:52):
we the market changes and there's no supply again.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
But do you think we're relearned our lesson? I've seen
the government coming up with density rules allowing fifteen story
apartment buildings to be built near to transport hubs. We've
seeing the Council talking about this as well. We've seen
that when people do the conversion of houses into townhouses
to get more more residences in each square meter of
land in our cities all over the place. Do you
(03:17):
think we've actually learned the lesson and our regulators and
our developers are going to keep match with the demand.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Look, in my opinion, it's just an opinion. I think
when the unitary plan came out, and let's talk about Auckland.
The Auckland Unitary Plan, really it made a huge percentage
of land in Auckland now developable, you know something probably
I don't know the actual statistics, but just by looking
at properties that are now zoned for higher density, probably
(03:47):
something like eighty to eighty five percent, And to be fair,
there was too much, so they maybe should have rolled
it out with a lesser number that we're able to.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Be progressively an evolution rather than a revolution direct correct.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And then of course you have infrastructure like we're seeing
now in Auckland with the water care crisis that it
can't cope. That was always going to be inevitable.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And of course same with Wellington. Every everyone talked about
Wellington the one hundred year pipes, but also you just
had to go to Wellington, you know, on trips like
I did, and see the proliferation of apartment buildings and
people living in the CBD and that's all putting pressure
on infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Percent that's right.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So the thing though is for property investors because they
hear this, they read this headline and you're saying that
maybe for a while it's over. And the thing about
supply and demand not matching and my demmnd exceeding supply
is it meant to guarantee return to a property investor
because they almost knew that the competition for the property
was going to go up and up and up, and
(04:50):
therefore the prices were going to go up and up
and up. So therefore the yield that they were going
to get goes up and up and up. So if
you're a property investor right now reading a headline like that,
will you start to have second thoughts about getting into
the trade.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
The new investors will, But the experience investors know that
when property is on sale, it's the best time to
buy it.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, so you see property is on sale, you say
it's a buyer's market right now?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It is definitely a buyer's market right now.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Now.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
What I'm noticing because we're out there buying property or
we attempting to buy property every single week, and what
I'm noticing is the market is turning around. It's not
the same as it was last year, but it is
moving at a snail's pace. So but we're seeing some
good competition. Tried to bid for a block of units
on Friday, to have ten registered bids and for it
(05:36):
to go two hundred thousand dollars higher than what we thought.
So property, not everyone, not every property is doing that,
and not every part of the country, but it is slowly,
slowly starting to move at the lower end of the market.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now, this high identsity housing. I mentioned already that a
lot of people just cannot understand why people would want
to buy this. You know, ah, the shared wall, the privacy,
the no backyards, no car parks. You know, no one
ever wants this is so this is a rabbit hutch
for rabbits, not a house for people. Nobody wants to
buy it. And I say, well, you might not be
(06:11):
able to want to buy it, but there are, obviously
there are people buying it. So at the higher density
houses that we see around the place that so many
people think looks uninhabitable, people are buying that. And isn't
that the market talking.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
That's exactly right, you know, Like I have people come
to me that want to buy investment properties and they'll
say something like, oh, I won't buy on a main
road because people hate that. And I go, come and
stand in this main road there's houses on it. Are
people living in there? Yes, there's always is, someone's going
to enjoy it. Some people don't want a backyard, some
people want something brand new. And also townhouses are more
affordable because at the end of the day, what goes
(06:48):
up the most and value over the years is the land,
and with townhouses is not much.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Okay. So therefore, if you are a property investor and
you see there's some townhouses, and you might be thinking, well,
I could buy that townhouse. But then again, instead of
buying three towns, I could buy a standalone three bedroom place.
And I think that one is more attractive to the marketplace.
I think I might invest in that. I mean, what
would you say to those people who've got this conundrum
(07:15):
between what sort of asset might be best and therefore
what asset might appreciate the best and what asset would
give a better yield.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That's a very good question, Okay. So I've got a
different philosophy on this and what everybody else would say.
So I wrote a book called Property Quadrants, and in
that book I talk about quadrant for being your investor quadrant.
If you're a property investor, you should be throwing any
emotions out the window, and you should be putting on
your business hat and you buy purely on the numbers.
(07:45):
I can tell you that if you're buying a single
apartment or a single townhouse, then numbers will not stack up.
You need to buy a multiple income property. So therefore,
what I say to my mentoring clients that I help
find properties that are cash flow positive. I say, you
don't search the area, you search the deal, so you'd
(08:05):
own have a look for Typically I like a block
of three units, and you go and buy something like
that anywhere in the country that is in the price
bracket you can afford. That of course, is still attractive
to tenants in the right sort of location, and that's
what you buy.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So you're saying, say there's three townhouses at seven hundred
and fifty thousand each, that is a better buy than
buying a house that is two point one million dollars
on its own land and maybe four bedrooms at the
same price.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I'm saying, if you've got a block of three units
that are on a single title and you own all three,
that is a better buy than a three bedroom, one
bathroom house for the same sort of price, or a
townhouse for the same sort of price. Well, okay, because
you get more income. So if you buy a townhouse,
for example, for five hundred dollars, let's well say a
(08:55):
million dollars, a three bedroom house for a million dollars,
and a blocker units for a million dollars. The blocker
units will give you a far better income return than
either the town house or the house. And that's what
you need in order to reach a little bit of
financial security and not have stress about money going out
the door.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
If the housing crisis is over, because you know, supply
and demand have finally become balanced right now. I know
a lot of investors when they bought their houses, they
didn't care about rental incomes as much. The main driver
was capital gain on the property, and they go, if
we can just tread water with the rents for a
little bit, you know, the money we make is actually
(09:37):
in the capital gains. Do you think we're starting to
shift to start thinking, okay, we might get some capital gains,
but we've also got to make sure that we're getting
a good rental income, which kind of comes back to
your theory. Buy three so you can rent three.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, Well, I'm going to be again I'm going to
differ with on this a little bit, and that you
are one hundred percent right. The perception out there for
investors is like by capital gain, but in experienced investors
which is the majority, don't understand into that and they've
got it wrong. You should not be buying for capital
gain until you have the cash flow coming in, because
that creates financial stress and makes you accidentally cash poor,
(10:16):
and then the government puts unhealthy homes or non deductibility,
you're in your crap.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
So you should actually be buying for cash flow because
at the end of the day, if you're thinking, right,
I'm going to have a property for twenty years and
then I'm going to survive or so what what does
that mean? You're going to sell that property and then
you're going to do what with that cash? Whereas if
you've got a property that's making you one thousand dollars
a week that's going in your pocket after text, why
then would you sell the property. You don't need to.
(10:43):
You've got money coming in as well, So that's what
you should be looking for.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So if you have any questions to ask of Nicole
Lewis about property investment, you can phone at any stage.
You can text me, you can email me as well.
The text costs a little bit ninety two ninety two.
The phone call doesn't. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty. That
is free. The email I'll read that out as well,
and we will take you your questions. There. You mentioned
the healthy homes. Of course, July the first just tick
(11:08):
past correct, and that means that all landlords must have
made their houses healthy. That irritates some landlords, I know,
because I know some of them, because they now have
to put a heat pump in, and they say, I've
never had a complaint about my heat pump, about the
temperature of my house. My house is dry, it's warmer,
has no mold, it faces west, it gets the sun,
(11:31):
it warms up, it's got good airflow. Why should I
put a heat pump? Nob he's ever demanded a heat
pump before. But now they have to do it. They
have to do the double glazing if they can, et cetera.
And there may or may not be some repercussions, because
who knows who's going to be policing all. This thing
is the message to landlords, no matter how much you
(11:52):
think it's a bit bonkers, complying with the healthy home
laws is actually a good investment in your property.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
To a degree. Like I agree with the draft egress,
the water egress, you know, those sorts of things that's
good maintenance on your property. Heat pumps, I actually agree
with the investors. I don't think it really up to
landlords to heat the house. I think tenants could get
a heater. Some people might beat me up for saying that,
but we've certainly made all of our properties comply. Some
tenants didn't want them because they say, no, thank you,
(12:20):
they're too expensive to run. But we're, well, we still
have to put them in. We've got no choice.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Do they not know about the off switch? You well
know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, but that's the thing. Tenants don't use them, so
they say, don't bother putting them in, But we have
to as a landlord. So you know, I think that
to a degree, most of the portion of healthy homes
is a good thing. And they've gone a little bit
over the top with some of the additional requirements they're
making landlords pay for, because then you've got to maintain
the heat pumps. We've just had one breakdown. We have
to replace it, you know, it's like it just you know,
(12:48):
just fork out money all the time.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, I know. But at the same time, do you
want people to live in an unhealthy home?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Well, you want people to be healthy, absolutely, but it
doesn't necessarily mean that you need to put heat pumps in.
There are plenty of other forms of heating, and a
freezing cold house not insulated isn't going to be warm anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, I have actually been in a house recently. It
was one of those ones that built in the seventies,
you know, and it's basic weather boards, the skinny weather boards,
not the big ones we used to have in the
old days. And I don't know what happened about the
insulation when they built this house, but you walked in
and when you walked out you actually feel your clothes
(13:29):
and they are damp. We have a lot of bad houses.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
And I mean, look, just before someone rings ongoing. Insulation's
part of it. Yeah, we know that, but it's insulation
in the ceiling that you've got to put in. You
don't have to put an insulation in the walls, obviously,
because it's not like you can rip the walls out
and do that. So some of these old homes built
in the fifties sixty seventies south facing. Even though you
can ply with insulation in the ceiling, you're not making
them really that much warmer as opposed to one that's
(13:56):
built now that's completely insulated.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
All through, all through, all through, which actually makes them
into hot boxes. Sometimes. While I found funny about the
healthy home laws, people started phinding out the radio, going well,
I live in a very healthy home and it's intolerable
and some of it's forty degrees because it's too healthy
so much so it's unhealthy.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, then they need the heat pump for the air conditioning.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Okay, so is that almost feels like a raw does it?
Somebody's making money somewhere, and I got to say that
that might actually the whole healthy home things is also
keeping our construction industry somewhat soluable because people are getting
worked for us to combine. Well, have you got any
anecdotal evidence about how the healthy homes have been complied
(14:37):
with by landlords?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You know?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Have are they into it? Or fifty percent said I
don't care. I don't think it's going to be policed.
I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
All that so I belong to the property Investors Association,
and I speak at a number of associations around the countries,
and what I can tell you is every single landlord
who's a member of those comply and can have complied
some years ago. So the large percentage of landlords comply.
There's a smaller percentage who don't. And we are seeing
quite a few houses on the market at the moment
(15:07):
that landlords are getting rid of being non healthy homes compliant,
so you know, but that's a small percentage. Most most landlords,
myself included, are always happy to improve your house. After all,
it's our long term investment.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Absolutely, absolutely and also adecdotally. Did you find remember when
when the labor government came up with all these healthy
home things, when they came up with all these these
taxes on landlords and the tax against not being able
to write it off, you know, and the right off
things and all that sort of thing. The lines were
full of people go, well, that's it, you know, it's
(15:42):
too much, it's too hard, it's hidden into my yield,
it sit into my margin, and I just politically don't
agree with it. That's it. I'm out, I'm selling. Was
there suddenly a big glutt of property that came on
the market as investors solved because I'm not sure I
noticed it.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
No, there wasn't. But there are a lot of empty houses,
so a lot of investors would let a house sit empty,
or a lot of offshore buyers wouldn't bother putting a
tenant in because it's too hard to have a tenant
in there and it's hard to comply and if you
get a difficult tenant, you couldn't get rid of them.
So there was that side of things, and then in
negatively forced rents up because a some landlords that I know,
(16:19):
you know, you've had a ten and in there for
twenty years and you don't give them much of a
rental increase. Suddenly you had to because now you had
to fork out thousands and thousands. And then you know
that mix with houses sitting empty because New Zealand's one
of the most difficult countries in the world to comply
with for landlords, I'm sure buyers wouldn't bother. So that
did have a negative effect more so than a landlord's
(16:43):
selling up.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
All right, Well, my guest at the moment is Nicole Lewis.
She is a property investment advisor. This is the One
Roof radio show. I'm Andrew Dickins and we will take
your call. So I one hundred and eighty ten eighty
if you want to. I want to talk a little
bit about what's happening in Wellington because there's been some
headlines about that over the week. It is four twenty four.
This is news Talk set me. It's good afternoon. It
is our for twenty seven, the one roof radio show.
(17:04):
I'm is the call. Lewis Property Investment Advisor is in
the house Wellington property. So new report shows of Wellington
homes have dropped in price, but the rest of the
country has risen a lot of it, not a lot,
some places quite a bit. And part of that is
being blamed on job cuts in the public sector affecting
people spending power, the ability to buy stuff, investors and
(17:25):
of course first home buyers or any home buyers in particular.
But that's true right across the country. There's people getting
chopped from jobs left, right and center. So having you
knew about this, you've had a look at the Wellington markets.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yes, bought one last week and you.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Bought a house in Wellington. Is are they being sold low?
Is there a buyer's paradise down there because of the
public sector cuts.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yes, it certainly is.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Well, that's a bit brutal, it is.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You know it is. It is definitely prices are considerably lower.
But what you've got to be careful of in Wellington
as two things.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Really.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
One is I always say to my clients, as part
of your due diligence, or before you put an unconditional
offer on, make sure you can get insurance, because Wellington
is a tricky place to ensure. Some insurance companies won't
provide any insurance there now. And the other thing is
what you have to realize is your risk is around
a tenant the number. You know, some places are sitting
empty and sometimes you've got a reducial rent substantially because
(18:21):
people have left Wellington. As you can see, it's the
only place in New Zealand at the moment as declining population.
I'm sure that will turn around because it's Wellington, but
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
When it's Wellington. But do you really think the public
sector jobs are coming back? I mean there is a
fundamental flaw in the New Zealand economy that all our
public services, whether it's a health, education for police, defense
and all that sort of thing. Then, of course all
the bureaucrats to run it. We don't raise enough revenue
from our tax base to actually pay those bills. That's
(18:52):
why we borrow. So I got the impression from the
government and the last budget that well, we've done the
first trunch. We've got rid of a couple of thousands
of public servant in Wellington pretty much specifically. But brace yourself,
there's got to be more. So is Wellington coming back?
Will we ever get back to those days of bureaucrats?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Well, there's a very good question. And I've actually spoken
to quite a few friends of mine that about Wellington
in the last few weeks, and I think a lot
of them they mostly are optimistic, or let's say, cautiously
optimistic that at some stage things will turn around. But
when nobody really knows, and some of those friends of
mine will say, when the first time I'm unsure in
(19:35):
twenty years is to win, Wellington will turn around. So,
but it's not just bureaucrats that Wellington attract.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
So well, obviously there's creatives. Is that the movie making.
I understand that geographically it's a good place for head
officers because it's in the middle of the country. But yes,
there are factors like it's on a fault, correct, it's
overdue for an earthquake. The weather's actually quite rambunctious. That's
the word love it, you know. So there's a lot
(20:04):
going and not in its favor. It's interesting if you
are considering investing, no matter where you are in the country,
but you're investing in another town, it's very important to
do a bit of due diligence into the regional economy
of that town. And I'm thinking like, say, Tokooha right now,
because the Kindley Smell closed down this past week for
(20:27):
the first time. It's been open for seventy five years.
It is the cornerstone of the Tokooa economy. It was
the main employer. It's gone. That means that would suggest
that there's going to be a mass migration of jobs
as people leave the town. And that's so if you're
sitting there, going toko might be good. At the same time,
(20:49):
it might you know.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Will be born in Takaroa.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Oh Okay, now why.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Well, so first of all, let's just backtrack a bit
to say when you buy outside of your region, because
I recommend people do that, you search the deal, not
the location, and then you once you get your property
under contract, you do a robust due diligence and as
part of that is definitely research on the area and
the demand on that area, in the industry on that
(21:15):
area sooas got a number of different industries, not just
the sawmill and so so far, yes, some jobs will
definitely be lost, but is that going to result in
a max exodus and nobody to rent so far? No,
we haven't seen that. In fact, we tried to buy
a property about a month ago and got well outbit
(21:35):
in tokoroasay.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Who's buying it? People who like going for bike rides
and forests, well, you know, people who like to be
close to the central North Island because you know, the
tourism and the holiday Is it a holiday town now?
Not quite?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
No, you wouldn't really quite think.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
So okay, how you mentioned very about that due diligence.
You know, look at the insurance and it's fair to
say this is a dawning realization for many people in
the New Zealand property market that New Zealand are in
fact the shaky Isles, that New Zealand is an interesting
place with an interesting climate, asked mister Noel Edmonds and
Yati Muti in Nelson, who's spent an awful lot of
(22:16):
money millions on a property and then discovered its flood
prone and flood and it's destroyed his investment. So, of course,
as you say, insurance premiums are going up because of
earthquake risk, because of flood risks, because of growing, growing
atmospheric rivers, of moisture in the air and all that
sort of carry on, and that this is a major
(22:36):
impact on our property market, all these costs, the fact
that we are a difficult place to have houses in.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
That's true. And you see it's interesting because years ago
we never used to put insurance in due diligence. We'd
wait till a couple of days before settlement. Oh my goodness,
that's right. I have to ensure my property. Now we've
got to make sure it's ensurable. You've got sea level wires,
you've got liqu liquefaction as well, earthquakes, and you've also
got earthquake compliance as well with different parts of the
South Island. All of those things need to be put
(23:06):
into consideration. But what I say to my clients is
because they go what part is safe to buy? And
to be fair, with these weather events we've had in
the last three years, I don't know what part's going
to be safe to buy. So what you have to
check is it insurable because insurance have changed their rules,
like a lot of property might be ensured now, but
(23:28):
once they get sold in new purchase that comes along,
they will no longer be ensuring that property. So it
is quite an integral part to do. And also to
make sure that there's no exclusions because sometimes they'll ensure
a property excluding flood Well that's no good. So you
need to check those.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And as the insurance people, are they reputable, are they
good to rely on? Are they good at recognizing the rule?
I know that's their business to recognize risk, but at
the same time it's supposed to be the counsel's business
to recognize risks. They're the ones who actually then draw
what the flood plains are. They are the ones who
then approved developments by developers, which we learning now after
(24:06):
the Anniversary weekend floods. Some of those developments were in floodplanes.
But the developers said, and it was approved by the
council that we can mitigate that risk and it's safer
that it turned out they were wrong. So you would
say the insurance company probably knows best.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Well, it's a very good question. Look, the insurers now
have to refer that you know, you ring for insurance,
they refer you to the underwriter and they look at
a number of factors. So they obviously look at the
council and the floodplanes and all those sorts of things
as one factor, and then they look at obviously the
possibilities of the risk and things like you know, rainfall
(24:43):
and fault lines and all of those things before they
make their decision. And the insurance company are often asking
for a lot of additional information now as well, engineers
reports on things that we never used to have to
provide before. So you need to just be well aware
of what they're going to want.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Some accused them of becoming up paranoid, particularly when it
comes to coastal properties, you know, because they well, because
of climate change, you know, the sea levels are rising,
and in fact we have little evidence of it. There's
a little bit of it, but it's actually more the
storm surges and the adverse effects events that is making
the sea come over the break walls. But there are
some places and company coasts, all sorts of places up
(25:24):
and down New Zealand which are as you quite rightly say, uninsurable.
And you go, well, yeah, but the houses are still
there and they've been there a long time. Have the
have the insurance companies become overly risk averse?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
It is a good question. I mean, it's interesting we
talk about sea level rises. If you go and look
at a property down and in Vercago, for example, that'll
show on the limb that you know the potential sea
level rises in thirty years mean this house might not
be there, but it's still insurable. So therefore, you know,
are those things going to happen? Who knows? I always say,
don't get put off by something that may never be
(26:05):
Always look at how do you mitigate? And if an
insurance company is willing to ensure your property with no
exclusions at a normal rate, then that's fine. You're covered
because you just never know what might happen. Are insurers, Well,
their job is risk, isn't it. So that's what they
look for. And they've had a lot of properties that
they've had to pay out on, so you know, maybe
(26:27):
what they look for is fair and reasonable.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, okay, very good. Now, by the way, my comments
about Kinleith, the good people of Toakora are rising up
and protest about this and informing me that the ken
Leathe is not completely gone. Any part of the mill
has gone. I think paper's gone, but Poulp is still there.
The saw mill is still there as well. So yes,
the mill is still operating. But it is fair to
say an awful lot of jobs have been carved off
(26:50):
the whole thing. Another texta marksay is remember in Takara
a new dairy factory has started. Did you know about that?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yes, they have got four different major industries.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Okay, there we go. And houses are still affordable, and
you're only an hour's drive from Rotorua and now from
Topol and a quarter in an hour and a quarter
from Toelinger. So it's not about Tocora as such, but
the fact that it is well positioned and it's growing correct.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, and it's got a good population. I mean there's
not very many parts of New Zealand we shy away
from anything that's maybe too small. We aren't so keen on.
But that is proving to be too a good investment.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
And there's the fact that you know that driving somewhere,
I know the pookaki went off because people went look
at these houses and look at this environment. And I'm
coast to the west coast. It's not that bad to
get to Auckland, but you know, as Auckland gets more congested,
it's a two hour drive in many cases. Now I've
got to mate who left for work. He left work,
he said, I'm off, said where you go home? I said,
(27:51):
oh great, I'm going to drive for two hours. Where's home?
You said, pooka co yeap. You know, And that's quite
a big thing. A lot of people take for granted,
know that they seem to be okay with the fact
that a big drive is part of the cost of
buying a cheaper house in a different area, like say
(28:11):
buying in Tokoroa, because it's an hour and a quarter
to Tourdoker. So it's that good thinking.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Look people are doing it. It's because it's what they
can afford.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
And then one last text while we're on the business though,
of course it's a weight one hundred and eighty ten
eighty will cost you nothing ninety two ninety two. There
is a small charge that applies, but your thoughts about Hamilton,
because my text says houses are cheap and affordable and
we're moving up and are.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
They or Hamilton? So look, Hamilton's great and Hamilton's quite
a big city. So parts of Hamilton are really affordable
and parts are not. We struggle to buy properties in
Hamilton that still have good cash flowing because it is
getting more expensive unless in one of the less desirable areas,
which is fine. You just need to watch out for
(28:56):
your quality of tenant.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Okay. And let's also remember that Hamilton's on the up.
Look at export prices for primary products.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, it's a very good place to buy.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Look at its position. The train will eventually very if
not already, actually go all the way from Hamilton right
into Auckard instead of stopping at Papakura and then you're
over the hill and you're in Totonger. That Golden Triangle
is going to dominate New Zealand going forward, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I would say so? Yeah, yeah, and we're seeing it now.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
M M.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
The South Island mon't be happy about hearing that.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Well, but statistically speaking, the South Island currently is leading
the way with the highest rate of growth.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, why don't we take a break and talk about that,
because where there's high growth, there's high returns and that's
a good investment. This is the one roof radio show.
Nicole Lewis is a property investment advisor in studio with me,
and before the hour is out we'll do the one
roof property of the day. And you said buying a
property that has multiple multiple residences at multiple income. I've
(29:54):
got a pearler for you a bit later on. Yes,
my guest is Nicole and lewis a property investment advisor.
We've been told that the South Islands has going off
and so tell us where and how and why.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
So when we look for properties to keep as rentals,
as I said, search the deal, not the location. And
most of them we find in the South Island. And
statistically I was reading one of the economist reports at
the moment that the South Islands had one of the
biggest rises in prices, and definitely looking for properties there.
They are selling over and above the North Island at
(30:25):
the moment, so good place to look. You do have
to be aware of earthquake compliance in the South Island
because the councils have put in some new rules around that.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I wonder why.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, but as long as the house doesn't fall under
the maybe one day they might need strengthening, you can
get some very very goodbyers. So between myself and my clients,
in the last probably six months, we've bought houses. And
let me think to marou Dunedin and the Cargo and
christ Church in the South.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Island, is it popular because of price? There's a fellow
here who's who's got a young family. He's actually moving
to christ Church because he said, you can't believe what
you can buy for five point fifty That's what he
says to me. I've got two young kids, I'm not
in a high paying job. And in fact we're allowing
him to do production work from there and he's done that.
So is it purely priced because you know, the North
(31:23):
the Golden Triangle, as we've already talked about, has got
so wildly expensive or are there other factors.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
For the deals we look for being don't forget cash
flow positive property. It is driven by the numbers, so
purchase price offset by rent, et cetera. And that's where
we find them work. But we don't just buy there
like we have bought Tokoroa Brotarua Mount Monganui.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So you just looked at the deal, looked at the numbers,
one percent made the decision, didn't think about the town.
Got a text here says what about O Tigo Dunedin.
You've already said that Oi Moru especially we're actually living
past Moraki now it's been a bit rainy as the
ground is very soggy, says my texter. But looking at
the houses on the hills as they are so beautiful,
(32:06):
are they goodbye?
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Well see it depends, so don't forget I talk about
property quadrants. If you're looking as an investment property, you
do the numbers because it's numbers driven. If you're looking
for a house to live in, there's different. It's emotional.
It's an emotional decision. You buy what you love. So
they're two completely different sets of strategies and thinking that
(32:28):
you apply to the quadrant that you're buying the house in.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
True, but if you've always had an aspiration to have
a grand, grand house with a maybe a grand staircase,
you ain't going to find that in Arklan, Hamilton or Tailnger.
But if you go pass more Lucky and up towards
R Moru, you might find yourself with a magnificent place
for an extraordinary what is considered to be an extraordinary
low price, depending on the relativity of how your brain
(32:53):
comes at from up north and then there.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
So when I ask your opinion on buying a house
in Huntley, and I find Huntly fascinating because it's been
the butt of jokes, but at the same time it's
always been a great place. It's close to Hamilton and
it's also close to Auckland. If you're working in both
of those markets, it's interesting. But then everyone went, oh, yeah,
but it's dead now because it's been bypassed by the motorway.
But at the same time that makes it a nicer
(33:20):
place to live. So so how's the town like that
tracking which has been bypassed by the motorway. But at
the same time, because of the motorway, it is now
closer to two major employment areas.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So really what I look at as I look at
the population of a town. So I do a quick
Google search to go how many people live in Huntley.
I have a look at the major industries. One are
the major industries in that particular area, and then I
have a look at the need for renters, how many
people are actually renting in that area. Okay, so that's
before I look at the house itself, and then those
factors will tell you whether it's a good investment or not,
(33:54):
because you don't want a property to be sitting empty.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I've had a Texas also, says Andrew, Tokaroa is a
welfare town and that many homeless families for Rotorua have
now moved to Takoa and they're paying their rent because
of the welfare. Is it a bad thing or one?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
I think that's a good thing, to be fair. I mean, well,
I looked up the other day what's the government's spend
two point three billion per annum on supplements for housing. So,
as a landlord, if you have a welfare tenant in general,
we've got a lot of those, and ninety five percent
of them are fantastic tenants that look after the house
very well, and we don't have any issues getting our rent.
If anything happens they get in arrears, you just write
(34:33):
a letter and dear Old Winds will help them out
and pay the arrears. So most of them are very
good people who make great tenants.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
So you shouldn't have a prejudice against it. I mean,
we often say there's a very very small minority of
New Zealanders who make this place a terrible place. It
sounds like it's a terrible place when you start listening
to the headlines, when you talk about crime and when
you talk about beneficiaries and all that sort of or
when you talk about tenants. You know, we've heard about
the king or a tenants. You know that people are
(35:03):
are you know, but you're saying that ninety five percent
are fine. It's just the small minority.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
The question is how do you find these well, look,
people are people. If I look at the bad tenants,
I've had three bad tenants. One was a wins tenant.
She was just a bit and loopy, and the other
two weren't you know, They worked and had jobs and
they were diabolical. One had their own business and did
a great job, and that turned into a pea house.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
You just don't know, is the pea house thing still
a thing? Remember the days when you know, the guys
made a killing from coming in and going p has
been in this place at some stage over the last
thirty years, and suddenly you know, hundreds of thousands of
dollars of mitigation, and then they was debunked in the
end by Gluckman, the science guy. But is it still
(35:45):
a thing?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
And to a degree yes, of course. The P ratings
have been moved up now, so you know, someone can
smoke pea or something in the house and it's still okay.
But year in certain areas we still have certain properties
that will do a P check in between tenants just
to make sure that everything's fine. And to be fair,
I've had one positive P test once.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
So all this due diligence you've talked about already insurance,
you know what it says on the limb. Is this
an earthquake risk? Is this a flood risk? Has someone
smoke pea? You know, all that sort of thing. They're
all costs on the margin.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
To a degree. So when it breaks, when I teach
my clients this, I say, do your free due diligence first.
There's a large portion of due diligence you can do
that costs you nothing. Do that first, and then if
you think you're going to progress, then you start spending
a small amount of money on the key things.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Okay, So here's the other thing. The rents around New
Zealand and the costs of the investment around New Zealand
are they in sync? So I've got a fellow here
who says my rentals are in rot Or bought twenty
to thirty years ago. I'm just out of christ Church.
I cannot justify selling there and buying here due to
(37:01):
the remarkedly higher rental return on investment dollar. So I
pay markedly less for a five bedroom, three bathroom house
in North Canterbury than what my tenants pay for a
three bedroom, one bath in rot To Rule. But I'm
keeping the rot To Rule ones because here's the thing.
If the rents don't vary greatly region to region, then
wherever the region that you're buying in is poorer, there's
(37:22):
going to be a greater return, isn't there. So it's
a bit like what I remember back in the day
that I saw that people in sales in Dunedin were
earning the same money as people as sales in Auckland,
and therefore, going you live in Dunedin, you're a much
richer person.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
There are parts of New Zealand that actually get really
high rent and Rotoro is one of those. Actually the
rents can be quite high and then there are parts
of New Zealand where you're a hundred percent correct. The
rent seems high in proportion to the money you're paying
for the house, which is why the numbers work. So
you can get something that's KESH flow positive from day one.
(37:58):
So when I say keshflow positive, I mean you get
your rent in from that, you pay your rates, you
pay your mortgage, pay your insurance, you pay your property manager,
and you pay your maintenance and after that you have
money left over that goes in your pocket. Now, it's
not a huge amount to start off with, especially if
you're borrowing one hundred percent. You might only get five
dollars a week, but it's better than paying out something.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah, I'll get it. Fantastic. It is well nine to
five or running out of time. So let's go to
the one roof property of the week. Do we have
Do we have a production element for the one roof
property of the week? A big we do we have
a nod.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
The one roof property of the week on the weekend collective.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
The one I want to present to you, Nicole, is
actually in Fanui and it is one thirty six Saint
Hills Street, as marketed by Bailey's. This is a exquisite
Edwardian heritage building meticulously restored over an eight year period
at Saint Hill Street, which is just behind. It's right
beside Cox Gardens, so it's right in the city. It
(39:01):
used to be the Fungani Gentlemen's Club, and so you know,
it was well well known and all that sort of thing.
But then the owners bought it and then they started
to convert it. And of course it's grand and it's
brick and there's no lawn and all that sort of thing.
And what they've done is they've turned it into three apartments. Basically,
there's two apartments you can rent out and there is
a owner's residence or you could rent that out as well,
(39:23):
which is quite grand and quite lovely, quite beautiful the
whole place. How many bedrooms did I say a lot?
There's three big apartments there. So it's a commercial property
in a commercial district with commercial zoning, but it has
great When I looked at it, the reason I thought
this is interesting. If you've got some thing because you've
sold the family home, you could buy that and end
(39:45):
out with two rental properties as well, you know, supplementing
your pension. So what do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Well, it looks pretty fantastic, doesn't it. And I do
like something that's.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Brick, Yes, brick, yeah, well you know earthquake risk. But
I guess they've had to comply, Yeah, haven't they. Also
the paneling, the beautiful fireplaces, the grand staircase, the whole
fa that it is a gentleman's club that you can
live in it.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Yeah, it looks pretty fantastic. So you've got to suggest
that listeners have a look at that. That does look
pretty nice on that inside, huge and spacious.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
And how's Punginui tracking?
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I had clients that bought property in fung Anui a
couple of months ago, and it's actually a very good
place to buy your rental properties at the moment.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Well, it's getting closer and closer to Wellington, the better
that motorway get.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I lived in Punginui for quite some time. I used
to have to go to a nightclub in the Parmesan
North because there was none and Hangannui. But that's part
of the reason it's great. Nicole, I thank you so
much for coming in taking time out of your Saturday.
All the very best. It is now six to.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Five for more from the Weekend Collective. Listen live to
news Talks'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
at B Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good afternoon. I'm Andrew Dickens. I'm in for Tim Beverage.
Tim Beverages on holiday with the family and he's taking
them skiing in the Mackenzie Country. He's at Round Hill.
He's been posting photographs. He's had blue sky days, the
snow is good and he hasn't lost any children yet,
which is actually a miracle. When you take kids skiing,
you're a very brave man, Tim to take people take
(00:33):
children skiing, because I've tried it too as well. It's
not easy. So I'm here until six. The number the phone.
If you wish to phone, oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty, you can text ninety two ninety two. There
is a small charge that does apply, so it's better
to phone, and you can email me Dickens at Newstalks
at b dot co dot enz. So welcome on in.
This is the one roof radio show and it's now
(00:54):
eight minutes after four and in the studio with me
is Nicole Lewis, who is a property investment advisor and
hello to you, Nicole. Yes, the red button says it's funny,
isn't it rare? Button says go to the microphone on
green button says off. It's different from traffic lights. Hello, Hello, Hello,
welcome on in thank you. I want to start off
(01:15):
by asking whether the housing crisis is over. The Herald
is leading with this today. It's on the front page
and also on page three. I think it is. And
Bernard Osmon has written after talking to council valuers and others,
and he says that there's been a one hundred thousand
houses built in the Auckland region since the density laws changed,
(01:36):
and I think Auckland is. In fact, people all over
the country are well aware of this. This is where
houses disappear and suddenly four, five, in some cases thirteen
townhouses turn up, and that means more houses, more houses
on the market, more bedrooms, I like to say, more
people being able to sleep. So, with one hundred thousand
extra houses in New Zealand in a very short period
(01:56):
of time in Auckland, but probably the number is greater
over the whole of New Zealand in a short period
of time, the question can be asked, is the housing
crisis over? And what would you say to that?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I would say the housing crisis has a temporary halt
on it.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh yeah, So do you think that in some stage
again once again looking at migration figures, et cetera, looking
at population growth, that at some stage the supply will
not match the demand.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well, typically these things are cyclical, And yes, I am
certainly noticing right now there is an oversupply, there's no
question about that. Does that mean that's going to continue
on in the future. Maybe not when demand heaps up,
when migration starts climbing again. Maybe there will be a
short period of time when we have an undersupply before
(02:52):
we the market changes and there's no supply again.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
But do you think we're relearned our lesson? I've seen
the government coming up with density rules allowing fifteen story
apartment buildings to be built near to transport hubs. We've
seeing the Council talking about this as well. We've seen
that when people do the conversion of houses into townhouses
to get more more residences in each square meter of
land in our cities all over the place. Do you
(03:17):
think we've actually learned the lesson and our regulators and
our developers are going to keep match with the demand.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Look, in my opinion, it's just an opinion. I think
when the unitary plan came out, and let's talk about Auckland.
The Auckland Unitary Plan, really it made a huge percentage
of land in Auckland now developable, you know something probably
I don't know the actual statistics, but just by looking
at properties that are now zoned for higher density, probably
(03:47):
something like eighty to eighty five percent, And to be fair,
there was too much, so they maybe should have rolled
it out with a lesser number that we're able to.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Be progressively an evolution rather than a revolution direct correct.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And then of course you have infrastructure like we're seeing
now in Auckland with the water care crisis that it
can't cope. That was always going to be inevitable.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And of course same with Wellington. Every everyone talked about
Wellington the one hundred year pipes, but also you just
had to go to Wellington, you know, on trips like
I did, and see the proliferation of apartment buildings and
people living in the CBD and that's all putting pressure
on infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Percent that's right.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So the thing though is for property investors because they
hear this, they read this headline and you're saying that
maybe for a while it's over. And the thing about
supply and demand not matching and my demmnd exceeding supply
is it meant to guarantee return to a property investor
because they almost knew that the competition for the property
was going to go up and up and up, and
(04:50):
therefore the prices were going to go up and up
and up. So therefore the yield that they were going
to get goes up and up and up. So if
you're a property investor right now reading a headline like that,
will you start to have second thoughts about getting into
the trade.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
The new investors will, But the experience investors know that
when property is on sale, it's the best time to
buy it.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, so you see property is on sale, you say
it's a buyer's market right now?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It is definitely a buyer's market right now.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Now.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
What I'm noticing because we're out there buying property or
we attempting to buy property every single week, and what
I'm noticing is the market is turning around. It's not
the same as it was last year, but it is
moving at a snail's pace. So but we're seeing some
good competition. Tried to bid for a block of units
on Friday, to have ten registered bids and for it
(05:36):
to go two hundred thousand dollars higher than what we thought.
So property, not everyone, not every property is doing that,
and not every part of the country, but it is slowly,
slowly starting to move at the lower end of the market.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Now, this high identsity housing. I mentioned already that a
lot of people just cannot understand why people would want
to buy this. You know, ah, the shared wall, the privacy,
the no backyards, no car parks. You know, no one
ever wants this is so this is a rabbit hutch
for rabbits, not a house for people. Nobody wants to
buy it. And I say, well, you might not be
(06:11):
able to want to buy it, but there are, obviously
there are people buying it. So at the higher density
houses that we see around the place that so many
people think looks uninhabitable, people are buying that. And isn't
that the market talking.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
That's exactly right, you know, Like I have people come
to me that want to buy investment properties and they'll
say something like, oh, I won't buy on a main
road because people hate that. And I go, come and
stand in this main road there's houses on it. Are
people living in there? Yes, there's always is, someone's going
to enjoy it. Some people don't want a backyard, some
people want something brand new. And also townhouses are more
affordable because at the end of the day, what goes
(06:48):
up the most and value over the years is the land,
and with townhouses is not much.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Okay. So therefore, if you are a property investor and
you see there's some townhouses, and you might be thinking, well,
I could buy that townhouse. But then again, instead of
buying three towns, I could buy a standalone three bedroom place.
And I think that one is more attractive to the marketplace.
I think I might invest in that. I mean, what
would you say to those people who've got this conundrum
(07:15):
between what sort of asset might be best and therefore
what asset might appreciate the best and what asset would
give a better yield.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That's a very good question, Okay. So I've got a
different philosophy on this and what everybody else would say.
So I wrote a book called Property Quadrants, and in
that book I talk about quadrant for being your investor quadrant.
If you're a property investor, you should be throwing any
emotions out the window, and you should be putting on
your business hat and you buy purely on the numbers.
(07:45):
I can tell you that if you're buying a single
apartment or a single townhouse, then numbers will not stack up.
You need to buy a multiple income property. So therefore,
what I say to my mentoring clients that I help
find properties that are cash flow positive. I say, you
don't search the area, you search the deal, so you'd
(08:05):
own have a look for Typically I like a block
of three units, and you go and buy something like
that anywhere in the country that is in the price
bracket you can afford. That of course, is still attractive
to tenants in the right sort of location, and that's
what you buy.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So you're saying, say there's three townhouses at seven hundred
and fifty thousand each, that is a better buy than
buying a house that is two point one million dollars
on its own land and maybe four bedrooms at the
same price.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I'm saying, if you've got a block of three units
that are on a single title and you own all three,
that is a better buy than a three bedroom, one
bathroom house for the same sort of price, or a
townhouse for the same sort of price. Well, okay, because
you get more income. So if you buy a townhouse,
for example, for five hundred dollars, let's well say a
(08:55):
million dollars, a three bedroom house for a million dollars,
and a blocker units for a million dollars. The blocker
units will give you a far better income return than
either the town house or the house. And that's what
you need in order to reach a little bit of
financial security and not have stress about money going out
the door.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
If the housing crisis is over, because you know, supply
and demand have finally become balanced right now. I know
a lot of investors when they bought their houses, they
didn't care about rental incomes as much. The main driver
was capital gain on the property, and they go, if
we can just tread water with the rents for a
little bit, you know, the money we make is actually
(09:37):
in the capital gains. Do you think we're starting to
shift to start thinking, okay, we might get some capital gains,
but we've also got to make sure that we're getting
a good rental income, which kind of comes back to
your theory. Buy three so you can rent three.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, Well, I'm going to be again I'm going to
differ with on this a little bit, and that you
are one hundred percent right. The perception out there for
investors is like by capital gain, but in experienced investors
which is the majority, don't understand into that and they've
got it wrong. You should not be buying for capital
gain until you have the cash flow coming in, because
that creates financial stress and makes you accidentally cash poor,
(10:16):
and then the government puts unhealthy homes or non deductibility,
you're in your crap.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
So you should actually be buying for cash flow because
at the end of the day, if you're thinking, right,
I'm going to have a property for twenty years and
then I'm going to survive or so what what does
that mean? You're going to sell that property and then
you're going to do what with that cash? Whereas if
you've got a property that's making you one thousand dollars
a week that's going in your pocket after text, why
then would you sell the property. You don't need to.
(10:43):
You've got money coming in as well, So that's what
you should be looking for.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
So if you have any questions to ask of Nicole
Lewis about property investment, you can phone at any stage.
You can text me, you can email me as well.
The text costs a little bit ninety two ninety two.
The phone call doesn't. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty. That
is free. The email I'll read that out as well,
and we will take you your questions. There. You mentioned
the healthy homes. Of course, July the first just tick
(11:08):
past correct, and that means that all landlords must have
made their houses healthy. That irritates some landlords, I know,
because I know some of them, because they now have
to put a heat pump in, and they say, I've
never had a complaint about my heat pump, about the
temperature of my house. My house is dry, it's warmer,
has no mold, it faces west, it gets the sun,
(11:31):
it warms up, it's got good airflow. Why should I
put a heat pump? Nob he's ever demanded a heat
pump before. But now they have to do it. They
have to do the double glazing if they can, et cetera.
And there may or may not be some repercussions, because
who knows who's going to be policing all. This thing
is the message to landlords, no matter how much you
(11:52):
think it's a bit bonkers, complying with the healthy home
laws is actually a good investment in your property.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
To a degree. Like I agree with the draft egress,
the water egress, you know, those sorts of things that's
good maintenance on your property. Heat pumps, I actually agree
with the investors. I don't think it really up to
landlords to heat the house. I think tenants could get
a heater. Some people might beat me up for saying that,
but we've certainly made all of our properties comply. Some
tenants didn't want them because they say, no, thank you,
(12:20):
they're too expensive to run. But we're, well, we still
have to put them in. We've got no choice.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Do they not know about the off switch? You well
know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, but that's the thing. Tenants don't use them, so
they say, don't bother putting them in, But we have
to as a landlord. So you know, I think that
to a degree, most of the portion of healthy homes
is a good thing. And they've gone a little bit
over the top with some of the additional requirements they're
making landlords pay for, because then you've got to maintain
the heat pumps. We've just had one breakdown. We have
to replace it, you know, it's like it just you know,
(12:48):
just fork out money all the time.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, I know. But at the same time, do you
want people to live in an unhealthy home?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Well, you want people to be healthy, absolutely, but it
doesn't necessarily mean that you need to put heat pumps in.
There are plenty of other forms of heating, and a
freezing cold house not insulated isn't going to be warm anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, I have actually been in a house recently. It
was one of those ones that built in the seventies,
you know, and it's basic weather boards, the skinny weather boards,
not the big ones we used to have in the
old days. And I don't know what happened about the
insulation when they built this house, but you walked in
and when you walked out you actually feel your clothes
(13:29):
and they are damp. We have a lot of bad houses.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
And I mean, look, just before someone rings ongoing. Insulation's
part of it. Yeah, we know that, but it's insulation
in the ceiling that you've got to put in. You
don't have to put an insulation in the walls, obviously,
because it's not like you can rip the walls out
and do that. So some of these old homes built
in the fifties sixty seventies south facing. Even though you
can ply with insulation in the ceiling, you're not making
them really that much warmer as opposed to one that's
(13:56):
built now that's completely insulated.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
All through, all through, all through, which actually makes them
into hot boxes. Sometimes. While I found funny about the
healthy home laws, people started phinding out the radio, going well,
I live in a very healthy home and it's intolerable
and some of it's forty degrees because it's too healthy
so much so it's unhealthy.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, then they need the heat pump for the air conditioning.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Okay, so is that almost feels like a raw does it?
Somebody's making money somewhere, and I got to say that
that might actually the whole healthy home things is also
keeping our construction industry somewhat soluable because people are getting
worked for us to combine. Well, have you got any
anecdotal evidence about how the healthy homes have been complied
(14:37):
with by landlords?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You know?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Have are they into it? Or fifty percent said I
don't care. I don't think it's going to be policed.
I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
All that so I belong to the property Investors Association,
and I speak at a number of associations around the countries,
and what I can tell you is every single landlord
who's a member of those comply and can have complied
some years ago. So the large percentage of landlords comply.
There's a smaller percentage who don't. And we are seeing
quite a few houses on the market at the moment
(15:07):
that landlords are getting rid of being non healthy homes compliant,
so you know, but that's a small percentage. Most most landlords,
myself included, are always happy to improve your house. After all,
it's our long term investment.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Absolutely, absolutely and also adecdotally. Did you find remember when
when the labor government came up with all these healthy
home things, when they came up with all these these
taxes on landlords and the tax against not being able
to write it off, you know, and the right off
things and all that sort of thing. The lines were
full of people go, well, that's it, you know, it's
(15:42):
too much, it's too hard, it's hidden into my yield,
it sit into my margin, and I just politically don't
agree with it. That's it. I'm out, I'm selling. Was
there suddenly a big glutt of property that came on
the market as investors solved because I'm not sure I
noticed it.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
No, there wasn't. But there are a lot of empty houses,
so a lot of investors would let a house sit empty,
or a lot of offshore buyers wouldn't bother putting a
tenant in because it's too hard to have a tenant
in there and it's hard to comply and if you
get a difficult tenant, you couldn't get rid of them.
So there was that side of things, and then in
negatively forced rents up because a some landlords that I know,
(16:19):
you know, you've had a ten and in there for
twenty years and you don't give them much of a
rental increase. Suddenly you had to because now you had
to fork out thousands and thousands. And then you know
that mix with houses sitting empty because New Zealand's one
of the most difficult countries in the world to comply
with for landlords, I'm sure buyers wouldn't bother. So that
did have a negative effect more so than a landlord's
(16:43):
selling up.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
All right, Well, my guest at the moment is Nicole Lewis.
She is a property investment advisor. This is the One
Roof radio show. I'm Andrew Dickins and we will take
your call. So I one hundred and eighty ten eighty
if you want to. I want to talk a little
bit about what's happening in Wellington because there's been some
headlines about that over the week. It is four twenty four.
This is news Talk set me. It's good afternoon. It
is our for twenty seven, the one roof radio show.
(17:04):
I'm is the call. Lewis Property Investment Advisor is in
the house Wellington property. So new report shows of Wellington
homes have dropped in price, but the rest of the
country has risen a lot of it, not a lot,
some places quite a bit. And part of that is
being blamed on job cuts in the public sector affecting
people spending power, the ability to buy stuff, investors and
(17:25):
of course first home buyers or any home buyers in particular.
But that's true right across the country. There's people getting
chopped from jobs left, right and center. So having you
knew about this, you've had a look at the Wellington markets.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yes, bought one last week and you.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Bought a house in Wellington. Is are they being sold low?
Is there a buyer's paradise down there because of the
public sector cuts.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yes, it certainly is.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Well, that's a bit brutal, it is.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You know it is. It is definitely prices are considerably lower.
But what you've got to be careful of in Wellington
as two things.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Really.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
One is I always say to my clients, as part
of your due diligence, or before you put an unconditional
offer on, make sure you can get insurance, because Wellington
is a tricky place to ensure. Some insurance companies won't
provide any insurance there now. And the other thing is
what you have to realize is your risk is around
a tenant the number. You know, some places are sitting
empty and sometimes you've got a reducial rent substantially because
(18:21):
people have left Wellington. As you can see, it's the
only place in New Zealand at the moment as declining population.
I'm sure that will turn around because it's Wellington, but
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
When it's Wellington. But do you really think the public
sector jobs are coming back? I mean there is a
fundamental flaw in the New Zealand economy that all our
public services, whether it's a health, education for police, defense
and all that sort of thing. Then, of course all
the bureaucrats to run it. We don't raise enough revenue
from our tax base to actually pay those bills. That's
(18:52):
why we borrow. So I got the impression from the
government and the last budget that well, we've done the
first trunch. We've got rid of a couple of thousands
of public servant in Wellington pretty much specifically. But brace yourself,
there's got to be more. So is Wellington coming back?
Will we ever get back to those days of bureaucrats?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Well, there's a very good question. And I've actually spoken
to quite a few friends of mine that about Wellington
in the last few weeks, and I think a lot
of them they mostly are optimistic, or let's say, cautiously
optimistic that at some stage things will turn around. But
when nobody really knows, and some of those friends of
mine will say, when the first time I'm unsure in
(19:35):
twenty years is to win, Wellington will turn around. So,
but it's not just bureaucrats that Wellington attract.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
So well, obviously there's creatives. Is that the movie making.
I understand that geographically it's a good place for head
officers because it's in the middle of the country. But yes,
there are factors like it's on a fault, correct, it's
overdue for an earthquake. The weather's actually quite rambunctious. That's
the word love it, you know. So there's a lot
(20:04):
going and not in its favor. It's interesting if you
are considering investing, no matter where you are in the country,
but you're investing in another town, it's very important to
do a bit of due diligence into the regional economy
of that town. And I'm thinking like, say, Tokooha right now,
because the Kindley Smell closed down this past week for
(20:27):
the first time. It's been open for seventy five years.
It is the cornerstone of the Tokooa economy. It was
the main employer. It's gone. That means that would suggest
that there's going to be a mass migration of jobs
as people leave the town. And that's so if you're
sitting there, going toko might be good. At the same time,
(20:49):
it might you know.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Will be born in Takaroa.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Oh Okay, now why.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Well, so first of all, let's just backtrack a bit
to say when you buy outside of your region, because
I recommend people do that, you search the deal, not
the location, and then you once you get your property
under contract, you do a robust due diligence and as
part of that is definitely research on the area and
the demand on that area, in the industry on that
(21:15):
area sooas got a number of different industries, not just
the sawmill and so so far, yes, some jobs will
definitely be lost, but is that going to result in
a max exodus and nobody to rent so far? No,
we haven't seen that. In fact, we tried to buy
a property about a month ago and got well outbit
(21:35):
in tokoroasay.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Who's buying it? People who like going for bike rides
and forests, well, you know, people who like to be
close to the central North Island because you know, the
tourism and the holiday Is it a holiday town now?
Not quite?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
No, you wouldn't really quite think.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
So okay, how you mentioned very about that due diligence.
You know, look at the insurance and it's fair to
say this is a dawning realization for many people in
the New Zealand property market that New Zealand are in
fact the shaky Isles, that New Zealand is an interesting
place with an interesting climate, asked mister Noel Edmonds and
Yati Muti in Nelson, who's spent an awful lot of
(22:16):
money millions on a property and then discovered its flood
prone and flood and it's destroyed his investment. So, of course,
as you say, insurance premiums are going up because of
earthquake risk, because of flood risks, because of growing, growing
atmospheric rivers, of moisture in the air and all that
sort of carry on, and that this is a major
(22:36):
impact on our property market, all these costs, the fact
that we are a difficult place to have houses in.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
That's true. And you see it's interesting because years ago
we never used to put insurance in due diligence. We'd
wait till a couple of days before settlement. Oh my goodness,
that's right. I have to ensure my property. Now we've
got to make sure it's ensurable. You've got sea level wires,
you've got liqu liquefaction as well, earthquakes, and you've also
got earthquake compliance as well with different parts of the
South Island. All of those things need to be put
(23:06):
into consideration. But what I say to my clients is
because they go what part is safe to buy? And
to be fair, with these weather events we've had in
the last three years, I don't know what part's going
to be safe to buy. So what you have to
check is it insurable because insurance have changed their rules,
like a lot of property might be ensured now, but
(23:28):
once they get sold in new purchase that comes along,
they will no longer be ensuring that property. So it
is quite an integral part to do. And also to
make sure that there's no exclusions because sometimes they'll ensure
a property excluding flood Well that's no good. So you
need to check those.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And as the insurance people, are they reputable, are they
good to rely on? Are they good at recognizing the rule?
I know that's their business to recognize risk, but at
the same time it's supposed to be the counsel's business
to recognize risks. They're the ones who actually then draw
what the flood plains are. They are the ones who
then approved developments by developers, which we learning now after
(24:06):
the Anniversary weekend floods. Some of those developments were in floodplanes.
But the developers said, and it was approved by the
council that we can mitigate that risk and it's safer
that it turned out they were wrong. So you would
say the insurance company probably knows best.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Well, it's a very good question. Look, the insurers now
have to refer that you know, you ring for insurance,
they refer you to the underwriter and they look at
a number of factors. So they obviously look at the
council and the floodplanes and all those sorts of things
as one factor, and then they look at obviously the
possibilities of the risk and things like you know, rainfall
(24:43):
and fault lines and all of those things before they
make their decision. And the insurance company are often asking
for a lot of additional information now as well, engineers
reports on things that we never used to have to
provide before. So you need to just be well aware
of what they're going to want.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Some accused them of becoming up paranoid, particularly when it
comes to coastal properties, you know, because they well, because
of climate change, you know, the sea levels are rising,
and in fact we have little evidence of it. There's
a little bit of it, but it's actually more the
storm surges and the adverse effects events that is making
the sea come over the break walls. But there are
some places and company coasts, all sorts of places up
(25:24):
and down New Zealand which are as you quite rightly say, uninsurable.
And you go, well, yeah, but the houses are still
there and they've been there a long time. Have the
have the insurance companies become overly risk averse?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
It is a good question. I mean, it's interesting we
talk about sea level rises. If you go and look
at a property down and in Vercago, for example, that'll
show on the limb that you know the potential sea
level rises in thirty years mean this house might not
be there, but it's still insurable. So therefore, you know,
are those things going to happen? Who knows? I always say,
don't get put off by something that may never be
(26:05):
Always look at how do you mitigate? And if an
insurance company is willing to ensure your property with no
exclusions at a normal rate, then that's fine. You're covered
because you just never know what might happen. Are insurers, Well,
their job is risk, isn't it. So that's what they
look for. And they've had a lot of properties that
they've had to pay out on, so you know, maybe
(26:27):
what they look for is fair and reasonable.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, okay, very good. Now, by the way, my comments
about Kinleith, the good people of Toakora are rising up
and protest about this and informing me that the ken
Leathe is not completely gone. Any part of the mill
has gone. I think paper's gone, but Poulp is still there.
The saw mill is still there as well. So yes,
the mill is still operating. But it is fair to
say an awful lot of jobs have been carved off
(26:50):
the whole thing. Another texta marksay is remember in Takara
a new dairy factory has started. Did you know about that?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yes, they have got four different major industries.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Okay, there we go. And houses are still affordable, and
you're only an hour's drive from Rotorua and now from
Topol and a quarter in an hour and a quarter
from Toelinger. So it's not about Tocora as such, but
the fact that it is well positioned and it's growing correct.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, and it's got a good population. I mean there's
not very many parts of New Zealand we shy away
from anything that's maybe too small. We aren't so keen on.
But that is proving to be too a good investment.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
And there's the fact that you know that driving somewhere,
I know the pookaki went off because people went look
at these houses and look at this environment. And I'm
coast to the west coast. It's not that bad to
get to Auckland, but you know, as Auckland gets more congested,
it's a two hour drive in many cases. Now I've
got to mate who left for work. He left work,
he said, I'm off, said where you go home? I said,
(27:51):
oh great, I'm going to drive for two hours. Where's home?
You said, pooka co yeap. You know, And that's quite
a big thing. A lot of people take for granted,
know that they seem to be okay with the fact
that a big drive is part of the cost of
buying a cheaper house in a different area, like say
(28:11):
buying in Tokoroa, because it's an hour and a quarter
to Tourdoker. So it's that good thinking.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Look people are doing it. It's because it's what they
can afford.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
And then one last text while we're on the business though,
of course it's a weight one hundred and eighty ten
eighty will cost you nothing ninety two ninety two. There
is a small charge that applies, but your thoughts about Hamilton,
because my text says houses are cheap and affordable and
we're moving up and are.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
They or Hamilton? So look, Hamilton's great and Hamilton's quite
a big city. So parts of Hamilton are really affordable
and parts are not. We struggle to buy properties in
Hamilton that still have good cash flowing because it is
getting more expensive unless in one of the less desirable areas,
which is fine. You just need to watch out for
(28:56):
your quality of tenant.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Okay. And let's also remember that Hamilton's on the up.
Look at export prices for primary products.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, it's a very good place to buy.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Look at its position. The train will eventually very if
not already, actually go all the way from Hamilton right
into Auckard instead of stopping at Papakura and then you're
over the hill and you're in Totonger. That Golden Triangle
is going to dominate New Zealand going forward, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I would say so? Yeah, yeah, and we're seeing it now.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
M M.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
The South Island mon't be happy about hearing that.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Well, but statistically speaking, the South Island currently is leading
the way with the highest rate of growth.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, why don't we take a break and talk about that,
because where there's high growth, there's high returns and that's
a good investment. This is the one roof radio show.
Nicole Lewis is a property investment advisor in studio with me,
and before the hour is out we'll do the one
roof property of the day. And you said buying a
property that has multiple multiple residences at multiple income. I've
(29:54):
got a pearler for you a bit later on. Yes,
my guest is Nicole and lewis a property investment advisor.
We've been told that the South Islands has going off
and so tell us where and how and why.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
So when we look for properties to keep as rentals,
as I said, search the deal, not the location. And
most of them we find in the South Island. And
statistically I was reading one of the economist reports at
the moment that the South Islands had one of the
biggest rises in prices, and definitely looking for properties there.
They are selling over and above the North Island at
(30:25):
the moment, so good place to look. You do have
to be aware of earthquake compliance in the South Island
because the councils have put in some new rules around that.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I wonder why.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, but as long as the house doesn't fall under
the maybe one day they might need strengthening, you can
get some very very goodbyers. So between myself and my clients,
in the last probably six months, we've bought houses. And
let me think to marou Dunedin and the Cargo and
christ Church in the South.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Island, is it popular because of price? There's a fellow
here who's who's got a young family. He's actually moving
to christ Church because he said, you can't believe what
you can buy for five point fifty That's what he
says to me. I've got two young kids, I'm not
in a high paying job. And in fact we're allowing
him to do production work from there and he's done that.
So is it purely priced because you know, the North
(31:23):
the Golden Triangle, as we've already talked about, has got
so wildly expensive or are there other factors.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
For the deals we look for being don't forget cash
flow positive property. It is driven by the numbers, so
purchase price offset by rent, et cetera. And that's where
we find them work. But we don't just buy there
like we have bought Tokoroa Brotarua Mount Monganui.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So you just looked at the deal, looked at the numbers,
one percent made the decision, didn't think about the town.
Got a text here says what about O Tigo Dunedin.
You've already said that Oi Moru especially we're actually living
past Moraki now it's been a bit rainy as the
ground is very soggy, says my texter. But looking at
the houses on the hills as they are so beautiful,
(32:06):
are they goodbye?
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Well see it depends, so don't forget I talk about
property quadrants. If you're looking as an investment property, you
do the numbers because it's numbers driven. If you're looking
for a house to live in, there's different. It's emotional.
It's an emotional decision. You buy what you love. So
they're two completely different sets of strategies and thinking that
(32:28):
you apply to the quadrant that you're buying the house in.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
True, but if you've always had an aspiration to have
a grand, grand house with a maybe a grand staircase,
you ain't going to find that in Arklan, Hamilton or Tailnger.
But if you go pass more Lucky and up towards
R Moru, you might find yourself with a magnificent place
for an extraordinary what is considered to be an extraordinary
low price, depending on the relativity of how your brain
(32:53):
comes at from up north and then there.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
So when I ask your opinion on buying a house
in Huntley, and I find Huntly fascinating because it's been
the butt of jokes, but at the same time it's
always been a great place. It's close to Hamilton and
it's also close to Auckland. If you're working in both
of those markets, it's interesting. But then everyone went, oh, yeah,
but it's dead now because it's been bypassed by the motorway.
But at the same time that makes it a nicer
(33:20):
place to live. So so how's the town like that
tracking which has been bypassed by the motorway. But at
the same time, because of the motorway, it is now
closer to two major employment areas.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So really what I look at as I look at
the population of a town. So I do a quick
Google search to go how many people live in Huntley.
I have a look at the major industries. One are
the major industries in that particular area, and then I
have a look at the need for renters, how many
people are actually renting in that area. Okay, so that's
before I look at the house itself, and then those
factors will tell you whether it's a good investment or not,
(33:54):
because you don't want a property to be sitting empty.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I've had a Texas also, says Andrew, Tokaroa is a
welfare town and that many homeless families for Rotorua have
now moved to Takoa and they're paying their rent because
of the welfare. Is it a bad thing or one?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
I think that's a good thing, to be fair. I mean, well,
I looked up the other day what's the government's spend
two point three billion per annum on supplements for housing. So,
as a landlord, if you have a welfare tenant in general,
we've got a lot of those, and ninety five percent
of them are fantastic tenants that look after the house
very well, and we don't have any issues getting our rent.
If anything happens they get in arrears, you just write
(34:33):
a letter and dear Old Winds will help them out
and pay the arrears. So most of them are very
good people who make great tenants.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
So you shouldn't have a prejudice against it. I mean,
we often say there's a very very small minority of
New Zealanders who make this place a terrible place. It
sounds like it's a terrible place when you start listening
to the headlines, when you talk about crime and when
you talk about beneficiaries and all that sort of or
when you talk about tenants. You know, we've heard about
the king or a tenants. You know that people are
(35:03):
are you know, but you're saying that ninety five percent
are fine. It's just the small minority.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
The question is how do you find these well, look,
people are people. If I look at the bad tenants,
I've had three bad tenants. One was a wins tenant.
She was just a bit and loopy, and the other
two weren't you know, They worked and had jobs and
they were diabolical. One had their own business and did
a great job, and that turned into a pea house.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
You just don't know, is the pea house thing still
a thing? Remember the days when you know, the guys
made a killing from coming in and going p has
been in this place at some stage over the last
thirty years, and suddenly you know, hundreds of thousands of
dollars of mitigation, and then they was debunked in the
end by Gluckman, the science guy. But is it still
(35:45):
a thing?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
And to a degree yes, of course. The P ratings
have been moved up now, so you know, someone can
smoke pea or something in the house and it's still okay.
But year in certain areas we still have certain properties
that will do a P check in between tenants just
to make sure that everything's fine. And to be fair,
I've had one positive P test once.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
So all this due diligence you've talked about already insurance,
you know what it says on the limb. Is this
an earthquake risk? Is this a flood risk? Has someone
smoke pea? You know, all that sort of thing. They're
all costs on the margin.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
To a degree. So when it breaks, when I teach
my clients this, I say, do your free due diligence first.
There's a large portion of due diligence you can do
that costs you nothing. Do that first, and then if
you think you're going to progress, then you start spending
a small amount of money on the key things.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Okay, So here's the other thing. The rents around New
Zealand and the costs of the investment around New Zealand
are they in sync? So I've got a fellow here
who says my rentals are in rot Or bought twenty
to thirty years ago. I'm just out of christ Church.
I cannot justify selling there and buying here due to
(37:01):
the remarkedly higher rental return on investment dollar. So I
pay markedly less for a five bedroom, three bathroom house
in North Canterbury than what my tenants pay for a
three bedroom, one bath in rot To Rule. But I'm
keeping the rot To Rule ones because here's the thing.
If the rents don't vary greatly region to region, then
wherever the region that you're buying in is poorer, there's
(37:22):
going to be a greater return, isn't there. So it's
a bit like what I remember back in the day
that I saw that people in sales in Dunedin were
earning the same money as people as sales in Auckland,
and therefore, going you live in Dunedin, you're a much
richer person.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
There are parts of New Zealand that actually get really
high rent and Rotoro is one of those. Actually the
rents can be quite high and then there are parts
of New Zealand where you're a hundred percent correct. The
rent seems high in proportion to the money you're paying
for the house, which is why the numbers work. So
you can get something that's KESH flow positive from day one.
(37:58):
So when I say keshflow positive, I mean you get
your rent in from that, you pay your rates, you
pay your mortgage, pay your insurance, you pay your property manager,
and you pay your maintenance and after that you have
money left over that goes in your pocket. Now, it's
not a huge amount to start off with, especially if
you're borrowing one hundred percent. You might only get five
dollars a week, but it's better than paying out something.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah, I'll get it. Fantastic. It is well nine to
five or running out of time. So let's go to
the one roof property of the week. Do we have
Do we have a production element for the one roof
property of the week? A big we do we have
a nod.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
The one roof property of the week on the weekend collective.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
The one I want to present to you, Nicole, is
actually in Fanui and it is one thirty six Saint
Hills Street, as marketed by Bailey's. This is a exquisite
Edwardian heritage building meticulously restored over an eight year period
at Saint Hill Street, which is just behind. It's right
beside Cox Gardens, so it's right in the city. It
(39:01):
used to be the Fungani Gentlemen's Club, and so you know,
it was well well known and all that sort of thing.
But then the owners bought it and then they started
to convert it. And of course it's grand and it's
brick and there's no lawn and all that sort of thing.
And what they've done is they've turned it into three apartments. Basically,
there's two apartments you can rent out and there is
a owner's residence or you could rent that out as well,
(39:23):
which is quite grand and quite lovely, quite beautiful the
whole place. How many bedrooms did I say a lot?
There's three big apartments there. So it's a commercial property
in a commercial district with commercial zoning, but it has
great When I looked at it, the reason I thought
this is interesting. If you've got some thing because you've
sold the family home, you could buy that and end
(39:45):
out with two rental properties as well, you know, supplementing
your pension. So what do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Well, it looks pretty fantastic, doesn't it. And I do
like something that's.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Brick, Yes, brick, yeah, well you know earthquake risk. But
I guess they've had to comply, Yeah, haven't they. Also
the paneling, the beautiful fireplaces, the grand staircase, the whole
fa that it is a gentleman's club that you can
live in it.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Yeah, it looks pretty fantastic. So you've got to suggest
that listeners have a look at that. That does look
pretty nice on that inside, huge and spacious.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
And how's Punginui tracking?
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I had clients that bought property in fung Anui a
couple of months ago, and it's actually a very good
place to buy your rental properties at the moment.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Well, it's getting closer and closer to Wellington, the better
that motorway get.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I lived in Punginui for quite some time. I used
to have to go to a nightclub in the Parmesan
North because there was none and Hangannui. But that's part
of the reason it's great. Nicole, I thank you so
much for coming in taking time out of your Saturday.
All the very best. It is now six to.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Five for more from the Weekend Collective. Listen live to
news Talks'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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