Matt Ball: Property Investors Federation advocacy manager speaks in defence in investment properties

Jeremy Williamson, head of private wealth and markets at Craigs Investment Partners, recently claimed there was momentum building for Kiwis to move away from investing in property - but one expert has suggested differently.

Matt Ball from the Property Investors Federation acknowledged people were getting more savvy about outside investments and that the property market was changing, but claimed the nation's love affair with property wasn't over.

"I think the property market has changed, thanks to some initiatives from the Government and I think people will start to take a bit of a different approach. I don't buy this whole - property investment isn't a productive activity."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here the duplessy la.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Jeremy Williamson from Craig's Investment Partner says New Zealand's love
affair with property investing is coming to an end. He
spoke to Matt and Tyler earlier today and I.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Think of you know, when your kids playing past the
parcel and trading and buying and selling investment properties to
each other. Feels if it like that to me, where
you take a twenty dollar notes, you pass it around
the circle, it still comes back as a twenty dollar note,
doesn't it. The love affair we have with investment property
has the same sort of thing to it.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Jeremy says it's good for the country if investors starts
switching to more productive assets then property. Matt Ball is
the advocacy manager at the Property Investors Federation and with us, Hey,
Matt Hiever, do you reckon people are getting more savvy
with the shares and starting to switch their money away
from property.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I think there's definitely more choice and people are more
aware of the share option and key we say that's
contributed to that. But I don't think the love affair
with property is over. I think the property market is
changing thanks to some initiatives from the government, and I
think people will start to take a bit of a
different approach. I don't buy this whole property investment is

(01:06):
in the productive activity. I mean, if you buy in
trade shares, you're passing twenty bucks around, it's still twenty
bucks in the end of us. Just you're not actually
adding to productivity. Same if you do that with a house.
But if you treat property investing like a business, you
buy it for cash flow. You buy a property that
you can do up and add to. You've made a
better property, You've improved the property sector in New Zealand,

(01:28):
You've made our general housing quality and number go up.
That's a productive activity.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So how do you think it's going to change. How
is the approach to property investing changing?

Speaker 1 (01:39):
I think this government and actually I don't think I know,
because this government has said very explicitly. Chris Bissit has
said very explicitly he thinks housing is too expensive in
New Zealand, both owner occupied and rental, and his government
is determined to change that. And if you look at
what they're doing, they've probably got at least a dozen
bits of legislation regulations on the books that are trying

(02:02):
to change the housing money.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
But then why would I invest Why would I invest
in property if I know that this government is actively
trying to bring the price down.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, so you're not going to make the easy capital gains.
So if you wake up one day and you go, oh,
I might put some money into a house that looks easy,
then forget it. That's not the sort of investor that's
going to do well in this market. But our members
around the country right now are getting out there and
are hunting down bargains. They are properties that they know
they can add value to, and that's how you can

(02:32):
make your money. No, not flipping think some people will. Yeah,
you can do it up and rent it. You can
do it up, rent it and hold it for a period,
which is what most of our members do. You can
make a good business out of that.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Okay, So you reckon. Just being passive is no longer
a solution. So you don't buy a nice rental and
then rent it out. You buy a crapo, you do
it up, you rent it out. That's how you make
your money, when you add value yourself.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, and that's always been a core y just buying
a place that has had all the work done to it,
that's got no potential. There is no upside to that
unless you're in the crazy twenty twenty market when you
could buy something one day and sell it the next
week for a profit. You know those days are gone.
Matt looks for value. Yeah, sorry, Karen.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
On another subject altogether, which is my favorite subject to
discuss with you, which is the Healthy Home Standards. Any
any naughty landlord's been pinged.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
It doesn't look like it's more than you, not more
than normal. Yeah. Maybe it is still one of the
top three issues that tenants bring before the tenancy Truvian
all day. So it is out there and penalties are worse.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, thanks, Matt, appreciate it. Matt Bull who is the
advocacy manager at the Property Investors Federation. Yet, Matt and
I have had Matt and I have had a little
little bit of cord it all back and forth about
this particular issue because I don't know if you remember,
but the rules, well nobody remembers because no one cares.
The Healthy Home Standards came in on the first of July, right,
and like there are I think I calculated that there

(04:06):
must be something in the vicinity of potentially as correct
me if I'm wrong, because it's off the top of
my head, but maybe three hundred thousand houses out there
that do not meet the standards, just judging by like
a kind of like a couple of surveys that you
mash together and try to work it out. Numbers will
be woful, like way off. But that's the best we've
got is that we know that there are tens of thousands,
if not more houses out there that do not meet
the standards. Anyway, I said, don't bother who cares. We've

(04:30):
got a ditch these standards because if you've got that much,
if you've got that many properties in breach of the standards,
it's just too many. You can't possibly enforce the standards
on that. No, said Matt, No, it's not that many. No, No,
everybody's doing the right thing. No, don't worry about it.
And then and I was like, well, whatever, we'll see
if we'll see what happens, and it's like, now they're
gonna get pink. No, well, look twenty eight twenty nine

(04:50):
days in and I don't know, have you heard about
anybody in ping to know? Because what's the best case
scenario is that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
send some sense of property inspectors down to the you know,
the student flats and Duneda and have a crack around
there and see what's going on. But you know that's
the best case and that most people are like, oh whatever,
I don't.

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