Wonderful Wellington Buildings. Wonderful House

Yes, a bit Left Field.
Dowse Drive, Maungaraki.
I love the design!
Cant find Architect. Built 1966. Very Fritz Eisenhoffer/ Frank Lloyd Wright/Miles Van der Rohe.Note near wall is concrete or block.
Two cool chairs in it that suit real well.

Wow! Landlords Look at This Wellington Judgement

This is told to me by local landlord. Would say Tenancy Tribunal go about things in an "Interesting" way sometimes.
Hi Colin,
You might appreciate this little twist on the story of giving notice. We bought our latest property on a tenanted basis. The tenants’ fixed term lease had ended a month or two before the property was put on the market. The vendor didn’t bother to get the tenants to sign a new written agreement. A week before we settled, the tenants walked out. According to Tenancy Services legal advisor, because they hadn’t signed a lease, they didn’t have to give notice and we couldn’t recover lost rent from them. Instead, the vendor had to pay us an equivalent sum to compensate us for not rolling over the tenancy.

To which I replied:
"Hi ......
Tenancy services said they didnt have to give any notice whatsoever, or only 3 weeks?

Tenancies become periodic at the end of fixed term. It is a easy to miss issue!"

But the kicker was her reply:
"No notice required at all.
If a fixed term lease ends and the tenants remain in possession of the premises, there is a stand down period of 90 days before the Acts deems there to be a periodic tenancy (s60(2)). At first I thought s 60(1) gave us the right to notice bc it says the tenant’s obligations shall continue in force but of course it didn’t because the fixed term lease didn’t include any notice period. Everyone was taken by surprise – our lawyers, their lawyers, the agents…."

Wellington Beach Front 900 square metre Home

Yes, If you want Wellingtons best beach house, offers close next Thursday Call me before then.80 metres beach frontage, 1 hour to Parliment ( or home, or work)
or 15 minuits from jet capable airport.
Or room for 4 helecopters on the front lawn.
View Video & photos www.BeachHouseWellington.com

Wonderful Wellington Buildings. Wonderful Commercial Building

Here's what will be an ongoing list of Wellington buildings that improve our environment

The Racing Conference Building, Victoria st.

Brave in its day. Glamorous. Has stood the test of time. One I and architects' can agree on, it has won a 25 year award from them. I assure you I'm not influenced because 2 different friends of mine have offices in the building! The Lido below is still pivotal; location, view & pedigree.

Wonderful Wellington Buildings. Wonderful Alteration

Heres what will be an ongoing list of Wellington buildings that improve our environment

Wellington City Council Building, Civic Square

Full markes for a building that now looks good in and out, & works well.

Wonderful Wellington Buildings. Wonderful Apartment Block

Heres what will be an ongoing list of Wellington buildings that improve our environment

Makita, Oriental Parade
Most of whats new in this dress circle area ranges from dull through bad taste to OK. This is tasteful, & enhances the very fine location. Well done.

Wonderful Wellington Buildings. Wondeful Public Building

Heres what will be an ongoing list of Wellington buildings that improve our environment

The New Supreme Court, Lampton Quay. This I feel will stand the test of time. I have discussed its creation with Labour MP Rick Barker who was involved. I like the brief, I like the look. Just discoverd today there are public tours. Must take one.

Ugly Wellington Buildings. Ugliest Alteration

Inspired by the blog "Ugly New Zealand", here are 4 nominations of buildings that peeve me every time I see them. Other nominations invited. I'm doing them as 4 separate blogs

The "Burger King" building, Manners Mall.
First glance shows a beautiful old Bank building.
Terry Serepesos now of Phoenix & T V fame, got consent to build this truly tragic mess on the roof. In an example of literally "pushing the boundary" he then added insult to injury by building, I recall, 1.5 metres forward of his consent. An uproar ensued, abatement notice was served...but it still stands there, a blot on the civic landscape.

Ugly Wellington Buildings. Ugliest Public Building, & Greatest Detraction To Location

Inspired by the blog "Ugly New Zealand", here are 4 nominations of buildings that peeve me every time I see them. Other nominations invited. I'm doing them as 4 separate blogs.
The Von Zeldits Building, Kelburn Parade.
I fume every time I drive through Victoria University Campus.I imagine like all the residents of Kelburn. A bigger pile of rubbish in a neighbourhood is unlikely to be found outside the ex soviet block. I count at least 8 building that have ruined this area. The black joke to me, is the University boasts a "School of Architecture"!

Ugly Wellington buildings. Ugliest Apartments.

Inspired by the blog "Ugly New Zealand", here are 4 nominations of buildings that peeve me every time I see them. Other nominations invited. I'm doing them as 4 seperate blogs.
Kent Apartments, Kent Terrace
There are many contenders for this award. I nominate this because it occupies such a visable spot. To me looks thrown togeathere, The window joinery being the same colour as the building grates.

Ugly Wellington Buildings. Ugliest House

Note: This will be followed by a blog on "Beautiful Wellington Buildings"
Inspired by the blog "Ugly New Zealand", here are 4 nominations of buildings that peeve me every time I see them. Other nominations invited. I'm doing them as 4 seperate blogs.

Ugliest "House"
Athfields thing, Amritsar st, Khandallah.
Note, The property is pretty much everything in front of the harbour, in the forground.
I believe this is called a "house" You may be surprised to know it is owned ( & was "designed" & I use the word reluctantly) by the Architect Ian Athfield. You will be more surprised to know Architects have given it an award!

They Are Grumpier About the Sharemaket Than Me!

Comment from what some call " The land of The Brave & the Free"


Wall Street (in particular, the S&P 500) has clearly been on something of a tear lately. But as they say in the fine print in all those ads, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. While the same could be said about real estate, at least with real estate, what you see is what you get.
Lately, there have been a few efforts to take the ratings agencies to task, most recently by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is in the midst of a seven month investigation into whether ratings agencies “acted improperly during the credit boom by assigning super-safe, triple-A ratings to mortgage-backed securities that later turned out to be extremely risky and in some cases worthless.”
Did you get that – AAA ratings for something that turned out to be “worthless.” Someone please explain that one to me.
Where does that leave the average person who has learned to become distrustful of the once-seemingly infallible Wall Street system of investing? Real estate, of course.
If you buy an investment-grade property right, you need not lie awake at night wondering if that “triple A” rated “investment” your broker sold you was actually a worthless piece of paper – because you have a performing physical asset that will be around for a long time, one you can touch, feel, and rent for a profit. And even when it’s gone, you still have the land. That’s more than you can say for much of what’s been sold to investors on Wall Street the past few years.

Rents Up, Overcrowding to Rise

Its likely Tax changes to property will reduce the suply of rental property.
Rents will rise not because landlords can increase rent to restore profitability just becaue they want to, but because tenants will have to compete for less homes. It will be messy, because with high land & building costs & unattractive tax changes, the private sector will not build any new rental property for this surplus of tenants.
In fact NZ is facing a housing supply crunch all round.
Sections need to be $50, 000 to $100 000 cheaper, ( ie, basic new 400 m2 section, cheap area, with sevices for $75 000 to $125 000) & true build cost to fall from a true all up cost that really has to be $2200 m2, to say $1500 m2 before this messy situation is averted.

My prediction? Either massive state building again, or steady backdown on tax law.

You will see Tax INCENTIVES on rental property within 5 years! Heard it first here

How Badly The NZSX Has Done.

Property is about to get a tax thump.
So investors will put money in the stock exchange?
I think not.
The Securities Commisin is widly derided. The public, often castegated for an absense of rational decisionmaking, are very astute to put money in property, which is governed by clear , enforced laws. Not The NZ Wild West.
Even after the '87 cock ups, and susequent fiddling, the sharemarket is still an easy place to loose ALL of an investment.

Think about this aweful indictment: In '87 ( at it peak) the Australian sharemarket value was 4.2 times the NZ value. Now it is 33 times.

Dont beat up property Bill, Beat up the Securities Commission!

This Really Peeves Me About the NZSX vs Property

The New Zealand Stock Exchange Index compounds itself by adding dividends in. AND can only achieve 6.5% pa over the last 17 years.

Yet often its' performace is compared to basic house price movements. Imagine if rent on a house, nett, was added to the price movement...then compounded! Say that nett rent was 4% The comperable figure after 17 years would be ....huge. It would have to be a compound 12%, ie doubling in less than 8 years.

Any comments from someone good at compounding?

Here's Wellington NZ's Best Beach House

so you win Lotto, want a good beach house...
check this. But you will want a cleaner. 900 m 2. The house, not the section.
I cant seem to succeed to add a hyper link here, you will need to cut & paste this: http://www.propertypress.co.nz/video.house/931



Call me if you win tomorrow. Ratable Value $ 2.7 million

I agree with the bank man

Tony Alexander of the bnz ( no its not the BNZ, they have marketing people so its the bnz,) has always done well in commenting & predicting, in my opinion. I say that allowing that the economist Galbraith once said at a party " astrology was invented to make economics look good"

Tony said today, & I agree "In the housing market there is some evidence – based on Auckland data – that worries about tax changes have stalled turnover but prices are holding up and listings are not escalating madly.'

Rocky times for rental property, I predict

What about the Tenants?

Personally I think tax changes to Residential real estate investment could be a disaster about to unfold...for tenants
I dont say that because I sell Real Estate..

this is why.

There is a general agreement rents will have to go up if landlording is made less profitable. Its as as simple as that.

For every tenant there needs to be a landlord. NZ owner occupier property ownership has been only slightly declining.
( claims the owner occupier percentage was falling were rebuffed when it was pointed out properties going to family trusts were going in statistics as a change to investment vs "owner occupier")

No, many people who have never owned a house , but could buy a house rent because....they are going overseas soon.

As Ive said before, playing with property is an easy one for the government. But its the lack of profitability in the economy thats the problem.


If the government make being a landlord less atractive...who will tenants rent from?
If yields have to be higher, values have to be lower. How does a loss of capital of say 20 % help redirect investment? It dosnt make other options suddenly more profitable...just reduces wealth. I cant see sellers of investment property putting it in the bank, or buying NZ shares. It will go overseas.

And the question I can not even begin to answer:
Who will the 30% of New Zealanders who rent ( & remember, only 3 % of NZ tenants live in state owned rental houses) have as landlords, if the government make it less attractive to own rental property?

What about the Tennants?

Changes are Gonna Come

No denying now, that tax changes on owning Investment Residential Real Estate in New Zealand are in the short term, not going to be for the better....for anyone.
Actually thats not true: What do you think of this scenario?

Being a landlord becomes less attractive ( I assume you know what the budget will do, if not a few "comments" here & I will explain.)
The worst properties get dumped on the market. I can tell you, in Wellington these really are very good location, very bad condition 100 year old houses.
Prices fall.
who buys them? Young first owners wont get funding. & they are high income hard workers...not the old Kiwi "do up a house instead of have a life shopping in Sydney" The buyers with money wond buy dumps. Some of this investment stock really is in terrible condition.


Da Da Da Da!..... Return of the Doer Upper, flick on, make a buck, hard worker!