Once again building consents have fallen back from hopeful to hopeless.
This has come about despite the Christchurch disaster where you would be forgiven in thinking that consents would rise.
The future is blindingly obvious.
A housing crisis is building up as the shortage becomes worse.
As a consequence rents must rise and so will costs as the inevitable catch up occurs.
The time has never been better for astute investors to get into the market and “stock up” provided of course this is done with due diligence and care.
As always, get independent advice from qualified experts before embarking on any investments strategies. In particular don’t believe that
the boom days are back. Stay cautious and prudent at all times. – OMN
House building slides in September
JAMES WEIR
31/10/2011Home building slumped back in September, down a “disappointing” 17 per cent on the previous month economists said, with 1246 houses and apartments gaining consent.
However, the drop-off in September followed two months of better figures after the home building sector hit rock bottom earlier this year.
While September figures were down sharply, the trend has been improving since April, Statistics NZ said.Attention: – This message and any attached files may contain confidential and privileged information. If you have received this message in error please notify the sender immediately and delete all copies of the message and attachments. You are not authorized to use, disseminate, or reproduce any files or content.
link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5881458/House-building-slides-in-September
Get advice on debt, FMA warns property buyers
By Anne Gibson 29.10.11 NZ Herald
The Financial Markets Authority warned yesterday that people with little or no income were being targeted to attend property seminars.
It named newspaper ads by Property Tutors inviting people with the promise that they will learn systems to get loans to fund investment in property.
Sean Hughes, chief executive, said investors needed to understand the costs of property ownership and debt servicing, market fluctuations, and the risk of losing assets used as security. He encouraged anyone thinking about taking on debt for investment purposes to get independent legal and financial advice from a registered or authorised financial adviser.
Steve Starke of Property Tutors said the sole owner and director of the business, Sean Wood, would be the only one responding to questions about the matter.
Wood claims to have built a $15 million property fortune in 3 years.
Steve Goodey, based in Wellington, did not know about the warning and was surprised. He speaks at Property Tutors seminars and said an all-day event was being held tomorrow at the Rendezvous Hotel in Auckland.
Goodey said he had “several thousand clients with total property interests of many hundreds of millions of dollars”.
Kiwibank cuts its fixed mortgage rates across the board – Westpac cuts too
Posted in News
Kiwibank is cutting its fixed mortgage rates across all terms.
The heaviest rate cuts are for four years where its rate moves to 6.79%, down 51 basis points from 7.30%.
Its two year and five year fixed rates are reducing 41 basis points. The five year rate falls to 7.19% and their two year fixed rate falls to 5.89%
Their three year rate falls to 6.39% from 6.70%, and both their 6 month and one year rate falls to 5.65%.
Do you know that an extra 113,000 people needs approximately 30,000 new houses?
Nothing like that number has been built in Auckland in the same period.
There can only be one result = pressure on the housing market and rising rents.
Published 26 October 2011
Bob Dey Report
New Zealand’s population rose by 220,700 over the past 5 years, and more than half of that increase – 113,000 – was in Auckland.
Statistics NZ produced firm sub-national figures for 2010 and provisional estimates for the June 2011 year. They include the first population estimates since the September 2010 Canterbury earthquake.
Statistics NZ calculated the Auckland population rose by 22,200/year from 2006-10, and by 24,000 in the last year, maintaining a 1.6% growth rate. That took Auckland’s population from 1.373 million in 2006 to 1.486 million (provisional) this year.
The national growth rate over the first 4 years was 1.1% (45,800/year), falling to 0.9% (37,500) in the last year. The national population rose from 4,184,600 in 2006 to 4,405,300.
Canterbury grew by 6400/year (1.2%) in the first 4 years, then fell by 5000 (-0.9%) in the last year. Christchurch City’s population fell a net 8900 in the last year (a net 10,600 exiting, partly offset by a net 1700 natural increase).
Apart from the districts around Christchurch growing through dispersal of the quake-affected population, Queenstown-Lakes was the country’s biggest percentage growth centre, up 3.6% over the first 4 years at 920/year, slipping to 3.2% in the last year (900). That took its population from 24,100 in 2006 to 28,700.
More than 10,000 leave Christchurch
October 25, 2011, 2:52 pmAbout 10,600 residents have left Christchurch since a series of earthquakes devastated the commercial centre and destroyed at least 30,000 houses.
The population loss was partly offset by the natural increase of births exceeding deaths, leaving the city with 8900 fewer people – down 2.4 per cent to 367,700 at the end of June, Statistics New Zealand said on Tuesday.
The first official estimate of population change in the country since the quakes began in September 2010 showed accelerated growth in many regions as people moved from the South Island’s largest city, spokeswoman Deb Potter said.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/10862743/more-than-10-000-leave-christchurch/
Published 21 October 2011
Freeholding has made a big difference to the market for townhouses & apartments at the city-fringe Beaumont Quarter, where units couldn’t be given away 2 years ago.
Auction results:
Beaumont Quarter
St Marys Bay, 79 Fisher Point Drive, freehold 85m², part-furnished 2-bedroom townhouse, parking space, rates $1075/year, body corp levy $635.45/quarter, periodic rent $450/week, sold for $470,000 (James Graydon & David Parker)
Learning Quarter
Brooklyn, 66 Emily Place, unit 63, 77m², vacant part-furnished one bedroom, parking space (additional $220/month), rates & body corp levy $5470/year, sold for $460,000 (Gillian Gibson)
Oxford, 13-15 Mount St, unit 10G, 38m², vacant part-furnished one bedroom, rates & body corp levy $4082/year, prior rent $305/week, sold for $130,200 (Judi Yurak & Matt Shirley)
Tetra House, 85 Wakefield St, unit 1211, 39m², fully furnished one bedroom, 2 bathrooms, rates & body corp levy $6608/year, current rent $310/week, sold for $175,000 (Thomas Sahs)
17 Whitaker Place, unit D, 71m², part-furnished 2 bedrooms, deck, parking space, rates & body corp levy $4764/year, current rent $450/week, sold for $335,000 (Krister Samuel)
Uptown
Volt, 430 Queen St, unit 211, 37m², part-furnished 2 bedrooms, deck, rates & body corp levy $4183/year, current rent $370/week, sold for $173,000 (Judi Yurak & Matt Shirley)
Waterfront
The Sebel, 85 Customs St West, unit 110, leasehold, 57m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates $1460/year, body corp levy $10,195/year, periodic rent $450/week, passed in at $151,000 (Judi Yurak & Matt Shirley)
Bob Dey Report
Home loans at most affordable levels in 8 years
Last updated 16:22 21/10/2011
Lower average house prices and downward pressure on interest rates meant home loans hit their most affordable levels in September that New Zealand had been seen in eight years.
According to the latest Roost Home Loan Affordability report, last month offered the best levels of loan affordability since 2004 with 20.6 per cent of the average income of a couple on the median wage needed to meet payments on a floating 80 per cent mortgage for a median priced house.
This was down from 20.7 per cent in August this year. For singles on the median wage, it would take 50.7 per cent of a salary to meet mortgage payments, down from 82.2 per cent in September 2007.
However home ownership is still priced high for most people earning the median take home pay a week – almost $800, the report says. “Essentially the median income for the typical buyer is not high enough to buy a median priced house, even with a 20 per cent deposit,” the report said.
The median house price eased off by $5000 to $350,000 last month and economists are picking the Official Cash Rate will be kept at 2.5 per cent into 2012, so floating mortgage rates are expected to stay low.
Floating interest rate were 5.73 per cent on average at most banks in September, unchanged since August but down 51 basis points from a year earlier. More than half of all mortgage holders nationwide are currently on floating options.
Rhonda Maxwell, spokeswoman for mortgage broker Roost Home Loans that produced the report, said banks were eager to lend.
“First home buyers are seeing low interest rates and a stable outlook into early next year, which is improving confidence,” Maxwell said.
“Banks are also competing hard to boost their lending to property investors and first home buyers, who are increasingly withdrawing their KiwiSaver funds to use for deposits.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/5830873/Home-loans-at-most-afforable-levels-in-8-years
What happens over seas eventually happens here now that world economies are so closely linked
In a few years the same headlines will be shouting the same message at us, of that I have no doubt.
English Tenants Spend Half to Three Quarters Of Their Income On Rent
By Kevin Rawlinson
The Independent London
Wednesday, 19 October 2011Property rental costs are at their highest level ever and now account for nearly half of the average British family’s monthly earnings, according to figures published today.
The average rent has risen to £890 a month – 46 per cent of the typical tenant’s net income. In London, rent accounts for more than three-quarters of average earnings. Landlords in the capital charge an average of £2,075 per month, while the typical household brings in £2,721 in net monthly income.
8 Quadrant units taken to market, 5 sell
Published 13 October 2011
5 units in the Quadrant Hotel were sold under the hammer at Ray White City Apartments’ auction today, and another 3 passed in.
Also in the Learning Quarter – an expanse of the eastern side of the cbd stretching from Wakefield St down Symonds St to the foot of Anzac Avenue – 2 Unilodge units and one in Tetra House were also sold under the hammer.
One unit outside the cbd was also taken to auction today, at Quattro on Great North Rd. It sold post-auction. Auction results:
Learning Quarter
Tetra House, 85 Wakefield St, unit 210, 39m², fully furnished one bedroom, 2 bathrooms, rates & body corp levy $4709/year, rent $300/week fixed to December, sold for $160,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 711, 22m², fully furnished studio, rates & body corp levy $4291/year, sold for $126,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 724, 22m², fully furnished studio, rates & body corp levy $4291/year, sold for $123,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 806, 22m², fully furnished studio, rates & body corp levy $3364/year, sold for $124,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 1402, 32m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates & body corp levy $5660/year, sold for $160,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 1507, 32m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates & body corp levy $5710/year, sold for $165,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 1509, 32m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates & body corp levy $5710/year, passed in at $162,500 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 1403, 32m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates & body corp levy $5885/year, passed in with vendor bid at $180,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
The Quadrant, 10 Waterloo Quadrant, unit 1503, 32m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates & body corp levy $5949/year, passed in with vendor bid at $180,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
Unilodge, 138 Anzac Ave, unit 303, leasehold, 56m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates $1216/year, body corp levy $5086/year, current rent $327/week, sold for $58,000 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
Unilodge, 138 Anzac Ave, unit 603, leasehold, 56m², fully furnished one bedroom, rates $1211/year, body corp levy $5086/year, current rent $338/week, sold for $62,500 (Damian Piggin & Daniel Horrobin)
Isthmus west
Quattro, 444 Great North Rd, unit 1J, 64m² (including decks), partially furnished one bedroom, 2 decks parking space, rates & body corp levy $4183/year, rent $355/week fixed to January, sold post-auction for $265,000 (Bain Duigan)
(the Bob Dey Property Report).
Declining supply in rental property
Conor O’Brien | Friday October 14, 2011 |
The number of rental properties available across the nation has fallen, driven by large decreases in the main centres.
Data released by Trade Me Property shows that its national average is down 7% on last year as Auckland (-13%), Christchurch (-27%) and Wellington (-30%) all had declines in the number of available rental properties.
The number of listed property sales has increased 14% on last year’s numbers and the head of Trade Me Property, Brendon Skipper, says that it is early days but it is the start of a possible trend that is a possible cause for the decrease in rental properties.
All three areas have, however, had increases in enquiries via the website.
Christchurch had the largest increase with displaced residents looking for new homes.
A recent decision by CERA to allow an exemption to an airport noise contour in Kaiapoi may open up opportunities for developers to relieve some of the pressure on the cities rental supply.
link:http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/declining-supply-rental-property-co-102414
