New Zealand Property Monitor

Close to 70% of New Zealand households own their own homes; Australia has a similar rate of ownership, while the UK is at around 69%, the United States at 65%, France 55% and Germany is below 40%.

So New Zealand has relatively high rates of home ownership. That’s a good thing. Studies have shown that home ownership is a key factor is creating strong communities. People who own their own homes have a vested interest in looking after them. They have pride in their homes and that’s good for our communities and society.

The reason Kiwis invest in property is that they don’t trust the share market or financial sector. The experiences of the 1987 share market crash and, more recently, the finance company debacles have left New Zealanders wary of investments they can’t touch and smell.

The global recession has hurt property prices worldwide and our market has not escaped. But New Zealand property investment remains a great story. It hasn’t done a Dubai and gone belly up. It hasn’t done a Bridgecorp and swallowed up your hard won savings. You can trust property. There’s a solid regulatory framework around it; you have the surety of knowing your investment is protected in good times and bad.

There’s no doubt that the government has to increase its tax take and it has had some powerful brains on the Tax Working Group (TWG) take a look at how to do that. A land tax seems to be off the TWG’s agenda, but property is not out of the woods yet. (Markets hate uncertainty and I’d expect the property market to remain subdued until after the May 20 budget.)

The TWG recommends stopping the practice of allowing depreciation deductions for buildings. Depreciation is when the value of your asset drops over time because of normal wear and tear or when it is replaced by a newer model. In the UK, for example, only industrial buildings are allowed to depreciate under British tax rules. But New Zealand is not the UK and most of us live in wooden houses, many of them decades old, which age in sometimes harsh and usually rainy conditions (especially in Auckland!). You’ve got to be able to claim depreciation on wooden houses.

What would happen if owners of rental properties weren’t allowed to claim depreciation and had to suck up losses from their aging properties? They would have to find a way to cover those losses and the easiest way to do that would be to jack up rents. Not only would that hurt property values, it would also unfairly penalise those on low incomes, who tend to be renters rather than owners.

The government is trying to say that New Zealand Inc. needs more money going into productive activities to increase export earnings and create jobs. That is undoubtedly true. But you can’t expect Kiwi mums and dads to sink their savings into sectors which are unregulated. The finance company experience of the past few years shows the damage that can be done when ordinary people’s investments aren’t protected.

Taxing returns on property won’t end Kiwis love affair with bricks and mortar until there are proven reliable alternatives. The government needs to look at fostering those well before tinkering with the rules around property investment; this alone will encourage Kiwis to invest in other asset classes

One of the world’s top financial investment advisers and newsletter editors, Martin Spring and his wife, Liz, have spent the past few weeks moving into what he says in his Afrodyn newsletter will be their new winter quarters in Northern Thailand — a condominium just across the river from where the equally famous investment commentator Marc Faber lives.

In his latest newsletter, Martin says that Faber reckons that one could live in charming Chiang Mai for just 20 per cent of the cost of Western Europe, and he didn’t think his estimate was way out.

Coincidentally, another investment commentator, Justice Little of the Outstanding Investments newsletter, has recently been advising people not just the semi-retired, — to buy the tropics.

According to Spring, the logic behind the idea is that nearly-free electronic communication, air-conditioning, disease control and global tourism have dismantled the historic practical and attitudinal barriers to living in the tropics.

The increasingly uncomfortable environment of the colder northern regions (high taxes, over-regulation, social breakdown) acts as an incentive to relocate to warmer countries where the cost of living is far lower, domestic help is abundant, traditional values continue to dominate social relationships, and the locals are usually much friendlier.

However, there’s more to this than a southwards flow of retirees from Europe, North America and in the future, I expect, Japan.

Justice Little is also reported as suggesting: Over the next 50 years that whole band-around-the-equator area, long neglected as a vacation spot, is going to become a hotbed of knowledge migration, capital migration, technology implementation, passport arbitrage, tax treaties….… you name it. Technology enables all this.

One of Australasia’s top property and resort developers, Timothy T Manning is said to be a great believer in the theory.

The Expat’s club in Chiang Mai, which is about to celebrate its first anniversary, already has around 250 members from North America, Europe and Japan. The first swallow of the Spring

Aucklanders will be granted a public consultation period in early 2007 to give input, following an Auckland City Council surprise move to “sledgehammer” through new bylaws effectively outlawing billboards in the CBD.

The ACC move is predicted to have severe consequences for the outdoor advertising industry, which has estimated up to $35-million in lost revenue and an estimated 150 job loss. The ACC proposed implementation period is two-to-five years. The proposed legislation had no input from the outdoor advertising industry.

And charities and community groups stand to lose up to $10 million of free billboard space currently donated to them.
The council claims its dawn raid on advertisers is intended to give Aucklanders “the ability to better appreciate heritage buildings”. The Outdoor Advertising Association of New Zealand has revealed it has research showing many residents regard billboards as both “an entertaining and colourful part of the city”.

OAANZ spokesman Tim Simpkins told the National Business Review that if the ACC cracked down on illegal billboards under the current registration system, the perceived problem would be solved and the new bylaw risked taking the industry back to 1995, where unworkable laws meant a proliferation of illegal billboards.

Simpkins said that would be a most undesirable state-of-affairs: “These are issues we believe the industry and Council can resolve together without having to resort to a sledgehammer bylaw like this.”

This article was made possible for the NZ Property Monitor by Timothy Terence Manning

New Zealand business confidence jumped to its highest level in two years at the end of 2006, according to National Bank’s monthly survey. And residential property values are holding or gaining slightly in our larger urban areas.

One of the best indicators of economic prospects – firms’ expectations about their own activity – rose to a net 24 % expecting improved prospects versus 18 % last month. According to the bank’s economist ,this indicator is predictive of an economic growth rate of about 2.5% over the next 12 months.

The boost to business confidence is based on lower petro prices (linked o the strong Kiwi dollar), unemployment at a rock-bottom 3.8%, continuing immigration flows and the above-mentioned, stable residential property prices.

The average New Zealand house price is now $347,005, but Quotable Value noted that while property values throughout the country were rising, the growth rate had been easing throughout this 12-month period.

Franklin, where the Tim Manning ‘Whisper Cove’ development was purchased by Sydney-based Lance Hodgkinson, who was involved in financing the Robert Railley designed development through Bluestone Property Services, for $215-million, has had the strongest growth in the Auckland region, with a growth of 9.4%, a figure not seen since February-March.

The construction industry too is relishing the prospects of New Zealand – particularly Auckland – hosting both the 2011 rugby world cup and the cricket version four years later. The proposed Elliott Tower development and the Auckland waterfront and Tank Farm developments are all expected to come into play.

Overall, confidence has improved in every sector, bar agriculture, which is continuing to battle the stubbornly high Kiwi dollar. There was good news on the inflation front too, with fewer than a quarter of the firms expecting to raise prices, against nearly a third in the previous month.

Productivity, according to National Bank’s Cameron Bagrie, remained “woeful”, thanks to employment growth exceeding economic growth for more than a year now.

This article was made possible for the NZ Property Monitor by Timothy Terence Manning

The first ripple of the pink baby-boomer retirement wave has hit the US property market and marks the future for this largely moneyed group and other segments of society who are beginning to look beyond accommodation and facilities, to the community they will spend the so-called ’second half’ of their lives in.

Gay men and lesbians are the newest niche in a booming US retirement housing market that already includes developments catering for Asian-Americans, the deaf, golfing enthusiasts, military veterans and university alumni, reports The Dallas Morning News (DMN).

‘Rainbow Vision’, a US$32-million, 13-acre development of adobe buildings, is the first project to offer a broad range of retirement living choices – from 120 residences for active adults to 26 assisted-living suites for frail seniors, a typical split of facilities.

Since the development opened in mid-year June, the DMN reports 60 people from across the US have bought or leased residences and settled into what’s been billed as a resort community for those who want to make the most of the second half of life.

Industry experts and the American Society on Aging believe that besides Rainbow Vision, 21 gay and lesbian retirement communities are under construction or on the drawing board. Others, including the Silver Hope Project in Dallas, are reportedly ‘under discussion’.

“The gay vocabulary hasn’t included the word old, but that’s about to change,” Jim LeCroy, vice president of the Silver Hope Project told the DMN. “Many of us are getting older, and we’ll need a place where we can feel safe.”

The publication notes that from the outside, other than rainbow banners at the entrance, there is nothing to suggest this is anything but a run-of-the-mill retirement home. Inside, members enjoy a fitness centre and spa, gourmet food prepared by a chef trained in France, cabaret shows and a salon.

Gay memorabilia adorn the centre’s walls – Billie Jean King’s tennis rackets in the fitness centre named after her, an old magazine cover of Truman Capote in the library, a photograph of Oscar Wilde in the community room.

Activity revolves around the community centre, where tai chi and yoga classes in the morning are followed by hot stone massages and book discussions in the afternoon and cabaret shows with celebrity look-alikes at night.

Rainbow Vision’s 60 residents are said to vary in age from 48 to 94 and are pretty evenly divided between men and women and between singles and couples. About a dozen aren’t gay but chose the community for its camaraderie.
“We don’t have to hide or lie here,” said Alan Taylor, 60, a retired designer who moved from Los Angeles. “We’ve all lived the same history. I can talk about the friends I’ve lost to AIDS, and everyone understands.”

A group of Dallas’ gay leaders has been trying to raise the seed money for a gay retirement community that would include condominiums and small homes for active seniors and assisted-living apartments for others.

This article was made possible for the NZ Property Monitor by Timothy Terence Manning

The number of people in extreme poverty will be halved over the next 25 years, but there are clouds on the horizon that ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ are dividing major countries.

The projection in a new World Bank report, ‘Global Economic Prospects 2007: Managing the Next Wave of Globalization,’ attributes this to rapid growth of developing country economies rather than to western taxpayer-funded aid schemes and predicts that the race to end poverty will be faster than the previous 25 years (1980-2005) and probably the quickest in history.

According to the report, total international economic output is projected to climb to $US72-trillion by 2030 from $US35-trillion in 2005 as annual growth averages about 3 per cent, reflecting growth rates of 2.5 per cent for high-income countries and 4.2 per cent for lower-income developing countries.

Francois Bourguignon, the World Bank’s chief economist, reckons the number of people living on less than $US1 a day could be cut in half, from 1.1-billion now to 550-million in 2030. He does note that some regions, such as Africa, are at risk of trailing behind in poverty alleviation, and that within countries income inequality could widen.

‘On Target’, No.77, Martin Spring’s private newsletter on global strategy, published under the Afrodyn banner, notes that creeping social breakdown is an unpleasant fact of life in Europe. According to Spring one of the features of it, about which little, is said is the emergence of “two nations” within countries such as Britain and France.

“There is increasing divergence between the living standards of ‘insiders’ with well-paid, secure jobs and generous pensions to look forward to, and ‘outsiders’ on low pay, often lacking job security, and increasingly discriminated against in retirement provision.”

“Attempts to start addressing the problem by freeing up labour markets and bringing equality to pension provision are being met by fierce resistance from those enjoying the benefits or seeking access to them.”

He points to the recently massive demonstrations in France protesting against a proposed marginal easing of employment protection, where those in permanent employment, whether in the public or private sectors, have legally enforced job security that makes them a privileged class.

In a recent newsletter, Spring pointed out how many Europeans and North Americans were heading for retirement in the tropics because of the comfort and lower costs of living there.

The World Bank report features the challenge on how best to manage the growing integration of the international economy (globalisation) and its impact on poverty. The key outcome of the long-term projections is predicated on the emergence of a ‘global middle class’ (a complex an annual per capita income between the average in Brazil and in Italy, or somewhere between about $US4-17,000

One of its most startling predictions is that by 2030, 1.2-billion people in developing countries – some 15 per cent of the world’s population — will belong to this grouping, up from 400-million today.

That means the quantum growth of a group that will then gain access to international travel; purchase cars and other advanced consumer durables; attain international levels of education; and play a major role in shaping policies and institutions in their own countries and the world economy.

By then, the population of more than 30 developing countries will be 40 per cent or more rich and middle class. Currently, this is true for only six.

Britain too, Martin Spring believes, has seen the emergence of a privileged class: “For example, a recent study showed that members of defined benefit pension schemes, very few of which remain open to new employees, can look forward to a retirement income equivalent to 81 per cent of their final earned income. Members of defined contribution plans, which companies offer to the new employees, will receive just 38 per cent.”

He reckons that a quarter of the work force in government employment are even more privileged: “Thanks to profligate spending increases since Labour came to power, state employees now have higher pay than those doing similar work in the private sector, including the highest-paid medical professionals in the world outside the US.”

Median incomes for full-time British government employees are now 15 per cent higher in the public sector than in the private sector. State employees also have much greater job security, can usually retire at lower ages, and look forward to no-risk, generous pensions.

“The consequence of the emergence of these “two nations” can only be escalating social and political conflict, damaging to economic growth and investment returns, especially when the ‘outsiders’ — such as the elderly — start to mobilize their political potential as effectively as the ‘insiders’ already do.”

World Bank economist Hans Timmer claims that growth in the world’s developing countries would remain strong, boosted by improved policies and favourable financial conditions.

The report reassuringly forecasts a soft economic landing remains likely, but warns that a cooling US housing market could spark a sharper-than-expected downturn and even a recession, which could have a major impact on developing nations.

The report also has good news on the oil price front where the price is likely to ease to $US56 a barrel in 2007 and fall further to just below $US53 in 2008 as supplies rise and demand growth eases. But it warned that if measures to slow growth in key developing nations such as China, Argentina and India failed, inflation in those countries could pick up.

Mr Timmer said China was under more pressure than ever to revalue its currency.

‘We do think that with the current environment, the need for an appreciation of the renminbi [yuan] has become larger than it has been over the last couple of years,’ he said.

This article was made possible for the NZ Property Monitor by Timothy Terence Manning

It’s only scheduled for a 2011 completion, but the $450 mil Elliot Tower is destined to accommodate some of the 2011 Rugby World Cup hordes. That’s if it can maintain a tight schedule against the competing rugby stadium construction effort. The giant 67 storey complex will be home to more than 800 people in 259 apartments, with minimum sizes of 64 sq m. Two top floor penthouses will be have floor areas of 445 and 590 sq m for those who would be ‘king and queen of Auckland’. These top floors will reach to just under the neighbouring 328m Sky Tower’s observation decks. That will put it at almost a third higher than Auckland’s next-highest building, the 167m Vero Centre in Shortland Street, down towards the foreshore. Comparisons are everything in this game:

- Sky Tower 328m
- Elliott Tower 232m, 67 storeys
- Vero Centre 167m, 38 storeys
- Metropolis Apartments 155m, 39 storeys
- ANZ Centre 143m, 42 storeys

nd it has one of New Zealand’s leading architects, Gordon Moller, who has already dubbed it a ‘next century landmark’ as the guiding creative genius.

A unique feature of the building is that it will be narrow, with most of its facade facing east and west, rather than the traditional sea-facing buildings of the CDB.

And there was an unexpectedly warm welcome from the grand old lady of Queen Street, Smith and Caughey.

Its md, Andrew Caughey, told the New Zealand Herald that he thought the new building was “fantastic”. “We would absolutely welcome it,” he said. “It’s a tremendous site that has been just a hole in the ground for too long.”

Mercifully, the development which has served as a car park for many years will include six floors of basement car parking. A three-level retail podium catering to the tastes of its well-heeled inmates and the high pedestrian traffic passing on Lower Elliott Street, Victoria and Albert Streets.

Architect and developer — Korean construction group Dae Ju Housing Company — have already concluded extensive discussions with Auckland’s Urban Design Panel and claim to have included their recommendations, making them optimistic of getting the go-ahead. Remember too that Moller is co-convener of the Auckland City Council’s urban design panel which assesses the suitability of major building plans.

They plan to get construction under way as quickly as possible to meet the 2011 deadline and alleviate some of the anticipated major accommodation shortage for the Rugby World Cup. Critics of the plan say it is hiding behind that event and is “too soon” for the CBD.

This article was made possible for the NZ Property Monitor by Timothy Terence Manning

If you are one of many New Zealanders who own a home, apartment or ‘rental’ built from 1996 onwards, you have probably given some thought in recent days to the approach of the ‘10-year limitation-on-claims’ cut-off for leaky/potentially leaky homes.

That’s usually as far as it goes. Who really wants to have holes cut into the place? I mean, ‘they’ tell you when you build the house that you must watch all nails, cuts, nicks in the surface, and here these inspectors come and chop chunks out.

Besides, there are no signs of leaks, damp or cracks to be seen. Not only is there a high cost attached to the inspection, but there is also the disruption and, worst of all, the ’stigma’ of being seen to have a ‘leaky home’. Neighbours talk to estate agents and would-be buyers. You don’t want that, do you?

So you cross your fingers and do nothing.

Many will be lucky – as with Lotto – while others have simply no idea that inside their walls, the value of their investment is literally rotting away right under their noses.

Now, a New Zealand technological breakthrough that could tip the balance back in the homeowner/investors’ favour is slowly appearing on the local market. Many believe it could revolutionise home monitoring throughout the world.

The new technology offers a number of packages that include a three-year monitoring service; special reports on problem area fixes; and comparative statistics derived from hundreds of other homes, materials and situations on their growing database – all at a price that is comparable to installing Sky-TV, they claim.

Kiwi ingenuity, based on a series of University of Auckland Engineering Department research projects, has been consolidated into a commercialised monitoring system for homes, using building science that claims to lead the world. The Auckland-based Moisture Detection Company (MDC) says its effective technology, linked to a 400-plus database of New Zealand homes, provides peace-of-mind-through-facts about your building’s performance, or the best possible insight into what is happening behind the walls of New Zealand’s homes.
While they are reluctant to be seen as the purveyors of the ’silver bullet’ solution against leaky homes – the electronic probes Bryan Holyoake and Shane Pope have been party to inventing, and have now installed into thousands of walls, are capable of numerous home management and knowledge functions too – they concede it is the misfortune of tens of thousands of Kiwi homeowners that has created a market for their product and linked service.

“The key determinant of potential danger and damage in a home is the amount of moisture present in the external and internal walls, and the time that moisture remains within the wall, undetected,” notes Bryan Holyoake, whose family are major players in the building cladding industry.

“While there are a number of various techniques available, the only practical and reliable method to get ongoing detection of moisture in building walls is with our patented, deep-penetrating, moisture detection units or Mdu probes.

“They avoid all the nasty issues that come with other methods, such as leaving ugly ‘fang marks’ or cut-outs on your exterior, or relying on a number of assumptions. We get the facts.”

The moisture detection probe is a non-destructive tool drilled in through the skirting deep into the timber framing inside the walls – an area that until now has been hidden from the building inspector’s view — in sections that are assessed as being a leak risk. These include high-risk building details such as: parapets, deck connections, roof-to-wall joints, windows, ranch-sliders and any other penetration through the external cladding surface. The installation leaves the Mdu probe installed in the wall, visible only as a ’shirt button’ on the skirting board.

Most importantly, during installation, timber drillings are extracted to provide a wood sample. This is labelled and checked for deterioration. It remains linked to the individual probe it came from, both as a measure of performance and as a secondary coefficient; thereby adding an additional level of reliability not previously available to property owners. Even new buildings are going through this process, as MDC has already discovered apparently new framing to be damaged before it gets to the house.

The probes are permanent, so they can be read immediately after heavy rain to ensure repairs and maintenance have been effective. To underpin accurate interpretations of how a house is performing, more than one reading is required; otherwise readings done in summer (when rainfall is light) will have little value.

“The experience gained in a joint research study with the University of Auckland demonstrated the need for a more scientific approach to building monitoring and assessment, before wholesale changes were made to buildings, or maintenance commenced.

“We proved that water present in walls does not automatically mean damage is rampant and visa versa — particularly if the wall has been left in an ‘unknown’ condition for a long period. Damage is more likely to occur to buildings not maintained or those built incorrectly the first time.”

Holyoake’s fourth year research project at the Auckland University Faculty of Engineering and Chemical and Materials Department was supervised by industry doyen, Professor Geoff Duffy. The aim of the research was to gain insight into the rate of moisture movement inside building walls and to establish the mechanisms driving the process.

“That way the Mdu probes can also provide a record of the building’s on-going performance, thereby dispelling any so-called ’stigma’ implications that a leaky home will always be ‘damaged goods’,” adds Shane Pope, who also has an honours degree in engineering.

MDC believes that only by measuring the timber in the house itself, using a moisture detection probe, can home owners, architects, builders and inspectors be certain that it does comply with the legislation; 18% moisture content for untreated and 20% for treated wood. Those are very tight margins.

“Our reports employ a simple colour code for highlighting different levels of moisture performance. A green reading is inside the safe-and-desirable range; a yellow-to-orange rating indicates the need for on-going monitoring and the possibility that maintenance should be considered; and a red rating requires investigation and the probability that remediation be undertaken before damage becomes more costly,” says Holyoake.

Most leaky home owners inevitably have suffered financial loss, emotional trauma and often attendant health problems. “They need certainty. They need conclusive and consistent facts on the existing and potential problems. They also need on-going monitoring against moisture damage to ensure that any remedial work is fixing the problem, rather than continuing the cycle of extensive and costly damage.

“A key advantage the Mdu probes have given us is the ability to gain a far greater understanding of the entire building and expose the unknown, without breaking into the cladding. This leads to a more balanced assessment of the building to the benefit of all involved.

“We routinely come across clients who have been told they need to reclad, only to show that 90% of their building is ok – saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. It’s a huge ‘de-stressor’ for people. Although the lawyers don’t always appreciate it”

“By installing moisture detection probes to monitor their homes, owners will ensure maintenance and remedial work is successful. We do not want to see repeated examples in this country of repair failures. Right now Canada is reporting cases of buildings that have been reclad three times and are still leaking. We are committed to helping New Zealand avoid that trap,” concludes Holyoake.

For further information, please contact Bryan Holyoake/Shane Pope at the Moisture Detection Company (09) 271 0522. www.moisturedetection.co.nz. info@moisturedetection.co.nz

Some key factors to observe and to get right on any home:

• ‘Good boots’ and ground clearance. A well built and maintained house has all ground-water deflected away and cladding well clear of wet ground. As a guide, a brick breather-slot should be 250 mm above wet ground.
You wouldn’t like living with wet feet – neither does your home.

• If the ‘hat’ fits: roof flashings. A well-built home has the metal flashings turned out to deflect water into the gutter and the cladding clear of the flashings. As a guide, cladding should be at least 30 mm off the roof and the metal flashings turned out, so water deflects into the gutter.
You wouldn’t wear your hat upside down – neither does a house.

• Deck edges. Water needs to be correctly deflected and plaster not able to ‘wick’/draw-up water from a deck. As a guide, water must be turned out.
Imagine if you got a hose and directed it at this point: if water can get in so can rain.

• Cracks and wildlife. Well-maintained homes are dry and it is very rare for ants to visit and colonise in the walls. Ants look for water. If they are getting into the cracks and under the cladding, chances are your house has serious leaks in the walls.
Larger cracks often signify abnormal movement of timber frames behind the cladding, meaning the building may have settled, or the framing has in part begun to rot.

• Mouldy curtains and linings. Well-ventilated rooms allow internal moisture to escape. The Building Code states one air change per hour is required. Excessive internal moisture allows mould to grow on curtains and on much of the internal furniture as well.
Many mould species carry warnings that the spores they produce affect breathing and may bring on asthma attacks and prolonged periods of sickness.

• Window flashings. Well-flashed windows rarely leak or cause damage. Proper sill flashings, with turned up ends and sealant positioned at the ends to turn water out, are what’s needed.
If a crack develops it will most probably allow water in behind to rot framing.

• Parapet caps. A metal cap turned up at the wall prevents water getting in behind the cladding. Cracks where the cladding meets the house probably mean water is getting in and will cause significant damage — if it has not already happened.
The timber should be checked and correct water deflecting flashings used in its place. Plaster caps do not work.

• Gutters. Well-fitted outside gutters can safely overflow outside the building, without doing any damage. Complex shapes inside some gutters have meant the gutter is cut away, allowing water to overflow onto the soffit (enclosed gutters) where it often gets into the wall and behind the cladding, causing the timber to swell and crack the outside plaster and the interior linings around window openings, as well as rotting the framing.
Take a look at your gutter. If you can’t see a rounded shaped channel on the outside, then you will have an enclosed gutter which if clogged with grass/leaves/plastic bags/etc, so that water is restricted in heavy rains, or has been left without maintenance, will overflow into your ceiling — this is a no-brainer.
• Corner windows. A sill tray under a mitred window frame prevents water seeping back to the timber frame. Stains in a corner window indicate the corner is weeping and it’s highly likely the framing is wet and potentially rotting.
These areas can be surveyed non-destructively with moisture probes.

Timber penetrations through cladding. Correct flashing will deflect water from getting behind the wall cladding. A big overhang (soffit or eave) will reduce the chances of rainwater getting in. Timber beams that penetrate wall claddings need more than expert maintenance — in all probability they need to be

Ian Revell from MRE Property (ex Milford Real Estate MREINZ) is always one of those very positive property punters(PPPs) and he believes that there are a number of positive signs around, despite a tiny increase in unemployment(3.6-3.8%)

He reckons that “the USA are likely to accelerate a phased pull out from Iraq now the citizens of USA have voted their disapproval to President Bush” and “the New Zealand government’s coffers are filled with the extra tax take from a resident economy”. That’s good news globally and locally for the property market.

And he sees additional support for that in the fact that “days to sell” have remained steady for October (year on year on year); and that the median price right across the Auckland’s North Shore continues to rise (around 15%) and volumes are up.

His spin is that “these figures confirm most New Zealanders’ belief in property as a safe long-term investment, while property that is in short supply — beachfront, views etc — continues to move ahead of the median figures.

But he does more than thump a tub and peddle his wares, relying on research to reinforce his instincts and experience. And AC Nielsen also ranks MRE Property the No.1 website for real estate offices in NZ “for functional excellence” and seventh for “user satisfaction”.

He notes in his latest newsletter:
- 100 million Chinese viewed a five episode documentary on NZ – preliminary results indicate (a) They did not realise NZ was so cosmopolitan; (b) They loved the natural beauty and space.
(”Watch this space – How many tourists from this?” Coast Radio 105.4 Friday 10/11/06.)
-Regarding China – NZ government estimates 30 million visitors to the Shanghai Expo. NZ Pavilion expects 14 million visitors. What an opportunity for our paradise!
- What a country – NZ has topped a worldwide survey for natural beauty and outdoor activities. Also 2nd for family activities and authenticity of culture and 3rd for safety – Country Brand Index 2006, New Zealand Herald.
- A must – List on our website and get the benefit of new immigrants and New Zealanders coming home for Christmas and looking to get a toe- hold in the property market. Our boutique company receives an overwhelming response from and requests by cashed up “New Zealanders and migrants”.

Buyers, he reckons, like the look of the housing market. Buyer confidence has improved, according to the ASB Bank’s quarterly survey, as reported in the New Zealand Herald.

“Surprise, Surprise! Nothing yet has beaten the bricks and mortar of homes for capital gain on the North Shore.”

ianr@mreproperty.co.nz