Investor, Buy and Hold, Rehabs · Wellington, Wellington · Member since 2016 · 44 posts · 27 votes
Let's get everyone who is a New Zealand based Real Estate / Property Investor to reply here, so we can try and form a group to share ideas both for investing locally and abroad. I know there are many of you out there, so put your name here!
Thanks, it was pretty interesting to put together. We're thinking about trying this with our property finding and taking on one buyers agency client to work with Debbie as a pilot to work it all out, give me a shout if that's you ;-)
@James Capovilla - Try Peter A. (Link) very successful property investor who works with others either in a coaching capacity or as a licensed investment property finder. Good guy. Disclosure I'm part of iFindProperty, I've also been mentored by Pete so can recommend him on both counts!
Hi @Nick Gentle Yeah love BP, but it was really great to listen to something NZ based. Sounds intriguing!! Certainly interested in finding out more about it. Also, hope you have managed to sort that scaffolding!!
Hi everyone, I'm looking to get started in property investing somehow - based in Wellington at the moment but the market up here seems to have gone the same way as Auckland which, on the surface, makes it appear to be a bit of a tougher nut to crack, especially if you're looking at an investment property with a 40% down payment.
My partner and I are potentially looking for ways to purchase something in the city to move into if we can't find a suitable investment that is positively geared as we're paying just under $500 / week in rent out in Petone and we both work in the city.
Would love it if anybody wants to reach out and have a yarn - I am a sponge trying to learn everything I can about real estate and how to get on the ladder!
I have not had much to do with the Wellington market other than having a bit of a look around whilst we were there for the NZPIF conference a few years back. You have the choice of two property investor associations in the Wellington area, Wellington and Capital, http://wellington.nzpif.org.nz/ or https://capitalpia.org.nz/
I know Richard and Jackie at Wellington quite well and they could be good to reach out to and get along to a meeting. The PIA's around the country try to put on events to help learn how best to invest in property and to keep current on the latest changes in the industry. You also get access to discount schemes and the like.
You might also want to reach out to mortgage brokers or other financial partners to look at pre approvals or guidance on your financing range so you can restrict your searches to realistic purchasing options, that way the search starts to become less daunting? Kris Pederson mortgages based up in Auckland seems to be doing a lot of investor specialisation recently otherwise we have Roger Swift at EnableMe down here in Dunedin who goes a bit further than just the finance and looks at your whole financial plan to help you.
From the deposit point of view, I don't know if there is much new build in Wellington at the moment but it may be an option if the finance works to look at that as new builds can be down to 20% deposit under the current rules. You could also ask if your KiwiSaver can be used at all as well if you're going to be living in some of the property yourself.
Hope that helps with some questions to ask your qualified experts but feel free to reach out if you need any more help/thoughts?
Hi @Kyle Elmer, thanks a lot for taking the time to reply. I will definitely reach out and get involved with the Wellington PIA as that seems like a good first step and trying to get a handle of what's going on up here. Thanks for the recommendation!
Think I will set up a meeting with a mortgage broker as you suggest and get a handle on our hard limits for lending.
We're also open to looking into investments in other areas of New Zealand. I have a close friend in Christchurch who is willing to act as the property manager as well as manage any trades that need access to the properties for repairs / improvements, so that could be an option for us as well.
Hi @Kevin Estey I just saw your post above from last year. I invest in real estate in the States (Idaho and Florida) and recently moved to Wellington, NZ from Fiji. I was interested to know if there are any real estate meet ups in Wellington to learn more about the market here. I am happy to share what I know about investing in the States. Cheers, Nathan
Welcome to NZ. As mentioned above to Chris there are 2 main organisations in Wellington that have meet ups/meetings etc, Wellington PIA and Capital PIA. I know Richard and Jackie who run the team at Wellington http://wellington.nzpif.org.nz/ so they could be a good place to start?
Dave from Auckland here, great to read through this post and see so many of you already successful and others on their way.
My RE investing has begun by building a 3bd/2bth SFH in Brisbane suburbs (it was easier to get a mortgage there than at home). This will be cash flow negative with tenants but should break even as neutral after tax & depreciation.
With this next deposit I'm looking for cash flow, rather than chasing duplex's or similar I'm keen to join you lot and grab some good old American cash flow :)
By this time next year I hope to be able to give successful advice rather than be here reading it all from you legends..
The best two to talk to in this group of Kiwis in USA market is probably @Hadar Orkibi or @Dean Letfus who are both buying in the states but are Kiwi investors.
I'm new here, NZ based and just starting out. So I have a real beginner's question: Since the gov has changed the requirements for investors (40% deposit) is it still a good deal to invest in property? Is there any way around that? Seems like so much money tied up in a deposit...
@Jordana OShea, the financing side doesn't make investing good or bad. The underlying value of real estate makes it second to none for investment. It is harder to get momentum with the current deposit requirements but there are always ways to reduce it over time. Buying wella nd creating equity is the best way to get into a position to refinance and get some/all of your deposit back.
Hi fellow Kiwis! I've lurked on BP for awhile but just joined as I'm finding this NZ thread and others very useful.
I'm based in Los Angeles and planning to buy a second investment property in NZ (the first is in Napier). @Kyle ElmerI found your overview of the Dunedin property market fascinating, I was considering Dunedin as I believe once remote working takes off in NZ the same way it has in the US, the smaller cities in NZ will thrive - and seeing the Gigacity win as well as the incentives for start-ups in Dunedin make it very attractive as an investor. Not to mention global warming!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the best type of property for long-term gains - I'm looking at a 15-yr buy and hold and the prospect of making good capital gains at the end of that period. I've seen a few newer studio apartment blocks listed which seem to offer great value/yield as well as being easier to maintain, especially with the new govt Healthy Homes legislation. Are these still easy to rent and maintain yields with the increased costs of being rented fully furnished.
@Adriena Daunt, ALL the smaller towns are less predictable for capital gain. And typically they only boom every second round unlike the main centres. Dunedin will never go as you suggest, it just doesn't happen in New Zealand. If you are primarily chasing capital gain there are only 3 "sure bets". Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton. I have owned more than 50 properties in NZ and bought and sold more than double that in many different cities and towns.
IF you look at graphs over a long enough period it looks like almost everywhere grows at a similar rate however as I said already the rural areas tend to take twice as long to move then they move a lot. So timing that is harder. We are also seeing a lot of population transfer which can affect smaller towns. A lot of retiring boomers are moving rurally which in theory means more demand for housing. However the working population is moving away so as the demographic ages and there are fewer children these areas can see a decline in demand and values.
Stick to the big 3 is your best bet.
If you want some more local town information there is a very good NZ forum called propertytalk.com. IT is frequented by quite a few petty, nasty people but if you ignore that you will get good info from real local investors about any town.
Cool to see a thread of New Zealand investors on here! I’m American but my whole family moved to New Zealand in 2003 so I’ve spent a lot of time there and still go for 2-3 weeks a year. I spent most of my holidays tramping but my family owned in Auckland, Warkworth, Milford, and Albany during their time there.
I live in Los Angeles and I invest in Kansas City, MO. If I can ever provide value to a Kiwi investor I’d be more than happy to. Such a nice country (even with the sandflies and rain) where I’ve been picked up hitchhiking so many times! I know property values are now sky high in Auckland so it was interesting to hear what folks are doing in this thread.
Hi all, I’ve recently quit my job and working on a startup company. We’ve sold a property in Napier last month and now looking to do something. Any advice on investing without a steady “salary” income? I have a few ideas but wondering what others have done for lending.
Yes, the Healthy Homes Act is going to stir things up a bit, in the main for all the right reasons. The one thing that really worries us as investors are who is going to be in charge of making the decisions about what the standards are actually going to be more so than having a standard. Most Landlords/investors want to provide as good a property as their budget can provide as it is just good business sense to do that as a happy client is generally a paying client, unlike what the politicians seem to get told about us ;-) .
Some of these people trying to get involved in setting the standards have no real reality on life to understand what should and shouldn't be in an effective standard to the point that some testing mechanisms being trialled aren't even passing new builds that have just passed there Code of Compliance (so if its good enough to pass the new building code why is it not good enough for a minimum standard???)
As Dean mentioned above planning on appreciation outside of I would say just Auckland, is probably a bit of a guess (I wonder if Wellington and Hamilton will be much different to CHCH and Dunedin for expected growth in the medium term, and Tauranga may need to adjust its demographic growth if that is going to be sustainable seeing as how many retirees like to go there). But it is very hard if not impossible to find a market that gives both above average capital appreciation and cashflow anywhere so deciding which is more important to you is the key and heading in one direction or the other.
Dunners is rising at the moment, on the back of increasing population mainly by the looks of things, so good signs. The work does seem to be here at the moment and newer jobs coming in to town. If the hospital build goes ahead as planned then there should be even more steady money coming in during the build over the next 5 or so years too. The Uni has been buying and building capacity which has kept a lot of the builders busy during the downturn which never quite got to be more than a bit of a settle down for us. Again like Dean said we don't really get booms but we don't tend to get busts either, just steady wee rolls in the market cycle in general. If the Uni then starts to utilize all this capacity it has built with increased student roles then we should be on another steady upswing for a wee while.
If the hospital build and the 2GP come together at the same time then we could get some strong trades incomes coming in (although capacity constraints might bugger that a bit but that is NZ and even worldwide) so I personally am going to be looking at older stock that can be redeveloped or added on to with the old building refreshed if they are in good enough nick and a location on their site so that to me is where the council and the market would like to go. Smaller easy care sections and properties, near amenities ideally on brownfield/infill sites so less new expensive infrastructure for the council to provide and more population able to make the best of what the city already has to offer that can be utilized more.
So Cashflow is likely to be the best play with forced appreciation through redevelopment or refurbishment to keep the investing machine moving along and to end up with stock up to the new standards, that's how I am thinking about playing it personally.
If anyone wants to have a bit of a chat about specifics feel free to PM me and we can have a look for you
Personally in The US im focusing on US Multifamily investing and educating myself about this asset class.
In NZ, until this month I had a quite Year, But recently I see more opportunities coming to the market. the market is slowing down and AKL is halted and may stay flat for a while.
Considering the slowdown, I'm seeking opportunities in AKL to buy and build additional dwelling to increase equity and cash-flow.
I'm also involved in As-Is, uninsured properties in Christchurch, these can be purchased close to land value, repaired + insured and on-sold or rented out for better yield then you can fined in the market.
@Josh Crozier, you really needed to get a revolving credit or similar set up while you were working. The best options now will be to find a JV partner with good income. Of course if you just want to trade houses you don't need any money but to buy any you'll need to get lending organised and you won't do that probably without any income.