Well, yes new properties are being built, however they are mismatched to demand, simply you cannot build a $250K house with land anymore, and so the idea you can rent one at $300 a week..has well...left the building....it cannot happen. The issue we face IS regulation IS material costs IS land costs is LABOUR costs..it simply is too expensive to build anything, even with simple straightforward plans because, it is NOT in the interests of local authorities to create work for themselves.......things must change - at it starts with them....but they hate work.
Ironically its all the visitors that are causing the most environmental damage to the Otago basin. All the bleating and moaning about farmers, but no thought - none - about the effect of tourism what effect it has on the environment - if people want to protect the natural environment they aught not to go and exploit it just for their tourist pleasure - but of course - they are selfish and self interested.
A disingenuous article but it serves to highlight the core of the issue. The government makes a lot of noise about the symptoms - they would like us to think that is about quality - however they are silent about the real issue - because the real issue is about a perception of greed and it leads me to one conclusion - our hate affair with landlords has nothing to do with quality but everything to do with price... and so we have endless stories of swamps and mould and terrible landlords, but the root of the cause, the one that people really care about, it is not what they get but how much they pay for it ...and that is a problem directly at the feet of government - all of them, both National and Labour for following the path of a low waged economy but with huge and expensive regulatory regimes. That they refuse to change and that will continue to cost nzers because its too hard to simply unwind it.
Headline reads like some shifty advertising banner...some places almost 50%....over FIVE years...perhaps it should read. It largely mirrors build costs and land prices. CHCH was especially expensive following the earthquake as people moved into rentals while their own homes were being built new or being repaired
Bindi Norwells further attempt to get some traction on the idea that only REINZ members should control the property management business - oh and it aught to be mandatory - that way Bindis members can charge what they like :) a story from a single thick property manager about seeing KFC on a bank statement is hardly evidence of an issue Bindi.
Ah, these old chestnuts..I went to auction training as a real estate agent - the problem with auctions is real estate agents still largely use the following method.1. buy the listing by siding up and supporting the vendors inflated view of the propertys value. This is changed somewhat recently as agents are required to complete a comparable sales analysis and present it. What is written is not always what is said, and real estate agents will tend not get a listing if they start off with a disagreement about price. 2. Once vendor locked in on a Auction progamme, the agent embarks on a program of reconditioning the vendor over a four to five week period with negative feedback from potential purchasers to push down the vendors expectations (the worse feedback the better)3 After four or five weeks of bad news from the agent - and once in the auction room, the market is left to do what it does naturally....the vendor at this point will have made a considerable investment in advertising and also incurs auctioneers fees.. and normally are feeling sick, totally disillusioned and a bit peed off with the process. All this puts pressure on the vendor to sell at a price set on auction day ( and if it does not hit reserve - pressure goes on vendors to make a really big decision at the drop of a hat right there and then (no cooling down period). The agent will explain that all the potential buyers for the vendors property are at right now in the room and the market has determined the sale price. In auction training they explain this is the most successful method to guarantee a sales commission.Never ask an agent whether you should sell, theyll always say sell NOW. They want your money!!
Ha! with this Genter is effectively ordering the feminisation of the public service - because at LEAST 50% of senior leadership must be woman...what happens if its more than 50%? how is that representative of the population it serves? how does that fly past the UN basics human rights? How many men does Genter propose to selectively discriminate against by forcing them out or closing off pathways to career progression? As for the equal pay for same role for new starts. It happens today. There is no discrimination based on gender.
Great job Major! I think these sort of homes would work well in small park like settings. Big problem will be cost of land, consents and development contributions and connection to services. If govt seek a range of social housing solutions they should consider this option
Well, I am not surprised. Years of talk of the need to create the low wage economy and look what we got...the warehouse is everyones go to place, and even visiting the cheapest supermarket with the cheapest goods to fill the cupboard each week is a struggle...We did not end up with a low wage economy - NO WAY we ended up with a split economy where we have a large middle and lower class sector getting paid less but everyone else is unaffected.....prices have not dropped - its kind of like a trickle-up. The poor have no option put to just keep buying crappier, buying less, buying smaller, or going without, so government has had to import 70,000 people a year and allow tourists to flood in just to keep the domestic spending up. Public Sector performance pay structures are shockers, they are unfair, serve only the employer, and certainly have nothing to do with rewarding performance... year after year as a manager I was told by my manager to ensure I do not mark anyone in my team more than 3 out of 5, because the CEO was not in the mood to budget for wage increases. Another year for 500 staff, we had only 100K worth of bonuses available, no increase for 5 years (not even an inflation adjustment). After 5 years we were offered 3% but only if we exchanged this for reduced working conditions and promised to work another 2.5 hours a week! (6.25% a week more!!) I noted that moderation takes care of all performance by leveling everyone out ensuring hard work is not rewarded. I have seen our pay bands increase each year, but no ones salary is actually adjusted to follow it, I have seen the lions share distributed to senior leaders and a few favorites leaving everyday hard workers, who spend hundreds of hours a year working for free go unrecognized. I have seen our CEOs annual pay increase exceed the entire combined annual salaries of two of our junior staff....and this was at a time the organisation was not performing. Its a wreck, it is not fair, it is I think tantamount to a breach of being GOOD EMPLOYERS. The old core public service values have gone replaced by greed, political infighting and new age business school bullsh.t, where knowing that staff feel valued is no longer important.
Thanks for sharing. All I can add is we all have choices, some we make have consequences and others are choices we choose to ignore.First off, no one gets to choose their neighbors, I own my place and I dont get a say who lives next door, whether they are a nice family or a P-lab loving gang. I just dont have a say. I can choose to move, of course that means selling up and a great expense and inconvenience to me, but thats life I guess.My bet is you receive significant taxpayer support for your lifestyle and although its not flash, I can damn well bet your better housed and fed than I and Ive worked everyday for 30 years. If you are finding $600.00 a struggle then mu guess is you have a modest income for such a large family. People below recommend moving to a cheaper location - Hamilton, the far north, Hawkes Bay, even Christchurch...hell you could, but would saving say 150.00 a week really make a difference with a family of nine? large families are normally pretty cost effective in terms of a per capita spend but I think the issue is youre expecting your choices to have a large family trump your ability to live a lifestyle that you desire (even if it is modest). And unfortunately life is not made that way. Whether your renting or owning you are a sitting duck...as we all are for petrol and food prices and whatever new taxes the government dreams up...we are locked in, and part of the economic machine.
Well, let us suppose that the lady was incapable, otherwise wed have to agree that 62 is very old indeed which I find very hard to accept...i was expecting 82 not 62. normally wed say such a person is quite young indeed, and certainly with capacity...let us then work back from that the number of years that it takes to rack up a 12,000 bill.....so is this elderly lady was incapable in her late 50s? I dont buy it - not at all. Id imagine its just a family left with a bill and finding it difficult to accept the blame is with the person they love...and thats okay.
So maybe Regional Council reps will meet in a week or so with the bus companies and have a chat about it! however because Council have entered into an agreement that will probably not allow it to interfere with the running of the bus companies in any meaningful way well have to wait for a few accidents and a couple of deaths before Council can start putting pressure using the service standards default provisions.
Well where to start with this...1) there is no feasible method to insure for damages2) there is no feasible method to otherwise recover losses..3) there is no feasible way to control pets habits.so I say no.
Lol...Howath is not exactly an independent source, look there is a real issue of value for money with hotels in NZ, I have stayed in some very averagely priced hotels all over the world and 95% of them would knock the socks off our best offerings every time. Our hotels, especially the chains, are sleeper boxes in the main, cheap, small and lacking in high quality services - many cant even be bothered to update their rooms every 20 years. Yet charge like they are four star. NZ needs to understand that it has an accommodation crises and I would think that the best solution is a wide range of quality choices and experiences for a reasonable rate.
Okay, how about no fences to allow little kids to run on to the road, how about people with pet allergies trying to find a clean place to live, how about no insurance against pet pee, how about the fact a tenant is mostly incapable of righting damage? How about predator free NZ - theres a lot to be said for bad ideas. heres five.
I dont think we should panic Ms Donaldson...perhaps thats for you to do....I really love waiting at the Hataitai bus stop for twenty minutes with fifty others waving at the 31x expresses thunder pass with breezy and comfy dozen passengers, the 2s from Kilbirnie packed to gunnels like a Mumbai train in rush hour...the rare 35 sometimes stops to let us squish in and stand...sometimes..
ah okay...someones dreaming and lacking scale - so all we need to do is repeat the exercise another 50,000 times and wed have gone half way into fixing this problem....I ask you. if the government is not able to complete a single kiwibuild home yet - still waiting for no 1 there!! ...what are the changes of being able to build Marae style community housing for 100,000 families?....and for no profit? apparently financed by using whose money exactly? and on whose land? Dreamer. Hey theres plenty of free land on the moon....or how about the great western Australian dessert?
Well, think of it this way... if a CGT has an down ward effect on the value of investment property, it cant help but also effect owner occupied housing - after all both types appeal to the same market. What you get at best, should the policy work, are terrible outcomes for todays owner occupiers, and not much better for the poor souls to seek to enter into the market to watch their investment in their own home stagnate. Peoples views are polarised between those who own and those who aspire to own, if property values are depressed or shrinking, whose going to want to put their cash in a sinking market - no one.... so cant see any benefit to NZer here, its a government engineered depression.
which is why to be fair, they take no account of improvements or capital gain derived from currency losing its value (which currency invariably does) it is a blunt and awful tool meant not to be fairly applied but to be seen to be sold as fair to arrive at a result meeting the governments social policy. Simply put - the government wants the assets of the middle class to finance the stuff the government cannot afford to look after the poor, until such time as they exhaust it
Because we are told to treat energy as if it is a limited exhaustible resource we are blinded by the truth. The truth being we can build as much capacity as we want and supply cheaper Kw. But in the industry there is little incentive to build more large scaled generation capacity, because it will depress the price per Kw, and that is not good for generators business. Increasing energy scarcity, increases the value of a Kw, and so generators will make more money from doing nothing new which is a good strategy as there is little risk in doing nothing and the surplus profits can be paid out in dividends rather than into building more infrastructure. The government who effectively owns the generators seems to have adopted this strategy and uses propaganda to sell the idea of energy scarcity as the new normal - this forces the population into carrying out expensive remedial works to help levitate the energy shortfall, so the generators can continue to do nothing but increase prices. The government is passing the costs of doing nothing on to us, all the while pocketing the dividends from the generators. It knows that in the long term the price per Kw will continue to climb because it has a grip on the supply. Not one minister has suggested generator capacity is the problem and given that the government owns the generators - do we really have to wonder why? The second problem with generation is network related. Networks were built and owned by the populations they served. Mostly council owned. Many have been sold to private international interests and all are monopoly suppliers with each sale of a network the inflated value paid increases the cost of transmission. The model serves to build value for the companies that own generators so they can sell them later for capital gain. TransAlta was a good example they made hundreds of millions tax free in a few years buying the Wellington network and selling it off a few years later - and physically did nothing with the network...now a chinese company owns it... and it will repeat itself again and again - prices per Kw will continue to increase to match the increased purchase prices of networks paid by successive transmission companies.
This was a well intentioned law, that will impact badly for those who look for long term tenancies. The reason is that a landlord has no knowledge of how long a tenancy might last and so must manage the cost to them by increasing the rent on a weekly basis based on the length of the expected tenure. Of course this means that the longer you rent the more you pay....I must ask whether this is the desired outcome? and if not, was it a foreseeable outcome from the policy Labour (the party of the people)? Were the economic purists insisting that rent cant increase beyond the market base, because people can only pay what they pay today...well they are fing wrong with that assumption. There are a large number of private landlords that do it themselves and of course there is no fee...do they rent out at ten dollars less, because there is no property manager - hell no. This is a really really bad thought out policy.
Lol I think Clark will be silent - remember her own little miss-step when she announced off the cuff that the government will buy the rail network...the value of shares went up 100% overnight - and us tax payers ended up with the bill.
I almost wonder whether this was thrown in, to divert us from the obvious and odious change..that in law, those who occupy (possession) will gain rights over property above those who own (pay for)...its not the first time that this game has been played.
Council does what it wishes...tourists will decide, and maybe it does make a difference - of course any cost is to business, not the council, so it is a perfect answer to solve a problem that exists only in ones head....interestingly there is no evidence to suggest harm from vape or even from a tourist having a quick cig on the road...but still the NZ Cancer society beats its drum...because it was asked for a opinion...and we get role modelling for children as the answer.
In the end of the day, all costs are passed on to the consumer, whether directly or indirectly. at least you knew what the direct charge was, now its in the rent?
All this noise has nothing to do with quality - it is simply that people are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the quality they desire and so make hard choices and accept a place that will have defects at a lower cost. The real bugbear is regulation that increases building costs and soon rental costs. landlords are going to have to pay more, take on more risk and will be more exposed to uninsurable events caused by tenants (i.e. allowing pets for instance) they will need to price those risks into rents - but having to pay more is not the answer tenants are looking for. Nothing in this world is free.
Sitting here as I type this, with three woolly tops, a beanie and two pairs of socks, watching my breath fog the space between me and my monitor.... I wonder, how cold can it be in Auckland. The kitchen door to the outside is open at the moment - Im airing the house out before I close up at 4pm.... raining outside, cold as a fridge inside....joked to flattie that I might jump in it to warm up. This old place is self ventilating at least...with the drafts rattling the windows and sweeping leaves under the door. Our 14 foot stud ceilings appear designed to help keep the top end of a giraffe warm...shame, I wish I was taller..or perhaps I could stand on a chair and warm up at least a little. Favorite pastime is to do the dishes by hand (lovely warm water) or cook or boil water on the stove (lovely gas fire)... but we get by. We okay. We not sick..and our cores are warm even if our hands are not. But hey I did not expect to be warm, never have, its always been cold in winter, tonight we huddle in the living room, close the doors and put on a single element of our radiant heater....a bottle of vino and some Netflex, take hot shower and a hottie to bed and well be as right as rain. The message is, deal with it, get over yourself.
I am getting quite tired of stories of housekeeping issues paraded as building issues - it is as if the building is automated and no actual work is required of the occupant -,here the mattress is something common, especially in a well ceiled place and with cold weather - all that body sweat and moisture from breathing overnight is sucked up into your mattress, you need to grap the mattress twice or three times a year, put in in the sun, get it real dry and youll be right.
interest rates are unlikely to move up in the foreseeable future. If they did the economy would hiccup, rollover and collapse into a coma pretty much immediately.
Yeah, but normally people rent in the best area they can afford but they cannot afford to buy in that area, so say your renting on the North Shore a $1.5 million dollar house, but could easily afford a first home Manukau or Waitakere for $800,000.....the stats here suggest that you wouldnt normally make that choice....in Wellington plenty of people cannot afford to live in town but buy their first homes out the Hutt or over in Porirua - you dont normally buy your first home in the area you rent..
Yeah okay it is political grandstanding by the Green parry. Take that policy through a few real stories and youll find it will become impossible to afford reasonable accommodation in many provincial centres, banks will refuse to finance rental property (as the risks will have increased dramatically) and so you get fewer more expensive rental properties...and add ti that the government must realise it is removing a persons right to enter into a contact arrangement of their personal choice.
Well its all good until you get to the plan about how to deal with anti-social behaviour - apparently the plan is for the offended party, be it other tenants or neighbours to call the landlord and for the landlord to give written notice to the tenant to modify their behaviour - thats it...and if the behaviour continues well, off to the Tribunal with you...of course, unless police have been involved and evidence is available the Tribunal will do nothing - it is a receipe for disaster and its actually going to start killing people...I imagine though we can televise the Tribunal hearings theyll be a real hoot - roll over Judge Judy..
Oh compromise..yeah like my experience, three from three. 1. $5600 in new carpets ruined with 13 stains from cat, 2,. another flat completely stuffed, with three cats pooing and weeing..so bad even after 12 months we can still smell it and agreed to replace carpets entirely, another $6,000 and 3. then our own faithful cat, 20 years old dear her, decided to poo and wee in our place. Its nothing to do with tenants and how careful they can be, its all another gamble with the animals they decide to keep..what damage is reasonable...what are the costs..a two week pet bond is unlikely to cut much out of a $5000 damage claim is it?
Well, when your just out of school, and at uni surrounded by people of like age and experience (or shall we say lack of it) its very easy to think you know everything.
Theres a not hope in hell were going to have kiwi running about our back yards....nice thought but totally overselling....as for being predator free...well...its a BHAG but one I doubt that is financially sustainable.
Hana KÅkÅ interpretation was a beautiful expression of the New Zealand culture. -or a complete cultural rip off and ugly and offensive distortion - it really depends on what side of the fence you choose to stand...whatever - clearly the children were disappointed - it would be a bit strange to expect their parents to lower their expectations - clearly theres a few in Nelson that have lost the reality plot...or too much pot?
Except where a landlord must judge at the beginning of a tenancy how long the tenancy is to last....ie will tenant be expected stay for a year. or longer ...it could be for twenty years? But at the start how can a landlord judge that to make a good decision?...they cannot and so some tenants will pay more, and perhaps twenty times more, than they do today. (A bad law with good intentions..is still a bad law)
Electric cars are here...more on the horizon within next 10 years the majority of new cars sold in NZ will be electric - where is the Governments generation capability plan?
This year has been a bad one. Theres a A type strain of influenza stalking the country that was not in the flu shot and tens of thousand have been affected by it. There are hospitals full of people with bronchitis and worse.
Its the Gillis, most of the locals live on Lombok and need to get back to their families to check on them, most of locals there do not live full time on the islands. not surprised, but if I had to be stuck anywhere, Gilli T is a good as place as any..
The Real Estate model is archaic and inefficient as a means to market and sell real estate. The industry is built on capturing vendors and putting up as many barriers of entry as possible against low cost providers and private sale. It is market protectionism which is why the commission structures from most agencies are almost identical. However It does not have to be this way, since the introduction of trademe (the largest independent on line marketing site for property in NZ) the game has changed. No more are vendors locked into industry owned glossy magazines, no more advertising in local paper.s. If you think agents are working 40 hours a week for those 4 weeks trying to sell your home, think again. Theyll might be in the office, but probably not actually working.... I would think 10 hours max in the first week, 3 hours in each of the following weeks, and maybe 4 hours in the last week.. In all I would say that for a four-five week programme total actual hours is something like 25.
Damn dangerous suggestions in the proposal document - basically tenants get to have as many pets as they like, let them pee and poo everywhere, annoy neighbours and upset other tenants, and cost the landlord heaps - and be liable possibly only for a carpet clean at the end of the tenancy...the proposal sucks.
Yep, its harder, lets face it ,after 40 youre less attractive, seen as more sedentary and the person youll be reporting to is more likely to be younger than you and will find the idea of managing more senior people unappleaing
LOL, wait a few years, the boomers will go to heaven or wherever and all the assets will remain...be sold, distributed and so flow on through the generations - they are hardly taking all the wealth with them.
Bert, it may have been an early intention of a protest but clearly that is not now the case - it is clearly an unproductive speculative investment with no underlying value
Interesting you sought the view of Josh Byers.... I can tell you PT has about 4600 trusts - designed to over come inheritance taxes. And given we have ripped up the gift duty law recently...it would be very easy just to make a gift to the kids before going to god? Inheritance taxes feed off the successful and help maintain the lifestyles of the unsuccessful...it hardly encourages families to create inter-generational wealth - that of course is the real way for younger generations to really benefit rather from having their parents inheritances heavily taxed to give to someone elses undeserving children.
The significant flaw in the living wage, is that as it is rolled significantly, the purchasing power of the additional funds will be eroded. Wealth you see is relative. If we all earn the same, either prices must be fixed or prices will rise. And of course our government cannot fix prices..so it is certain that any wage growth without a correspondent increase in productively in short time results in inflation - the poor will remain the poor and unless those just above the living wage get compensationary increases - theyll join the poor in short order. Even the government has a hand in this, given the number of outsourced workers are essentially funded directly from public funds. It is an unworkable and unacceptable solution. The government of course understands this - but they are into value signals more than real solutions these days, because they do not the capacity to drive real solutions in the marketplace. We are all going to loose. We need to be prepared for the worst.
Nope, actually the heater is a fixed heater supplied by the landlord - the place is 50sqm for gods sake...a shoe box, you could heat it using a P pipe lighter.
if you weaken the ability of a lender to recover their debts in the event a borrower defaults youll have a more risk adverse lending system that costs everyone more to ensure the banks get an appropriate return on that risk.
AH...so ,master plumbers are not testing but waiting for a test to be completed in Australia with imported taps there, different taps...than here...but putting Ministry on notice because......they want to protect their industry against cheaper imports?
It will not work because it does not answer the real problem... we have too much red tape...too many ideas on what should be built... it is almost that if you can afford to build a new home, then you are rich, and so shall deserve to suffer the full fury of all the extras councils and central government dream up. Governments cant even build affordable homes and sell at cost, to meet the affordable end of the market - at most they can build for households on 140K a year - so how the hell are the real people going to get a place for them? answer - they are not.
Thats okay...but what if you didnt have to pay..what if your total liability was nil? imagine the peace of mid for you,,and the angst for your landlord
Well, Ive been in insolvency since 1993 and all I can say is decisions made at management level, be it at director or lower tend to be the key reason an insolvency happens.. I have to say that 4 million is pretty pedestrian - you need to look back - into the late 90s and early 2000s plenty of businesses failed and for big money///much much bigger money - but research is hard I know. There tends to be no other single cause...management and the decisions made on strategic direction are the stem and root of it all. there is my free professional advice.
Not factoring inflation makes this tax simply theft and repugnant, as it proposes to tax people for the decreasing value of money, not for the increased value of an asset.
Does anyone remember when householders were given free power shares? From memory they were worth about $1,500 odd dollars...I recall retailers around the country rubbing their hands at the time, the endless TV adverts....almost everyone sold those shares and spent on TVs, DVD players or white ware or on consumer goods. Those shares today are worth a heck of a lot more, and add to that the dividends...if people converted those into more shares well, today the dividends would pay for the increase in your winter power bill.
Hmm...hey those pensioners and the generations of taxpayers before them built EVERYTHING the young get to enjoy the use of today without paying for it, including the means of getting to University and then to the departure lounge. At the point a child is educated and waiting for the flight to Australia - how much do you think NZ government and its taxpayers have invested in it? Hundred thousand plus...?
The cost of setting up a tenancy is a cost of offering the rental service. It will be taken into account when setting rents. If it is an extra cost, then I would expect it to effect the amount of rent paid.
nah, not hundreds of thousands more like 60=90K max I would think. I have seen homes built on ex garage plots before, theres a great example in Brooklyn opposite the new bus hub there.
Even better, you buy a place a for a million, spend 200,000 on it, hold it for 5 years, inflation running at 4% a year sell it for $1.4 million. Youll actually make no real profit but get taxed $133,000..the reason why they will not include the family home is simply because it is such an unfair and roughly and badly constructed piece of tax law, the effects from its application will be so manifestly unjust - it would result in the present governments parties imploding at the next election.
K? when is this? why would they panic? If our own government cannot build a house for less than 600k then id say we have a problem with the RMA, district planning and the Code... if you cannot solve those three, the problem will never be solved Id think.
Hey, interesting - Its a little bit like when Disneyland first opened in California, but in a Wellington context. Lester said...hes right this time - but take him literally - A little bit indeed...microscopic even! This convention centre was muted when Key was offering Government contributions towards the building of four convention centres...course now the moneys off the table its not really going to fly as a venue financially...as without steady revenue flows I cant see it being financeable.
The real answer to your question, is it depends on what your goals are and what his aspirations are, If your son wants to live in an apartment in town, to live the 20 something lifestyle...go out all night and party party party...I suggest that facilitating the purchase of an apartment may actually be counter productive if your goal for your son is security and wealth protection later on. In five to ten or less years your son may meet a girl want to get married and move from the city.... Its not uncommon for the apartment to be sold and very typically not for a great deal more than it was purchased for, Apartments especially on leasehold land do not hold their value well. Your son would be better off flatting or renting in town until such time he is ready and needs his own accommodation and in the meantime he and you can finance an investment property in the suburbs that might even present an opportunity to build on the back of. This would make a lot more sense especially if your son happens to have a live in girlfriend for a couple of years because, if they broke up she could claim an interest in the apartment as relationship property but she can not claim against a individual separate asset (the rental property) unless she could show that she had a hand in developing and financing that asset.
Sounds like a grand plan...kids learn a lot from watching their parents work...most will probably get bored watching mum or dad fluff about typing on Stuff all until home time...and wonder how they get paid for that.
Well, given modern life, most my mates are not getting married until their thirties, having spent every last cent prior to that travelling and well...drinking. Not surprising with delayed adulthood like behaviour hitting people now at 32 rather than 22, everyone is finding it a bit tough. Back in the day you started work at 15,16, 19 was considered late starting....now mid twenties is considered average....back in the day, mid twenties youd be a manager, youd have 7 years savings, be looking to getting married, and having kids.
"Tax Working Group plan for baches a wealth tax that will rob Kiwis of their dream",
The tax working group should be recommending taxing charities at the company rate.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
Well, yes new properties are being built, however they are mismatched to demand, simply you cannot build a $250K house with land anymore, and so the idea you can rent one at $300 a week..has well...left the building....it cannot happen. The issue we face IS regulation IS material costs IS land costs is LABOUR costs..it simply is too expensive to build anything, even with simple straightforward plans because, it is NOT in the interests of local authorities to create work for themselves.......things must change - at it starts with them....but they hate work.
Prime Minister's office admits mistake over Ardern's economic growth 'hint' claim
Hmmm....were you actually listening to Hosking? If you were, you cannot possibly believe your own comment.
Schoolyard bullies: Farmer says tourists and visitors dont understand farming
Ironically its all the visitors that are causing the most environmental damage to the Otago basin. All the bleating and moaning about farmers, but no thought - none - about the effect of tourism what effect it has on the environment - if people want to protect the natural environment they aught not to go and exploit it just for their tourist pleasure - but of course - they are selfish and self interested.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
A disingenuous article but it serves to highlight the core of the issue. The government makes a lot of noise about the symptoms - they would like us to think that is about quality - however they are silent about the real issue - because the real issue is about a perception of greed and it leads me to one conclusion - our hate affair with landlords has nothing to do with quality but everything to do with price... and so we have endless stories of swamps and mould and terrible landlords, but the root of the cause, the one that people really care about, it is not what they get but how much they pay for it ...and that is a problem directly at the feet of government - all of them, both National and Labour for following the path of a low waged economy but with huge and expensive regulatory regimes. That they refuse to change and that will continue to cost nzers because its too hard to simply unwind it.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
Headline reads like some shifty advertising banner...some places almost 50%....over FIVE years...perhaps it should read. It largely mirrors build costs and land prices. CHCH was especially expensive following the earthquake as people moved into rentals while their own homes were being built new or being repaired
Party for more than 100 teens at rented home angers owner
Soooo....who met the boy to hand over the keys?
Asbestos remediation cost spells the end for Christchurch housing units
Solo parent? okay wheres the kids? oh theyre 32?....well...
Cafe owners face going broke over councils ridiculous 12 chair limit
Common sense please councillors.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
no no, none thinks that CGT is going to do a thing...CGT is a response to envy.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
I think the problem is with how much you earn. that is what needs to change.
'KFC' test for tenants: Property managers asking for bank statements
Bindi Norwells further attempt to get some traction on the idea that only REINZ members should control the property management business - oh and it aught to be mandatory - that way Bindis members can charge what they like :) a story from a single thick property manager about seeing KFC on a bank statement is hardly evidence of an issue Bindi.
How a real estate agent gets sellers to 'meet the market'
Ah, these old chestnuts..I went to auction training as a real estate agent - the problem with auctions is real estate agents still largely use the following method.1. buy the listing by siding up and supporting the vendors inflated view of the propertys value. This is changed somewhat recently as agents are required to complete a comparable sales analysis and present it. What is written is not always what is said, and real estate agents will tend not get a listing if they start off with a disagreement about price. 2. Once vendor locked in on a Auction progamme, the agent embarks on a program of reconditioning the vendor over a four to five week period with negative feedback from potential purchasers to push down the vendors expectations (the worse feedback the better)3 After four or five weeks of bad news from the agent - and once in the auction room, the market is left to do what it does naturally....the vendor at this point will have made a considerable investment in advertising and also incurs auctioneers fees.. and normally are feeling sick, totally disillusioned and a bit peed off with the process. All this puts pressure on the vendor to sell at a price set on auction day ( and if it does not hit reserve - pressure goes on vendors to make a really big decision at the drop of a hat right there and then (no cooling down period). The agent will explain that all the potential buyers for the vendors property are at right now in the room and the market has determined the sale price. In auction training they explain this is the most successful method to guarantee a sales commission.Never ask an agent whether you should sell, theyll always say sell NOW. They want your money!!
Government vows to close public service gender pay gap
Ha! with this Genter is effectively ordering the feminisation of the public service - because at LEAST 50% of senior leadership must be woman...what happens if its more than 50%? how is that representative of the population it serves? how does that fly past the UN basics human rights? How many men does Genter propose to selectively discriminate against by forcing them out or closing off pathways to career progression? As for the equal pay for same role for new starts. It happens today. There is no discrimination based on gender.
Major's solution to the country's housing crisis - think tiny
Great job Major! I think these sort of homes would work well in small park like settings. Big problem will be cost of land, consents and development contributions and connection to services. If govt seek a range of social housing solutions they should consider this option
Explainer: Why Govt employees want to take strike action
Well, I am not surprised. Years of talk of the need to create the low wage economy and look what we got...the warehouse is everyones go to place, and even visiting the cheapest supermarket with the cheapest goods to fill the cupboard each week is a struggle...We did not end up with a low wage economy - NO WAY we ended up with a split economy where we have a large middle and lower class sector getting paid less but everyone else is unaffected.....prices have not dropped - its kind of like a trickle-up. The poor have no option put to just keep buying crappier, buying less, buying smaller, or going without, so government has had to import 70,000 people a year and allow tourists to flood in just to keep the domestic spending up. Public Sector performance pay structures are shockers, they are unfair, serve only the employer, and certainly have nothing to do with rewarding performance... year after year as a manager I was told by my manager to ensure I do not mark anyone in my team more than 3 out of 5, because the CEO was not in the mood to budget for wage increases. Another year for 500 staff, we had only 100K worth of bonuses available, no increase for 5 years (not even an inflation adjustment). After 5 years we were offered 3% but only if we exchanged this for reduced working conditions and promised to work another 2.5 hours a week! (6.25% a week more!!) I noted that moderation takes care of all performance by leveling everyone out ensuring hard work is not rewarded. I have seen our pay bands increase each year, but no ones salary is actually adjusted to follow it, I have seen the lions share distributed to senior leaders and a few favorites leaving everyday hard workers, who spend hundreds of hours a year working for free go unrecognized. I have seen our CEOs annual pay increase exceed the entire combined annual salaries of two of our junior staff....and this was at a time the organisation was not performing. Its a wreck, it is not fair, it is I think tantamount to a breach of being GOOD EMPLOYERS. The old core public service values have gone replaced by greed, political infighting and new age business school bullsh.t, where knowing that staff feel valued is no longer important.
Trying to house a family of nine in Aucklands rental market
Thanks for sharing. All I can add is we all have choices, some we make have consequences and others are choices we choose to ignore.First off, no one gets to choose their neighbors, I own my place and I dont get a say who lives next door, whether they are a nice family or a P-lab loving gang. I just dont have a say. I can choose to move, of course that means selling up and a great expense and inconvenience to me, but thats life I guess.My bet is you receive significant taxpayer support for your lifestyle and although its not flash, I can damn well bet your better housed and fed than I and Ive worked everyday for 30 years. If you are finding $600.00 a struggle then mu guess is you have a modest income for such a large family. People below recommend moving to a cheaper location - Hamilton, the far north, Hawkes Bay, even Christchurch...hell you could, but would saving say 150.00 a week really make a difference with a family of nine? large families are normally pretty cost effective in terms of a per capita spend but I think the issue is youre expecting your choices to have a large family trump your ability to live a lifestyle that you desire (even if it is modest). And unfortunately life is not made that way. Whether your renting or owning you are a sitting duck...as we all are for petrol and food prices and whatever new taxes the government dreams up...we are locked in, and part of the economic machine.
From a life of privilege to being 'homeless' in Wanaka
hey....contact Exhibitions Art Gallery in wellington.... they are always interested in new talented artists...with a great back story....
'Why was Mum allowed to rack up a $12,000 bill?'
Well, let us suppose that the lady was incapable, otherwise wed have to agree that 62 is very old indeed which I find very hard to accept...i was expecting 82 not 62. normally wed say such a person is quite young indeed, and certainly with capacity...let us then work back from that the number of years that it takes to rack up a 12,000 bill.....so is this elderly lady was incapable in her late 50s? I dont buy it - not at all. Id imagine its just a family left with a bill and finding it difficult to accept the blame is with the person they love...and thats okay.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
Never heard of an exit fee. Is it something to do with exiting early?
Wellington bus drivers tell councillors they're tired, and it's a risk to public safety
So maybe Regional Council reps will meet in a week or so with the bus companies and have a chat about it! however because Council have entered into an agreement that will probably not allow it to interfere with the running of the bus companies in any meaningful way well have to wait for a few accidents and a couple of deaths before Council can start putting pressure using the service standards default provisions.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
Everyone wants the solution, not one wants to pay for it....same old game, replayed generations on generations!
Chelsea Manning granted special direction to apply for visa
Australia wants to show the world how it supports US government, NZ wants to show the world how contrary we are.
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
Well where to start with this...1) there is no feasible method to insure for damages2) there is no feasible method to otherwise recover losses..3) there is no feasible way to control pets habits.so I say no.
Hotel oversupply looming warns Horwath
Lol...Howath is not exactly an independent source, look there is a real issue of value for money with hotels in NZ, I have stayed in some very averagely priced hotels all over the world and 95% of them would knock the socks off our best offerings every time. Our hotels, especially the chains, are sleeper boxes in the main, cheap, small and lacking in high quality services - many cant even be bothered to update their rooms every 20 years. Yet charge like they are four star. NZ needs to understand that it has an accommodation crises and I would think that the best solution is a wide range of quality choices and experiences for a reasonable rate.
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
Okay, how about no fences to allow little kids to run on to the road, how about people with pet allergies trying to find a clean place to live, how about no insurance against pet pee, how about the fact a tenant is mostly incapable of righting damage? How about predator free NZ - theres a lot to be said for bad ideas. heres five.
Wellington's faltering new bus network gets rethink after just three weeks
I dont think we should panic Ms Donaldson...perhaps thats for you to do....I really love waiting at the Hataitai bus stop for twenty minutes with fifty others waving at the 31x expresses thunder pass with breezy and comfy dozen passengers, the 2s from Kilbirnie packed to gunnels like a Mumbai train in rush hour...the rare 35 sometimes stops to let us squish in and stand...sometimes..
I've found the solution to the housing crisis, and it's been here all along
ah okay...someones dreaming and lacking scale - so all we need to do is repeat the exercise another 50,000 times and wed have gone half way into fixing this problem....I ask you. if the government is not able to complete a single kiwibuild home yet - still waiting for no 1 there!! ...what are the changes of being able to build Marae style community housing for 100,000 families?....and for no profit? apparently financed by using whose money exactly? and on whose land? Dreamer. Hey theres plenty of free land on the moon....or how about the great western Australian dessert?
Capital gains tax would increase house prices, economic modelling suggests
Well, think of it this way... if a CGT has an down ward effect on the value of investment property, it cant help but also effect owner occupied housing - after all both types appeal to the same market. What you get at best, should the policy work, are terrible outcomes for todays owner occupiers, and not much better for the poor souls to seek to enter into the market to watch their investment in their own home stagnate. Peoples views are polarised between those who own and those who aspire to own, if property values are depressed or shrinking, whose going to want to put their cash in a sinking market - no one.... so cant see any benefit to NZer here, its a government engineered depression.
Capital gains tax would increase house prices, economic modelling suggests
which is why to be fair, they take no account of improvements or capital gain derived from currency losing its value (which currency invariably does) it is a blunt and awful tool meant not to be fairly applied but to be seen to be sold as fair to arrive at a result meeting the governments social policy. Simply put - the government wants the assets of the middle class to finance the stuff the government cannot afford to look after the poor, until such time as they exhaust it
Joel Maxwell: Kaua e pukuriri ki te reo - don't be angry at the language
Hey I am not angry about the language, I am angry about people who think they can make it mandatory.
Being cold and rationing heating is now normal in New Zealand
Because we are told to treat energy as if it is a limited exhaustible resource we are blinded by the truth. The truth being we can build as much capacity as we want and supply cheaper Kw. But in the industry there is little incentive to build more large scaled generation capacity, because it will depress the price per Kw, and that is not good for generators business. Increasing energy scarcity, increases the value of a Kw, and so generators will make more money from doing nothing new which is a good strategy as there is little risk in doing nothing and the surplus profits can be paid out in dividends rather than into building more infrastructure. The government who effectively owns the generators seems to have adopted this strategy and uses propaganda to sell the idea of energy scarcity as the new normal - this forces the population into carrying out expensive remedial works to help levitate the energy shortfall, so the generators can continue to do nothing but increase prices. The government is passing the costs of doing nothing on to us, all the while pocketing the dividends from the generators. It knows that in the long term the price per Kw will continue to climb because it has a grip on the supply. Not one minister has suggested generator capacity is the problem and given that the government owns the generators - do we really have to wonder why? The second problem with generation is network related. Networks were built and owned by the populations they served. Mostly council owned. Many have been sold to private international interests and all are monopoly suppliers with each sale of a network the inflated value paid increases the cost of transmission. The model serves to build value for the companies that own generators so they can sell them later for capital gain. TransAlta was a good example they made hundreds of millions tax free in a few years buying the Wellington network and selling it off a few years later - and physically did nothing with the network...now a chinese company owns it... and it will repeat itself again and again - prices per Kw will continue to increase to match the increased purchase prices of networks paid by successive transmission companies.
Women of Influence Forum: Who else is sick of inspirational women?
Clearly this is a lovely story about how you love hearing about inspirational women. yay for you.
Tenancy fees for landlords replace banned letting fees
This was a well intentioned law, that will impact badly for those who look for long term tenancies. The reason is that a landlord has no knowledge of how long a tenancy might last and so must manage the cost to them by increasing the rent on a weekly basis based on the length of the expected tenure. Of course this means that the longer you rent the more you pay....I must ask whether this is the desired outcome? and if not, was it a foreseeable outcome from the policy Labour (the party of the people)? Were the economic purists insisting that rent cant increase beyond the market base, because people can only pay what they pay today...well they are fing wrong with that assumption. There are a large number of private landlords that do it themselves and of course there is no fee...do they rent out at ten dollars less, because there is no property manager - hell no. This is a really really bad thought out policy.
Prime Minister's office admits mistake over Ardern's economic growth 'hint' claim
Lol I think Clark will be silent - remember her own little miss-step when she announced off the cuff that the government will buy the rail network...the value of shares went up 100% overnight - and us tax payers ended up with the bill.
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
I almost wonder whether this was thrown in, to divert us from the obvious and odious change..that in law, those who occupy (possession) will gain rights over property above those who own (pay for)...its not the first time that this game has been played.
Busy Canterbury tourist village trialling smoking ban
Council does what it wishes...tourists will decide, and maybe it does make a difference - of course any cost is to business, not the council, so it is a perfect answer to solve a problem that exists only in ones head....interestingly there is no evidence to suggest harm from vape or even from a tourist having a quick cig on the road...but still the NZ Cancer society beats its drum...because it was asked for a opinion...and we get role modelling for children as the answer.
Tenancy fees for landlords replace banned letting fees
In the end of the day, all costs are passed on to the consumer, whether directly or indirectly. at least you knew what the direct charge was, now its in the rent?
Landlords: How tough do they have it, really?
All this noise has nothing to do with quality - it is simply that people are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the quality they desire and so make hard choices and accept a place that will have defects at a lower cost. The real bugbear is regulation that increases building costs and soon rental costs. landlords are going to have to pay more, take on more risk and will be more exposed to uninsurable events caused by tenants (i.e. allowing pets for instance) they will need to price those risks into rents - but having to pay more is not the answer tenants are looking for. Nothing in this world is free.
Greens want a mandatory rental WOF, but National says it will force people into sleeping in cars
Yeah, so once the landlord has spend thousands on new appliances and stuff, itll be the perfect time to sell eh.
Mum worries about keeping her four kids warm
Sitting here as I type this, with three woolly tops, a beanie and two pairs of socks, watching my breath fog the space between me and my monitor.... I wonder, how cold can it be in Auckland. The kitchen door to the outside is open at the moment - Im airing the house out before I close up at 4pm.... raining outside, cold as a fridge inside....joked to flattie that I might jump in it to warm up. This old place is self ventilating at least...with the drafts rattling the windows and sweeping leaves under the door. Our 14 foot stud ceilings appear designed to help keep the top end of a giraffe warm...shame, I wish I was taller..or perhaps I could stand on a chair and warm up at least a little. Favorite pastime is to do the dishes by hand (lovely warm water) or cook or boil water on the stove (lovely gas fire)... but we get by. We okay. We not sick..and our cores are warm even if our hands are not. But hey I did not expect to be warm, never have, its always been cold in winter, tonight we huddle in the living room, close the doors and put on a single element of our radiant heater....a bottle of vino and some Netflex, take hot shower and a hottie to bed and well be as right as rain. The message is, deal with it, get over yourself.
This is what it takes to get on the property ladder in Auckland
Thats right, moving is perfectly easy...theres even companies around to help out. The hard bit is actually being brave enough to make that call.
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
I dont think even anyone is allowed to keep Gareth Morgans! youd better ask wife first!
Social housing provider bubble wraps windows after tenant complains of cold
I am getting quite tired of stories of housekeeping issues paraded as building issues - it is as if the building is automated and no actual work is required of the occupant -,here the mattress is something common, especially in a well ceiled place and with cold weather - all that body sweat and moisture from breathing overnight is sucked up into your mattress, you need to grap the mattress twice or three times a year, put in in the sun, get it real dry and youll be right.
This is what it takes to get on the property ladder in Auckland
interest rates are unlikely to move up in the foreseeable future. If they did the economy would hiccup, rollover and collapse into a coma pretty much immediately.
Capital gains tax valuation day will cost Kiwi businesses billions of dollars
The whole idea is just weird. Hate to say it but Australias looking pretty good at the moment.
Housing affordability gets worse - especially in Auckland
Yeah, but normally people rent in the best area they can afford but they cannot afford to buy in that area, so say your renting on the North Shore a $1.5 million dollar house, but could easily afford a first home Manukau or Waitakere for $800,000.....the stats here suggest that you wouldnt normally make that choice....in Wellington plenty of people cannot afford to live in town but buy their first homes out the Hutt or over in Porirua - you dont normally buy your first home in the area you rent..
Greens want a mandatory rental WOF, but National says it will force people into sleeping in cars
Yeah okay it is political grandstanding by the Green parry. Take that policy through a few real stories and youll find it will become impossible to afford reasonable accommodation in many provincial centres, banks will refuse to finance rental property (as the risks will have increased dramatically) and so you get fewer more expensive rental properties...and add ti that the government must realise it is removing a persons right to enter into a contact arrangement of their personal choice.
Long-time renter calls for greater security in rental law overhaul
Well its all good until you get to the plan about how to deal with anti-social behaviour - apparently the plan is for the offended party, be it other tenants or neighbours to call the landlord and for the landlord to give written notice to the tenant to modify their behaviour - thats it...and if the behaviour continues well, off to the Tribunal with you...of course, unless police have been involved and evidence is available the Tribunal will do nothing - it is a receipe for disaster and its actually going to start killing people...I imagine though we can televise the Tribunal hearings theyll be a real hoot - roll over Judge Judy..
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
Oh compromise..yeah like my experience, three from three. 1. $5600 in new carpets ruined with 13 stains from cat, 2,. another flat completely stuffed, with three cats pooing and weeing..so bad even after 12 months we can still smell it and agreed to replace carpets entirely, another $6,000 and 3. then our own faithful cat, 20 years old dear her, decided to poo and wee in our place. Its nothing to do with tenants and how careful they can be, its all another gamble with the animals they decide to keep..what damage is reasonable...what are the costs..a two week pet bond is unlikely to cut much out of a $5000 damage claim is it?
New Zealand dropped from Lonely Planets top countries list
no one travels 12 thousand miles to visit a bird.
Nothing is sacred when it comes to identifying Auckland's wasted spaces
Well, when your just out of school, and at uni surrounded by people of like age and experience (or shall we say lack of it) its very easy to think you know everything.
Primary school teachers and principals vote to strike across country
ah...you really have no idea eh.
Heres where rents have been rising fastest
yes that is harder for sure. almost finding unicorns would be easier!
$3.2m committed to help make Wellington predator free
Theres a not hope in hell were going to have kiwi running about our back yards....nice thought but totally overselling....as for being predator free...well...its a BHAG but one I doubt that is financially sustainable.
Hana KÅkÅ might have worked with a bit more warning
Hana KÅkÅ interpretation was a beautiful expression of the New Zealand culture. -or a complete cultural rip off and ugly and offensive distortion - it really depends on what side of the fence you choose to stand...whatever - clearly the children were disappointed - it would be a bit strange to expect their parents to lower their expectations - clearly theres a few in Nelson that have lost the reality plot...or too much pot?
Tenancy fees for landlords replace banned letting fees
Except where a landlord must judge at the beginning of a tenancy how long the tenancy is to last....ie will tenant be expected stay for a year. or longer ...it could be for twenty years? But at the start how can a landlord judge that to make a good decision?...they cannot and so some tenants will pay more, and perhaps twenty times more, than they do today. (A bad law with good intentions..is still a bad law)
Our power bill is $70 - and we don't go without
Electric cars are here...more on the horizon within next 10 years the majority of new cars sold in NZ will be electric - where is the Governments generation capability plan?
Baby living at Auckland 'swamp house' in intensive care
This year has been a bad one. Theres a A type strain of influenza stalking the country that was not in the flu shot and tens of thousand have been affected by it. There are hospitals full of people with bronchitis and worse.
Cryptocurrency's 80 per cent plunge now looks worse than dot-com crash
Theres nothing wrong with blockchain, but blockchain technology is quite a separate matter from gambling your money on cryto
Greens want a mandatory rental WOF, but National says it will force people into sleeping in cars
Hmmm...only one small problem...they do not have the legislative ability to do so..
Primary school teachers and principals vote to strike across country
None..really? you might be underestimating it....just a little bit
People no longer want to live in fortress-like gated retirement villages
awesome sales pitch...save on the cost of fencing and sell it as a feature!
'The chaos was so crazy': Kiwis describe disturbing scenes after Lombok quakes
Its the Gillis, most of the locals live on Lombok and need to get back to their families to check on them, most of locals there do not live full time on the islands. not surprised, but if I had to be stuck anywhere, Gilli T is a good as place as any..
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
No one can tell what a tenants dog can do....no one has that much control over the pet
Capital gains tax would increase house prices, economic modelling suggests
yeah nah.
How are real estate agents paid?
The Real Estate model is archaic and inefficient as a means to market and sell real estate. The industry is built on capturing vendors and putting up as many barriers of entry as possible against low cost providers and private sale. It is market protectionism which is why the commission structures from most agencies are almost identical. However It does not have to be this way, since the introduction of trademe (the largest independent on line marketing site for property in NZ) the game has changed. No more are vendors locked into industry owned glossy magazines, no more advertising in local paper.s. If you think agents are working 40 hours a week for those 4 weeks trying to sell your home, think again. Theyll might be in the office, but probably not actually working.... I would think 10 hours max in the first week, 3 hours in each of the following weeks, and maybe 4 hours in the last week.. In all I would say that for a four-five week programme total actual hours is something like 25.
Pet or property: 'Good quality tenants have good quality pets'
Damn dangerous suggestions in the proposal document - basically tenants get to have as many pets as they like, let them pee and poo everywhere, annoy neighbours and upset other tenants, and cost the landlord heaps - and be liable possibly only for a carpet clean at the end of the tenancy...the proposal sucks.
Jobs warning to over 45s - ageism is alive and well
Yep, its harder, lets face it ,after 40 youre less attractive, seen as more sedentary and the person youll be reporting to is more likely to be younger than you and will find the idea of managing more senior people unappleaing
This is what it takes to get on the property ladder in Auckland
LOL, wait a few years, the boomers will go to heaven or wherever and all the assets will remain...be sold, distributed and so flow on through the generations - they are hardly taking all the wealth with them.
Cryptocurrency's 80 per cent plunge now looks worse than dot-com crash
Bert, it may have been an early intention of a protest but clearly that is not now the case - it is clearly an unproductive speculative investment with no underlying value
Social housing provider bubble wraps windows after tenant complains of cold
oh really...thats totally okay but please explain
Inheritance tax good economics, and the politics may be better than they seem
Interesting you sought the view of Josh Byers.... I can tell you PT has about 4600 trusts - designed to over come inheritance taxes. And given we have ripped up the gift duty law recently...it would be very easy just to make a gift to the kids before going to god? Inheritance taxes feed off the successful and help maintain the lifestyles of the unsuccessful...it hardly encourages families to create inter-generational wealth - that of course is the real way for younger generations to really benefit rather from having their parents inheritances heavily taxed to give to someone elses undeserving children.
Party for more than 100 teens at rented home angers owner
Youre talking rubbish. Holiday home lets are a permitted activity under the district plan.
"Whether the living wage can deliver depends on where in New Zealand you live
The significant flaw in the living wage, is that as it is rolled significantly, the purchasing power of the additional funds will be eroded. Wealth you see is relative. If we all earn the same, either prices must be fixed or prices will rise. And of course our government cannot fix prices..so it is certain that any wage growth without a correspondent increase in productively in short time results in inflation - the poor will remain the poor and unless those just above the living wage get compensationary increases - theyll join the poor in short order. Even the government has a hand in this, given the number of outsourced workers are essentially funded directly from public funds. It is an unworkable and unacceptable solution. The government of course understands this - but they are into value signals more than real solutions these days, because they do not the capacity to drive real solutions in the marketplace. We are all going to loose. We need to be prepared for the worst.
Social housing provider bubble wraps windows after tenant complains of cold
Nope, actually the heater is a fixed heater supplied by the landlord - the place is 50sqm for gods sake...a shoe box, you could heat it using a P pipe lighter.
Construction firm's liquidation leaves a trail of misery and questions
if you weaken the ability of a lender to recover their debts in the event a borrower defaults youll have a more risk adverse lending system that costs everyone more to ensure the banks get an appropriate return on that risk.
Plumbers raise flag over lead contamination in drinking water from dodgy taps
AH...so ,master plumbers are not testing but waiting for a test to be completed in Australia with imported taps there, different taps...than here...but putting Ministry on notice because......they want to protect their industry against cheaper imports?
KiwiBuild will benefit the few, not the many: Economist
It will not work because it does not answer the real problem... we have too much red tape...too many ideas on what should be built... it is almost that if you can afford to build a new home, then you are rich, and so shall deserve to suffer the full fury of all the extras councils and central government dream up. Governments cant even build affordable homes and sell at cost, to meet the affordable end of the market - at most they can build for households on 140K a year - so how the hell are the real people going to get a place for them? answer - they are not.
Cats could benefit from rental law change while dogs still lose out
Thats okay...but what if you didnt have to pay..what if your total liability was nil? imagine the peace of mid for you,,and the angst for your landlord
Liquidator tallies Maven Interiors debt at $4m
Well, Ive been in insolvency since 1993 and all I can say is decisions made at management level, be it at director or lower tend to be the key reason an insolvency happens.. I have to say that 4 million is pretty pedestrian - you need to look back - into the late 90s and early 2000s plenty of businesses failed and for big money///much much bigger money - but research is hard I know. There tends to be no other single cause...management and the decisions made on strategic direction are the stem and root of it all. there is my free professional advice.
How a capital gains tax could affect you
Not factoring inflation makes this tax simply theft and repugnant, as it proposes to tax people for the decreasing value of money, not for the increased value of an asset.
Dave Armstrong: It could be a long time in the cold for Wellington council's bus culprits
Well, if you think about it Dave, it might take 6 months, but at least summer encompasses that period so I doubt itll be cold
Mum worries about keeping her four kids warm
Does anyone remember when householders were given free power shares? From memory they were worth about $1,500 odd dollars...I recall retailers around the country rubbing their hands at the time, the endless TV adverts....almost everyone sold those shares and spent on TVs, DVD players or white ware or on consumer goods. Those shares today are worth a heck of a lot more, and add to that the dividends...if people converted those into more shares well, today the dividends would pay for the increase in your winter power bill.
I've found the solution to the housing crisis, and it's been here all along
1 that...and its technology that eats away at labour
Greens want a mandatory rental WOF, but National says it will force people into sleeping in cars
No...you need to understand that theres still 70,000 new NZers arrive each year. Where do you think they will live.
Inland Revenue loses track of thousands of Kiwi student loan debtors in Australia
Hmm...hey those pensioners and the generations of taxpayers before them built EVERYTHING the young get to enjoy the use of today without paying for it, including the means of getting to University and then to the departure lounge. At the point a child is educated and waiting for the flight to Australia - how much do you think NZ government and its taxpayers have invested in it? Hundred thousand plus...?
Greens want a mandatory rental WOF, but National says it will force people into sleeping in cars
Yes you are right on that point - labour will take away your choice ti rent something not to their letting standard
This is what it takes to get on the property ladder in Auckland
Well, you have them of course.
Tenancy fees for landlords replace banned letting fees
The cost of setting up a tenancy is a cost of offering the rental service. It will be taken into account when setting rents. If it is an extra cost, then I would expect it to effect the amount of rent paid.
Run-down Wellington garage sold for 'well in excess' of $50,000
nah, not hundreds of thousands more like 60=90K max I would think. I have seen homes built on ex garage plots before, theres a great example in Brooklyn opposite the new bus hub there.
How a capital gains tax could affect you
Even better, you buy a place a for a million, spend 200,000 on it, hold it for 5 years, inflation running at 4% a year sell it for $1.4 million. Youll actually make no real profit but get taxed $133,000..the reason why they will not include the family home is simply because it is such an unfair and roughly and badly constructed piece of tax law, the effects from its application will be so manifestly unjust - it would result in the present governments parties imploding at the next election.
KiwiBuild will benefit the few, not the many: Economist
K? when is this? why would they panic? If our own government cannot build a house for less than 600k then id say we have a problem with the RMA, district planning and the Code... if you cannot solve those three, the problem will never be solved Id think.
Landlords: How tough do they have it, really?
but landlords cant sell a bit of the house while tenants are living in it to pay for the improvements - it has to come from income.
Director's cut: how Sir Peter Jackson's movie museum deal with Wellington's council collapsed
Hey, interesting - Its a little bit like when Disneyland first opened in California, but in a Wellington context. Lester said...hes right this time - but take him literally - A little bit indeed...microscopic even! This convention centre was muted when Key was offering Government contributions towards the building of four convention centres...course now the moneys off the table its not really going to fly as a venue financially...as without steady revenue flows I cant see it being financeable.
Long-time renter calls for greater security in rental law overhaul
...and thats why I wouldnt ever sell you my house, or anything for that matter (apart from my car) for what I paid for it ten years ago...
Should we buy an apartment or a house?
The real answer to your question, is it depends on what your goals are and what his aspirations are, If your son wants to live in an apartment in town, to live the 20 something lifestyle...go out all night and party party party...I suggest that facilitating the purchase of an apartment may actually be counter productive if your goal for your son is security and wealth protection later on. In five to ten or less years your son may meet a girl want to get married and move from the city.... Its not uncommon for the apartment to be sold and very typically not for a great deal more than it was purchased for, Apartments especially on leasehold land do not hold their value well. Your son would be better off flatting or renting in town until such time he is ready and needs his own accommodation and in the meantime he and you can finance an investment property in the suburbs that might even present an opportunity to build on the back of. This would make a lot more sense especially if your son happens to have a live in girlfriend for a couple of years because, if they broke up she could claim an interest in the apartment as relationship property but she can not claim against a individual separate asset (the rental property) unless she could show that she had a hand in developing and financing that asset.
Teachers' strike means bring-your-child-to-work day for many
Sounds like a grand plan...kids learn a lot from watching their parents work...most will probably get bored watching mum or dad fluff about typing on Stuff all until home time...and wonder how they get paid for that.
Social housing provider bubble wraps windows after tenant complains of cold
no one wants to take ownership. no-one...somehow the world happened to them..and its all so unfair....
This is what it takes to get on the property ladder in Auckland
Well, given modern life, most my mates are not getting married until their thirties, having spent every last cent prior to that travelling and well...drinking. Not surprising with delayed adulthood like behaviour hitting people now at 32 rather than 22, everyone is finding it a bit tough. Back in the day you started work at 15,16, 19 was considered late starting....now mid twenties is considered average....back in the day, mid twenties youd be a manager, youd have 7 years savings, be looking to getting married, and having kids.