The shows back on and fans welcome
Managing your own properties might mean a small weekly saving, but you risk a much bigger bill in fines and heartache, says one investor. Gill South finds out more.
America’s Cup sailing will resume on Wednesday, while cricket, netball and rugby can finally put tickets on sale for their big events tomorrow.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement yesterday of a shift in Covid-19 alert levels (Auckland from 3 to
2, and the rest of New Zealand from 2 to 1) as of 6am tomorrow was welcomed around the country.
Race one of the America’s Cup match between Team New Zealand and Italy’s Luna Rossa will be sailed off Auckland on Wednesday, but without crowds under level 2.
In Wellington, tickets went on sale almost immediately for tomorrow’s cricket double-header at Sky Stadium, with the Black Caps facing Australia at noon and the White Ferns meeting England at
4pm. The sides were playing behind closed doors yesterday, as they did on Wednesday.
In Christchurch the Silver Ferns will have fans at Horncastle Arena for the fourth and final Constellation Cup test tomorrow, after the first two were closed to the paying public, as today’s third test will be.
Also in Christchurch, the defending Super Rugby Aotearoa champions the Crusaders will have fans at Orangetheory Stadium when they host the Hurricanes tomorrow, a match that was shifted back a day due to the alert level.
A big day on the racing calendar – Derby Day at Ellerslie in Auckland, of which the highlight is the New Zealand Derby – will also go ahead, albeit without crowds.
The America’s Cup will start on
Wednesday, with the first two of up to 13 races between Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa, but with restricted crowd numbers on Auckland’s waterfront. Both the defender and challenger had previously agreed to the Wednesday start providing Auckland was moved out of Covid-19 alert level 3.
Two races a day are scheduled on Wednesday, Friday, and through the weekend to Monday at least, with Sunday being the earliest date for one team to secure the seven wins needed for victory.
New Zealand Cricket confirmed tomorrow’s doubleheader would be open to the public at the 30,000-capacity Sky Stadium.
NZC had been relatively fortunate in terms of alert levels this season, with West Indies and Pakistan touring and playing with no crowd restrictions.
Yesterday’s matches were initially set for Auckland’s Eden Park and tomorrow’s for Bay Oval in Tauranga, but were both moved to the capital at the request of the Australian team, so they could fly out of Wellington.
NZC chief executive David White said the locked stadiums on Wednesday and yesterday cost it an estimated $1.4 million in gate takings, or 56,000 fans who were expected in Wellington and Auckland.
The easing of alert levels was welcome news for the Crusaders, who have had their fingers crossed NZ Rugby’s decision to push their home-opener against the Hurricanes back a day would pay off. Now, they can open the Orangetheory Stadium gates to fans, generating much needed revenue for the reigning champions.
Aphone call from a tenant with a burst boiler is something many property investors are all too familiar with. But as the Government adds more regulations to landlords’ responsibilities, growing numbers are turning to property managers, rather than doing it themselves.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand spokeswoman Dee Crooks says, anecdotally, there’s been a rise in people using property managers due to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 updating rental regulations.
‘‘Also, since Covid-19, people have said they want to be able to enjoy their weekends – and they’re happy to pay,’’ she says.
Landlords can be up for penalties if they don’t get things right in this environment. ‘‘Paying a property manager is better than paying a fine. It’s about having the ambulance at the top of the cliff,’’ she says.
The move to property managers follows the trend in other countries. New Zealand is behind Australia, which has had more processes and procedures for longer, says Allan Hartley, sales manager at Quinovic Johnsonville.
Sharon Cullwick, executive officer of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation, is seeing new investors automatically going to property managers. She says around 40 per cent of her membership use them.
If you have one to two properties, and you have a fulltime job, it makes sense to outsource, she says. Healthy Homes standards are a big challenge for real estate investors. A lot of people don’t know what they need to do, she says.
Having a property manager doesn’t remove your responsibilities, she adds. Landlords still have to make sure they’re ‘‘managing the manager’’, and keeping abreast of new laws.
A property investor who has tried self-managing and outsourcing
Real estate blogger and property investor Andrew Duncan has
tried both – and he’ll never go back.
‘‘It’s the work involved. You might think you want to save $60 a week, but then there’s the cleaning, the listings online, the logistics, let alone the fines, if you don’t have the right information,’’ he says.
Choosing tenants was one of
the hardest parts, he found.
‘‘When there are 20 applications for a property, it’s heartbreaking to say no to young couples moving in together for the first time, or people with a baby on the way, and you can only pick one.
‘‘A good property manager is worth their absolute weight in
gold,’’ says Duncan, who uses Lynette Sletcher from Simply Rentals in Wellington.
The property investor also likes the network of builders and tradespeople his property manager has.
‘‘For most normal people, if you call a builder, they’ll say they can do it in six months. With a property manager, they’ll say to the builder, ‘I’ve got a small job, can you come and fix it’, and because you’re giving them regular work, they’ll come and do it,’’ says Duncan. ‘‘It makes a monumental difference.’’
How much property managers cost and how to choose one
Most property managers will charge between 7 and 10 per cent of the rent and there may well be one-off fees on top of that amount – $30 for doing house inspections every three months, for instance, which many insurers require.
Quinovic’s Allan Hartley, who is seeing a ‘‘remarkable increase’’ of homeowners turned landlords, says: ‘‘Property management has almost become like insurance, where you pay $50 a week more or less on the property and then you have someone fulltime looking after it,’’ he says.
If you opt to manage the property yourself to make the numbers on the homework, ‘‘you’ve bought yourself a job as a part-time property manager’’, he says.
A lot of tenants are not comfortable dealing direct with property owners, he says. They have no idea what they’ll be like as a landlord.
Hartley says for the relationship to work well, the landlord has to be responsive to calls from their property managers.
Not all property managers are the same
There is a range of property management firms to choose from, not all work to the same standards, so property investors should do their due diligence.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand has been campaigning for more than 10 years on raising the standards of property managers who are unregulated in New Zealand and it’s hopeful the Government will move on this in the coming months.
Cullwick says she runs her first meeting with a property manager like a job interview – she’ll go into the office and see how organised they are.
Make sure that the property manager has a trust account that gets independently audited, she says.
In his case, Duncan went for a smaller property manager because he likes being on a first-name basis with them and they know his properties well.
He also wanted someone who respected the tenants. ‘‘It’s very important that the property manager doesn’t treat them as a necessary evil.
‘‘Without a good tenant, you have no property investment, so I wanted someone who treats everybody fairly.’’
Monique bought her first home at 153 Ngamotu Rd in New Plymouth three years ago. The features that won her over then will appeal to a first-home buyer again today.
‘‘It had everything I needed for myself and my daughter, it was the perfect first home for both of us,’’ Monique says.
A generously sized sunroom gave her the flexibility of having a second living area or a third bedroom. Boundary fencing and gates also made the rear grounds safe for children and pets.
The appeal started with the location. ‘‘This is so close to Back Beach and Ngamotu Beach is not too far away, either. Schools are in walking distance, and it’s an easy drive into the city.’’
The attraction of this suburb is emphasised by the recent transformation of the former church property just along the road into a Te Wananga O Aotearoa training facility and the development of a new residential subdivision around it.
When Monique bought the 110sqm, two-bedroom home on its easy-care 450sqm section on the corner of Ngamotu Rd and Rosendale Ave, it had been freshly renovated and its presentation was very appealing. With a welcoming concrete terrace at the front door and a baywindow feature next to it, the home looked good from the street.
Like many of the other weatherboard homes built in this neighbourhood in the late 1950s, quality materials were used in its initial construction. Later owners then upgraded the exterior with aluminium joinery to minimise maintenance.
When Monique stepped inside, the new kitchen and fresh decor immediately impressed. ‘‘This was hands down the best of the homes I looked at. Its quality was well above my level of expectation.’’
The home’s two double bedrooms are set to the left along the hallway. Between the two is a new storage cupboard, which Monique cleverly fitted into a recess that was once a space for hanging coats.
The lounge to the right is where you note the feature of the bay window seen from the street. The original design detail is complemented by the classic tiled fireplace, the latter now filled with an efficient gas heater.
The lounge is open to the kitchendining area beyond through a wide doorway, allowing an easy flow of life between the rooms. French doors then open from the dining area to a sun-soaked timber deck, with a small paved courtyard and the enclosed lawn area, where there is plenty of room for a trampoline.
Living here is easy, Monique says. ‘‘You can hang out on the deck and not have to worry about where the kids are.’’
A row of lush-green griselinia trees she planted along the boundary adjacent to the deck are growing well and it won’t be long before they give the outdoor living area increased privacy and shelter. Flat lawns and minimal plantings take little work to look after, but there is potential for new owners to develop eye-catching gardens to dress up the grounds.
Back inside, the kitchen is light and airy with its white-on-white presentation and a Solatube in the ceiling to let natural light flood in. Monique enhanced the finish in here by having white tiles laid as a splashback along the main bench.
A sliding-glass panel window, patterned for privacy, opens the kitchen to the sunroom and creates a servery for entertaining. Access into the sunroom is via a sliding door from the dining area.
Jess Griffith is marketing the property for Monique and is expecting huge interest, with first-home properties a hot item on the city market. The corner section adds its own appeal, she adds. There’s plenty of off-street parking space and room to add a garage if wanted.