Property investor

‘We don’t work in a snowflake culture’

Matthew Gilligan (right) isn’t interested in being sensitive.

“My job is to call it how I see it,” he says. “We don’t work in a snowflake culture.”

A month on from the property conference, we asked him to reflect on what was said. He stands by everything (except he says he drives a Jeep, not a Porsche).

He says death rates are important to property values, and he is concerned about the Reserve Bank. “I think they risk putting recessionary pressure into New Zealand by being so conservative. Is this virtue-signalling ? Maybe.”

Trading helps improve homes, he says. “It cleans up run-down houses. We have lots of clients doing this and making money from producing better housing stock, that is otherwise rundown and poor quality accommodation. I don’t see the issue.”

And he couldn’t care less about politics. “I represent the investor’s perspective. The enormous investment in public housing at present represents a significant investment opportunity. Period.”

Gilligan says the way to be a good landlord is to get a property manager. “They manage the houses for landlords. Mine do it well,” he says. And there was a slot about the Healthy Housing laws at the conference — after the Herald left for the day.

But anyway — there wasn’t time to talk about every topic, Gilligan says — and the inference that the event was incomplete without a section on good landlords it was “interesting in itself ”.

“We are not a government department responsible for sugarcoating every communication with PC mantra. Quite frankly we are a private business and we call it how we see it.

“My opinions are just that. Opinions. Feel free to disagree with me.”

But for the record, he didn’t necessarily agree with all the speakers or condone their opinions.

“We facilitate a conversation with different organisations. Much can be learnt from taking this approach.”