Frank Newman: Letting fees to go

On 22 March, the Government introduced the Residential Tenancies (Prohibiting Letting Fees) Amendment Bill to Parliament. The Bill makes good the new government's pre-election promise to ban the charging of letting fees to tenants.

The law as it currently stands allows a property manager to charge up to a week's rent for services relating to the granting or assignment of a tenancy. This charge is to cover their time and cost vetting prospective tenants and completing the paperwork involved.

Frank Newman: Taxing landlords

There's a general election coming up so landlords can expect to receive more than their fair share of attention from politicians this year. They will, of course, be portrayed as greedy and unscrupulous, and the cause of homelessness, pestilence, and plague. 

We have been told countless times - and no doubt will be told many more times - that property investors receive favourable tax privileges they don't deserve. All of these condemnations are of course built on half-truths and envy. But the lie has be told so many times that many are happy to accept it as fact, buying into the idea that the punishment for those foolish enough to admit they own a rental should be public flogging and tomato throwing.

Frank Newman: What property investors are thinking

The ANZ Bank and the New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation (NZPIF) have released the results of their annual property investors’ survey.

The key findings are:

• Investor confidence is high. A net 69% of respondents are to buy more property and nearly 25% expect to buy within the next 12 months.

• 60% of respondents believe prices will rise by more than 6% over the year (up from 51% last year).

Mike Butler: Property investors pay $500m in tax

Sick and tired of being the scapegoat that doesn’t fight back, the New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation put in an Official Information Act request to confirm that rental property owners paid nearly half a billion dollars in tax on their rental income in the year ended March 2013.

The new information that became available this week discredits a widely held perception promoted by the Tax Working Group in 2009 that rental property owners have a tax advantage and don't pay tax.

Frank Newman: Technology, exciting and scary for property investors

The world is benefiting from the fastest spinning revolution in the history of mankind. It’s affecting everything from the way we socialise to the way we shop, how we work, and where we live. The rate of change means presumptions about the future are becoming redundant faster and the business and investment life-cycle is becoming much shorter. 

Those who are able to pick the trends can make an unimaginable amount of money very quickly, while those who are blind to the changes will find the value of their investments eroded - and very quickly. Property investors can no longer rest assured that their investment is “as safe as houses”.

Mike Butler: State houses checked for WOF

A scheme to impose warrants of fitness on residential rentals is well under way with Housing New Zealand going through state-owned rentals to make sure they are up to scratch. Former Housing Minister Phil Heatley confirmed last August that he would go along with child poverty lobbyists’ demands for such a scheme, while the new Housing Minister, Nick Smith, who is known for his ready adoption of trendy causes, presides over the current scheme.