Level 4 Lockdown – it’s been over a year since we’ve been here, and I don’t think any of us expected to be back here in a hurry! We definitely took our freedoms for granted!

I was recently reading an article about Susan St John and Terry Baucher’s latest call for a harder taxation regime for all residential property in New Zealand. (Yes, harder than the myriad of changes we have already had.) 

These chardonnay liberals are promoting the annual taxation of equity in residential property (private homes and investment property) with an implied rate of return (called a ‘Fair Economic Return’). They are bitterly disappointed that NZ did not consider bringing in an accruals-based capital gains tax, and spend much of their time maligning property as an asset class to the government and left-leaning press. Despite the biggest changes to NZ property taxes in a hundred years, this pair of....

 

Our client has a home worth $1.5m in Auckland, and only $20k of debt with a main bank. They are a classic case of having high equity and low income.

 

They wanted to look at purchasing a trade property (buy, do-up, sell) and didn’t want to let the fact they weren’t working hold them back. They also didn’t want to get a job just to please the bank.

One of the frustrating changes as an investor over the last few years has been how hard it is to access revolving credit facilities if you don’t have a specific property purchase in mind. Banks have practically made giving away your first born as part of the criteria and with great deals not sitting around for long having access to the ability to move quick is a great asset to have.

It’s very common for us to recommend to our clients that they review their financial position regularly, which helps them stay informed of market changes and how these may apply to their own personal situation.

Recently we worked with a couple who had an investment property with one bank, and their home with another. In most cases this is the best way to have things set-up, as I’m sure you’re all aware how fond we are here at KPM about the “Split-Banking” strategy for mortgages.

In the current low interest rate environment, we’re seeing a lot of clients look at repaying debt quite aggressively (paying above the minimum or making ‘additional’ payments to their mortgage on a regular basis). There can however be some downsides to this when applying for new lending, and I’d like to show you how to get around these so that you’re achieving your desired result, and also keeping the bank happy. 

Now that we have had time to reflect on the impact of these announcements, we thought you would appreciate our view on things going forward.

There has already been some great commentary written about the changes and we have included some links for you to review.

The main five points however:

As part of the Government’s property policy announcements today (23 March 2021), there are two significant changes to tax rules that will impact residential property investors.

If you don't support the changes, there is a petition that you can sign (link here and at the end of this blog).

I ran a webinar discussing these changes on 25 March. You can watch the recording here.
 

If you are living in NZ right now, you are very likely to be aware of what is happening in the property market, with auction clearance rates up, and property prices rising at rapid rates.  

A client came to us to see if we were able to provide alternatives to the situation she was in with her bank. She had tied everything together with one bank and had circa $3m of lending against 5 properties, including her own home.

This month’s article is a continuation of last month’s on associated persons “traps”. Last month I highlighted two traps that can catch the unwary when moving property between associated entities. This month I have another two traps that readers should be aware of. 


Trap 3 – Tainting for Life
Friends, Jesse and Skylar, are 50% shareholders in a property development company called...

 

This blog is Part 1 of 2 on traps that arise when land transactions involve “associated persons”. By way of background, both the Income Tax Act and the Goods and Services Tax Act have definitions of associated persons and special rules that apply to transactions between associates. 

Property dealers, developers and investors are often party to transactions with associated persons (e.g. restructuring ownership of existing property). 

 

As mortgage advisers we often see clients in situations where they have gotten themselves into debt and aren’t always managing things in the most effective ways, and this includes first-home buyers and also property investors.

 

The most common mortgage mistakes we see are as follows:
 

It has been another month of rate competition with arguably the largest attention going to Kiwisaver provider Simplicity’s entry into the mortgage industry with a market leading 2.95% rate. What was of particular interest with this was that unlike other leading rates which were fixed rates, Simplicity has an offer which is based on a floating rate. With an initial plan of $50m to be lent over the......