Landlords want to know about the timing of rental housing law reform, Dawn Park apartments enters a new era, owners of illegal sea walls await the next step and a fast food chain goes to the Crown’s land business for consent to expand.
Property Insider: timing of planned tenancy law changes tipped; partly-built apartment project sold; Point Wells sea wall support; retrospective consent for KFC
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The Property Investors’ Federation wants to know when the anti-flipper bright line test will be cut from a decade to two years and when landlords will once again be allowed to claim tax deductions for expenses like mortgage payments on rental properties.
Peter Lewis, federation vice-president, says reversing Labour Government changes to the law is a top priority for landlords. He cited extreme residential rental shortages in places like Queenstown and Waiheke, saying a return to the previous regime might encourage landlords to buy and then offer more properties in places under pressure.
“It’s all very well for politicians to say they’re working on it. We’d appreciate a bit more speed,” Lewis said.
The ball is very much in Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s court, reforming the Residential Tenancies Act.
Lewis said the federation wants fewer restrictions on landlords’ ability to terminate tenancies.
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The Labour Government introduced the biggest shake-up in the rental sector in 35 years, greatly strengthening tenants’ position.
Act and National promised to reverse Labour’s changes, with David Seymour saying pre-election changes were “a war on scapegoated landlords”.
Geordie Rogers, Renters United president said : “It’s certainly looking gloomy for renters. Overseas, people have more stable rental properties. Now, we’re about to move away from that.”
He is unsure when legislative reform will occur. He concurs with Lewis, saying Renters United doesn’t want an end to no-cause terminations either.
Bishop said last week: “The Residential Tenancies Act changes are Government priorities. To this end, we are aiming to introduce a bill in the next few months.”
New dawn for Dawn Park: apartment project sold
As the saying goes, the sun also rises.
So it was good news on the dawn of a new year for the failed, abandoned Dawn Park apartment project: receiver Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners said last week that the Te Atatū project was sold just before Christmas.
In September, financier Vincent Capital had Jackson and colleague Brendon Gibson appointed to Xianzhen Huang’s Treasure Plus which owns 170-174 Te Atatū Rd. Vincent was owed $53.4m on the project.
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Colliers’ Blair Peterken and Josh Coburn advertised “this semi-complete” complex, drawing comments from industry observers that the property might have been worth more without the now-deserted buildings.
The 11-building project has eight one-bedroom, 68 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom units, parking and bike storage.
Point Wells seawall owner: backing to protect home
Point Wells resident and barrister Paul Dale KC said this month he’d had “numerous expressions of support” after publicity last year about his retrospective resource consent applications to Auckland Council for a seawall to protect his home near Matakana.
He and neighbour Warwick Mortimer had seawalls built but without consent, meaning those structures were illegal. They got notices from the council, saying that needed to be put to rights.
The two men said their walls and two neighbouring ones were built to stop flooding and erosion and all four owners have challenged council abatement notices in the Environment Court.
The council has issued them with notices to remove the walls, saying their construction and existence meant the loss of salt marsh vegetation and mangroves which buffer the shoreline and provide a habitat for native fauna and prevent any future naturalisation or restoration of the coastal edge.
No one can build any structure that is fixed in, on, under or above any foreshore or seabed and disturbing that including by excavating, drilling or tunnelling has an adverse effect on the foreshore or seabed, the council told the owners.
The Victor - 33 units sold to one buyer, now being re-sold individually
First, they were sold in one bulk lot. Now, they’re available for sale individually.
That’s the fate of around half the units in a Browns Bay apartment block at 4 Bute Rd.
China Construction Bank (New Zealand)’s mortgagee sale of 33 Browns Bay apartments in The Victor has resulted in all the places being sold to a single buyer for more than $25 million, an agent says.
JLL’s John Davies and Tommy Zhang were engaged to market those 33 units late last year. Davies said on December 8 that he had fielded a lot of inquiries from people looking to buy apartments individually but said the majority of buyers wanted the entire parcel of 33 apartments.
Davies said the transaction was settled just before Christmas.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Ray Qu said the mortgagee sale was listed in November, offering the 33 apartments.
His latest advertising says he is reintroducing the apartments for individual sales.
KFC gets retrospective consent for Auckland purchase
Mexican-controlled (75 per cent ownership) NZX-listed Restaurant Brands got Overseas Investment Office retrospective consent to buy an Auckland property for KFC.
The OIO said the company’s deal purchase of 389 Massey Rd, Māngere East, was made without it first getting Land Information NZ clearance.
But after it struck the deal, the company notified LINZ that it had breached the act and wanted to right that.
“LINZ considers that the breach was inadvertent. The applicant obtained retrospective consent before settling the transaction and obtaining legal title to the land.”
The applicant is the property holding company for the Restaurant Brands Group, which operates quick service restaurants under the brand names of KFC, Carl’s Jr, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. It is owned by NZX and ASX-listed company, Restaurant Brands New Zealand Limited.
The land is currently used for accommodation. The applicant intends to use the land to develop and operate a KFC restaurant, the OIO notice said.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
