Bittersweet demise of high-flying risk-takers

Public perception of property developers tends to put them somewhere between lovable rogues and straight-out crooks.

In reality the crooks are a minority and there are many who live boring, hard-working lives.

But it is a high-risk business and a healthy appetite for risk is a pre-requisite of those involved. So it's no surprise that it attracts colourful characters. Sometimes we love to hate them, mostly we hate to love them, but without them New Zealand would be a less interesting place.

A vibrant economy needs growth and renewal and developers have a functional role to play in that process. They also provide a barometer of sorts. When they are partying in their penthouses, the rest of the country is usually doing all right too.

When they are spending most of their time in the court staving of creditors you can be sure the rest of us are doing it tougher.

But all that risk-taking goes hand-in-hand with excess. Developers are at the front end of the boom and bust cycle.

The culture consistently delivers too much development followed by not enough.

Now, in an economic environment in which risk aversion is the norm, where do the risk-takers go? It seems they are either going underground ... or going under all together. That would be fine if there was not such a mess left over to clean up.

Unfinished developments and holes in the ground are an ugly reminder that, despite the exuberance of markets and consumer confidence, normal service has not resumed.

Banks are still shy of lending - not surprising when they are waiting to get money back on the big projects now in the hands of receivers.

And the big names of the development landscape are almost all out of action. The issue of who is going to tidy Auckland up for the Rugby World Cup will be a headache for the Super City council.

Then there is the problem of who drives the next wave of development when the balance of supply and demand for offices, hotels rooms and apartments eventually swings back to the positive.

Perhaps the days of can-do-Kiwi entrepreneurs are numbered. It is big Asian firms that have access to capital now. They could bring with them a more corporate and more measured approach to development.

On balance though, the end of the wild west era in New Zealand property development is long overdue. But its demise might also take with it a little bit of the glamour and spice of Auckland life.