Quote Originally Posted by troyvdh View Post
Dear fungus....I agree with about gearing.However not so your other comments.
Without intending to appear somewhat a "know all" it does frustrate me when folk talk about the "NZ house market"-in my mind there are many many many "markets" i.e. location-which city and where,flats,constuction type,batches etc.
I have always been loathe to accept one explaination re the wisdom of investing in houses.You say (and your probably right) that how a family can afford.......so what do these families do then......rent perhaps ????.
Fungus ...can you imagine if those tens of thousands of folk (often elderly) had not been sucked in by those flashy ****er types with there glossy pamphlets had in stead bought the place next door ?.
Ah hhh your probably thinking what about all those who got caught in those property buying schemes that eventually fell over....but hold on if folk seriously understood the principle " of it sounds to good to be true......" many would not have been caught.
Ive been in res. property for more than 30 years-nothing really flash....Ive a mix of properties.A block of flats bought 20 years or so now is debt free and returning about 18 % on purchase price p.a.
What does also intrigues me is peoples perception/expectation of what making money involves.For example many folk have seen there houses increase (at times) by as much as 20-30-40-50 %.....then a following period where there is no change or perhaps a small drop. Now you and I probably agree that such an increase over a period years ..be it 4-5-8...that this is an acceptable return and that a long term view is required.

I also doubt that many people understand the scale of this "leaky home" fiasco.The CHCh earthquake .....say $20 billion...I read estimates of the "leaky" issue between $20-$40 billion !!!!!!!!!...whats more they are still being built,bought and sold !!!!!!

Another consideration that I believe needs to be made is the "lag" extending now for probably a few years where house building numbers have stalled...and will be needed to be made back up.

I also may have quite a different philosophy about investing....sure handling tenants can be a pain....but if it was easy...everyone would be doing it.Also making money aint rocket science....and currenty in todays world I believe that if your managing to hold what youve got ...your doing alright.
cheers.
Of course there are markets within markets, but I was making a general comment. not writing a book. Prices cannot rise if nobody has money to buy. The same applies to rent. Good to hear you have an unencumbered block of flats, although return on historic purchase price is irrelevant. You are entitled to a good return on its current value - and you won't get it out of that property. Sell it to someone who believes history always repeats, at current going yield - and at least double your income with commercial or industrial stuff. However the point I was trying to make is that current res. investors are buying at a loss. i.e. the return will not cover the real costs if true maintenance is included. (and it matters little whether money is borrowed or not - your own capital would be earning just sitting in a bank). So if res. prop. is losing money, (needs propping up) then the investor is simply buying capital gain. Many of them will be sorely disappointed. And I will stress that my comments apply to the foreseeable future - not recent past. Then again, I haven't got a crystal ball. Pity; and believe it or not, I've been wrong before!