Blog

Building consents for new residences have fallen to a five-year low as a slowing economy and high costs knock demand. Stats NZ said consents for June were down 14 percent on May, and about 24 percent on a year ago driven by a slump in apartments, town houses, and retirement village units. "The number of both apartments and retirement village units consented in the year ended June 2024 is the lowest in the last nine years," Stats NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said. The annual number of consents has fallen from a peak of 51,000 in mid-2022 to 33,600 in the year ended June. The sharpest declines occurred across the country but most pronounced in Auckland down 27 percent, Wellington down 36 percent, and Canterbury down 16 percent. The business and commercial se...

If you want to join the country's wealthiest people, you're best to start early. Source link

Photo: RNZ People who are buying and selling properties for profit are being warned they could get a tax bill, even if they hold the house for longer than two years - and even if they have lived in it themselves. The bright-line test has now been reduced to two years, which means that investors who hold a property for at least that long are not automatically handed a tax bill for any gains they make on the property. But tax expert Robyn Walker, a partner at Deloitte, said people needed to understand that did not mean that everyone was automatically off the hook. Inland Revenue recently released a tool that would help people to understand whether their property was taxable under any of the land taxing rules. That would include people who bought a property intending to resell it, no matter...

Photo: 123RF The cost of sending our goods overseas has risen again due to ongoing tensions in the Red Sea. A report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said global shipping rates have nearly doubled since late April, however they remain far below the peak reached during the Covid pandemic. "The main reason is the current disruption in the Red Sea, which has stretched global shipping capacity, with more shipping needed to service European and Asian routes. "Since December, there has been a 50 percent fall in shipping traffic navigating the Suez Canal, offset by a 70 percent jump in sailings around the less direct Cape of Good Hope," the report said. Houthi rebels began attacking ships in the Red Sea in October last year after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Export NZ execut...