Property · Building · Design
When renovating an older home, what concerns you most? The cost? The process from start to finish? Or how to obtain approval? In this issue of YIJU New Zealand, we have selected 4 representative questions and invited three professionals from different fields to share their insights.
After the pandemic, New Zealand’s property market experienced an astonishing yet unmistakable rise against the wider trend. Large-site subdivisions are in full swing, and older-home renovations are proceeding at pace. From developers to individual homeowners, everyone wants a slice of the property market. Yet subdividing and rebuilding, or renovating an older home for resale, are major undertakings requiring considerable expertise and many complex steps. A single misstep during renovation can have serious consequences later, and choosing and installing doors and windows is one area particularly prone to hidden problems.
The latest REINZ figures show that both prices and sales volumes rose in New Zealand's residential market in February. House prices reached another record high, while sales volumes hit their highest level in nearly 14 years. As the property market continues to heat up, some tired old homes that previously attracted little interest have sparked fierce competition among buyers because of their prime locations or generous land areas.
In 2002, Bernard Leung bought his first New Zealand property at the age of 20. He has since been active in the property market for 19 years, becoming a well-known property investor and an experienced residential and commercial property manager.
Over the past year, New Zealand's property market has been extremely buoyant. Sale prices for land suitable for subdivision and development in particular have repeatedly reached new highs, sometimes to a seemingly crazy extent. In Auckland, for example, many investors and developers have targeted large subdividable sections, crowding into auctions and occasionally paying irrational prices.
As the COVID pandemic has spread, New Zealand's residential market has become increasingly surreal. The latest Trade Me Property Price Index shows that in the year to March, the national average asking price rose 16%, passing NZ$800,000 for the first time to reach a record NZ$805,100.
32 years ago, aged just 18, Frank Shi passed his university entrance examinations and enrolled at Shenyang University to study heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration. 20 years ago, Frank arrived in New Zealand with his family as a first-generation Chinese immigrant. His strong technical skills and extensive experience soon established him as an authority in New Zealand’s heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry. In April 2020, Frank joined RCR as its chief mechanical and electrical engineer, continuing to pursue his dreams.
With New Zealand’s property market heating up again and the new Healthy Homes Requirements taking effect, more people are preparing to renovate their own homes and investment properties. Yet many do not realise that both relatively simple renovations to an older home and more complex additions and alterations are subject to numerous rules and restrictions under a range of laws and regulations—
Immigration is also a very important issue for New Zealand’s economic development. At an INZ/immigration adviser meeting held by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) on 26 March 2021, referred to as the “326 adviser meeting”, INZ indicated that a series of immigration policies would be adjusted this year.
This year, the government established a NZ$3,800,000,000 Housing Acceleration Fund to ease the housing crisis and speed up construction. The funding will primarily support roads, pipes and other infrastructure for new homes. Today, the Housing Minister announced that NZ$1,000,000,000 of the NZ$3,800,000,000 fund had been allocated to help accelerate new housing construction. The following applicants can begin applying next week.
On 26 February 2020, New Zealand recorded its first confirmed coronavirus case. The person was identified only as “someone in their 60s who had recently returned from Iran”, but the case marked the beginning of an extraordinary period for New Zealand. A year on, New Zealand has achieved considerable success in fighting the pandemic, recording just 2368 of the world's 113,000,000 cases. And although tourism and hospitality have been hit hard, New Zealand has largely avoided the economic turmoil experienced by other countries.
The latest data released by Statistics New Zealand last week showed that New Zealand's GDP grew 1.6% in the first quarter ended March this year. This was the first rebound since a 1% decline in the fourth quarter ended December 2020. With GDP rising, banks now appear poised to increase mortgage rates.