News and views

​In the Winter 2019 edition of Property Speaking, we outlined schemes available to help first home buyers. Following the government’s announcement on 4 September 2019 of changes to the schemes, some schemes have been re-named.

The proposed purchaser of a Dunedin property is at least $150,000 out of pocket after improperly cancelling his agreement. The outcome in the recent court case Strack v Grey1 warns buyers to take a diligent approach to conditions in an agreement for sale and purchase of property.

If you frequently buy and sell property, you may want to keep a close eye on Inland Revenue’s review of some property tax rules that was announced in September 2019. One area being targeted is the use of the ‘main home exemption’.

Buying a house is one of the major milestones in many people’s lives, right up there with getting married, having a baby, and retiring. Signing on the dotted line of a Sale and Purchase Agreement is a momentous occasion for most people.

New Zealand has changed significantly over the last half-century. The Property (Relationships) Act 1976 was drafted at a time when couples generally married young and pooled their resources to buy a house as early as they could, a time when ABBA’s ‘Fernando’ topped the national charts and Fred Dagg and Footrot Flats made Kiwis laugh out loud.

Tiny houses are becoming extremely popular nationwide as property prices rise. Less energy consumption, lower environmental impact and cheaper housing, while still leaving room to develop other buildings on a single normal-sized plot. Win-win, right? Not quite.

Change is on the horizon for overseas property investment regulations as the second and final stage of the review of the Overseas Investment Act 2005 gets underway.

​A unit title is a form of property ownership where you own your unit, but the common areas are owned by the body corporate. This ownership structure is common in high-rise apartment blocks.