Budget not driving property investors away

If the Budget was designed to put residential property investors off their stride then it appears to have failed.

Friday, June 11th 2010, 3:52PM 4 Comments

by The Landlord

A survey by property investment website Landlords.co.nz and Mike Pero Mortgages shows that investors are not happy with the changes to tax and depreciation that Finance Minister Bill English unveiled in his Budget last month.

However, only a small proportion of respondents are looking to sell up their properties. Twelve percent of respondent are considering selling their properties and just 1.7% said they are definitely exiting the property investment market.

The large majority of investors will continue to be landlords and 21.4% said they will be buying more property.

The winners out of the Budget are advisers such as accountants.

While depreciation was seen as the biggest change that will have a financial impact on investors, most of them acknowledge that they will need to get advice on their investment structures.

Nearly half of the respondents held their properties in Loss Attributing Qualifying Companies (LAQCs), however the government is change the rules around these structures.

"Depreciation probably featured highly for investors as they could easily calculate what the changes mean to investors in dollar terms," Landlords.co.nz publisher Philip Macalister says.

"However the changes to LAQC rules will possibly have a bigger impact on investors."

Macalister says it is important for investors to understand these changes and make the necessary adjustments before the rules change next year.

Investors have mixed views on where house prices will go in the next six months, however they have a very clear idea about what direction rents will move.

Nearly two thirds of investors (59.6%) said they plan to increase rents in the next six months.

The survey also shows that property investors buy houses for sound, long-term reasons, rather than speculation and quick gains.

The large majority (95.6%) adopt a buy and hold strategy, however they are evenly split over whether they are trying to achieve capital gains or income.

Slightly more (50.8%) are investing for income, while 47.6% are looking for capital gains.

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Comments from our readers

On 12 June 2010 at 11:37 am Bruce Fuller said:

I do not own property for rent myself. I do own lots of Property Trust shares however, which provide me with income to supplement my superannuation. This latest attack on property owners has certainly effected the Trusts. The share prices have plunged and each Trust has warned that dividends will be lower next year. Howeve they are a safer investment than Finance companies! My investment in Property Trusts was not for capital gain on the shares but for the steady income they were providing. The tax cuts promised will not compensate me for the fall and the increase in GST will just be another hit. Sorry National but you have let us savers down.

On 13 June 2010 at 5:20 pm Christopher said:

I guess those who declared that they bought for capital gain are in the majority of those who are affected by the depreciation changes and in their favour are probably being honest about what their intentions were.
In any event, Property magazine, time to get past the whinging.

On 14 June 2010 at 3:07 am President of Property said:

well if you worked for the IRD you now have 47.6% of survey respondents to follow up with the existing CGT rules, sure isn't hard to work out if people purchased for capital gains if they ticked the box... as for us investors looking solely for income - we rock...

On 15 June 2010 at 6:16 pm Jamila said:

Who said you have to sell to realise capital gains? If you know what you are doing you can receive an income from rents as well as from capital gains by getting the bank to release the increased equity as a LOC which gives you a tax free income.