Friday 16th of July 2010

It’s often said that New Zealanders have a real love for property, but I wonder how far it will stretch?

We know the government has been trying to break up this long term love affair, but with little success. Judging by two surveys, one run by Landlords.co.nz and the other by QV, investors are going to remain property investors.

However this week we have had more evidence that the local housing market is pretty flat and there are low sales volumes. In a word it’s lethargic.

Investors have been used to active markets in recent years and could well be interested in something more exciting than the local market.

It seems quite a few New Zealanders have bought property in Australia but I wonder how attractive the “lucky country” is currently.

I did read a piece which said the Australia has one of the most expensive house markets in the world.

One of the “new” things that I’m hearing about in the market is a number of companies wanting to promote the idea that Kiwis buy residential property in the United States.

Yes this sounds a little outlandish at face value, but the numbers being bandied around will look attractive.

I assume a lot of these properties are ones where the lenders have foreclosed on them and wanting out.

I have come across this idea before. One of the first times was when I profiled a quite remarkable Rotorua-based property investor Tracey Hintz. She owned lots of property in New Zealand and employed many different strategies.

However she also bought some property in the United States and made some good money.

There is a warning with this story. It’s not all plain sailing and the US housing market is remarkably different to ours and how it operates. No doubt this is more we will hear about soon.

I’m interested to see how many investors would consider investing in the US? Once I have some examples of the numbers being talked about I’ll post them here.

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