Friday 10th of October 2008

After returning to New Zealand after following two weeks in tropical North Queensland I am left wondering about each countries' approach to property investing.

My thoughts are that in Australia they are far more recpetive to the idea of residential property investment, while here our politicians and officials spend a heck of a lot of time trying to jawbone the market downwards and discourage people from buying bricks and mortar.

This, at the moment, seems an odd strategy considering the carnage currently taking place on the world share markets.

Two of the items which made me think about this was when I had trouble with my Visa card and went into a Westpac branch in a little town out the back of beyond. Here the bank proudly displayed a number of comprehensive brochures on how to invest in property, questions to consider and how the bank could help. (Also in this town I met a lady who wants to get the NZ Property Investor Magazine and reads this site - Hi!)

In New Zealand I'm often surprised that banks don't provide, or promote, solid options for property investors. After all there are around quarter of a million people who own investment property, no doubt valued at many billions of dollars.

To its credit ANZ has worked hard in this market and partnered up with the NZ Property Investors' Federation.

But perhaps the item which got me really thinking about this was an ad in the local paper.
This ad was run by CentreLink (the government department charged with looking after welfare and the like). It was advertising a seminar series designed to teach people about the benefits of leveraging and investing in property.

Now I bet that is not something you would see in this country.

These are just two examples of things which made it seem Australians were positive about property.

What is odd though is that property investment in New Zealand has some real benefits over Australia. For instance we don't have stamp duty (a form of tax) and our yields seem much better.

So maybe we should be picking up on this Oz enthusiasm for property investment and encourage more Australians to our market!