What a great few days – lots of sun, some boating, some walking and lots of fishing. The Marlborough Sounds (read lots of coastline and lots of wilderness for the offshore readers) is being developed really fast. I remember 11 years ago when I first went to the cove and sections could be had for NZD50 or 60k. It’s now in the 300-400 mark and appreciating fast. To get a traditional kiwi bach you need to drop close to seven figures.

What’s driven the prices up? More accessibility (lots of boats where there never used to be man) and lots of offshore investment. Many mega baches are 2 week a year (if that) jobs and shut up the rest of the time. Now I’m against the Xenophobic “lock the doors and keep the foreigners out” mentality (you’re lucky Raf, Kaila et al) but I will say that it’s sad that the average Kiwi is being well and truly priced out of the market.

Alongside price rises are the usual regulatory issues – in the past it was an easy deal to drop a simple building on a section and add to it over the years and decades – our current building compliance situation makes that impossible (well illegal anyway) which changes the entire dynamic of the kiwi back).

Oh well that’s progress I guess – we’re lucky to still have access to one of the gems and we’ll continue to use it going into the future.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

3 Comments
  • Actually I am a fan of only allowing residents to buy property regardless of the country. I think the wealthy overseas investor who buys a holiday pad which they use for a few weeks a year completely distorts the market for local buyers.

    Queenstown is a great example of this. I think upwards of 25% of property is owned by overseas investors. It’s complete madness to allow this to continue. If wealthy punters want 3 weeks in a mega pad in Queenstown I’m sure they can rent one.

  • That’s a mighty strong accent you have for a kiwi property owner Raf!
    ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Yeees…but this issue will become more important once Chinese and Indian wealth starts flooding in looking for a home. Add to that the Arabs and whoever else and you have a potential problem. Quite frankly anyone with a bit of spare cash would be mad not to buy some land in NZ.

    And not just for a holiday home. Even a farm or two. Maybe even a few vineyards in the Waipara ๐Ÿ™‚

    Price will not be an issue and local Kiwis will end up as serfs in their homeland.

    This is a certainty to happen unless action is taken soon.

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