Here we are again approaching another Christmas, saying didn't this year go fast. Reminding ourselves to take time out and smell the roses, as we race through our busy lives. For me, that involves game fishing in the far North of New Zealand, and I will soon be on my boat enjoying the incredible far north fishery and environment. ... More 

If you are not a tax resident of New Zealand and have a New Zealand trust with New Zealand resident trustees, you may be subject to the IRD’s new foreign trust registration and disclosure rules.  These rules are in place as a result of concerns around the use of foreign trusts following the 'Panama Papers' publicity. The IRD have moved ... More 

From my personal experience over the years, I have learnt that the best time to buy properties is towards the end of November, December and January.    Towards the end of November most vendors are looking at offloading their stock to avoid holding costs, as the chances of the next settlement date will be in February i.e. they will ... More 

For most clients, 1 April signals the start of the New Year for business and tax purposes and the month of March brings opportunities to minimize tax and maximize cash surpluses for the coming year.   A well known quote “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”, so with this in mind we give you some ... More 

As you may be aware, there is a new law that requires all tenanted homes to be insulated by 1 July 2019. Anyone who owns rental property must ensure their properties are insulated to the required standard by this date. At GRA we’ve been getting a lot of questions about whether the cost of insulating a rental property is ... More 

It is a requirement in New Zealand for parties to provide their IRD numbers when buying or selling real estate (whether as an individual or through another entity such as a company or trust). Normally this does not pose any sort of problem. However, there will be significant issues if you are selling a property that has been generating ... More 

Many New Zealanders still retain memories of Black Tuesday – the day the share market collapsed in 1987. The crash began in Hong Kong, spread to Europe, moved into the United States and then headed Australia and New Zealand's way.  By the end of Tuesday 20 October 1987 the stock market had shed a vast amount of value and ... More 

It’s been an interesting start to 2017 with a much tighter credit market than what we have seen for most of the last decade. While the majority of the media have been concentrating on the fact that the market seems to have slowed since the 40% deposit rule introduction, I put more down to banks themselves pulling back in ... More 

Do you currently have life insurance in place? Unless you’re single, living the high life, flying solo, and not bothered what happens to your debts when you die, then you’re going to need to have the right life cover in place. Life insurance isn’t something that you lie in bed at night thinking about. Rather, life insurance generally comes ... More 

At Property Ventures we are increasing our focus on new builds as investments because we see tremendous advantages from a financing perspective. Not only do investors get pristine new and low maintenance properties in better areas, they get the benefit of 80% LVRs and tax advantages from higher chattel depreciation.   These smart tax and finance benefits make investing ... More