David Seymour on education
Back in August, the Herald ran an article on the “Grammar zone squeeze: 1800 new apartments to put pressure on school rolls”. I helped the author with the numbers for the article, using info from the RCG Development Tracker. Based on that, I said that “more than 1,800 apartments will be completed in the Auckland Grammar zone in the next three years, with 600 of those also falling in the Epsom Girls Grammar zone”, excluding student accommodation, projects completed before August 2015, and the proposed Boulevard Hotel redevelopment in Newmarket.…
47 Comments Development update: December 2015
This is the last “development update” post for the year, so I want to look back on some of the big news from the year (and things which weren’t ‘news’ in the media sense but which I think are important). Christchurch gets special attention, because of the massive changes that have had to happen down there.…
Fletcher Building on housing
Fletcher Building is the biggest construction company in New Zealand, and a major home builder, so it’s worth keeping an eye on what they say about their residential business and the market. They recently gave a presentation on this.
Fletchers are now established in the “high density” market, having built several apartment buildings at Stonefields in a joint venture with Todd Property.…
Tourism is booming
It hasn’t had the media coverage it deserves, but New Zealand is going through a tourism boom. The Tourism Satellite Account, the comprehensive record of tourist spending, found that international tourists spent 17% more in the year to March 2015 than they had the year before that, for a total of $11.8 billion.…
Aussie apartment boom: a year on
A year ago, I wrote that “Australia is currently in the middle of a major apartment boom“. Well, the boom is still going – in fact, it’s risen to even higher levels. On a ‘moving annual total’ basis, Australia has gone from approving 86,000 attached units a year to 113,000, an all-time record.*…
Development update: November 2015
Spring is usually a busy time in the residential property market. I’ve always thought that the best time to check out a house is winter, so you can get an idea of whether it stays warm or not, but what do I know?…
Banks officially making it easier to lend on apartments
Most of the banks in New Zealand have policies which make it harder to get a mortgage on an apartment (or sometimes anything that’s on a unit title, so terraced homes as well). They restrict lending on small apartments – less than 50 or 60 square metres, say – and require higher deposits.…
Development update: October 2015
The RCG Development Tracker page has just been updated for October, and there’s plenty of new stuff in there. There are a few areas which are getting major makeovers in the next couple of years – Sale St is one, and Beach Rd/ Anzac Ave is similar with three sizeable apartment projects just about to launch (technically they’re only doing ‘expressions of interest’ at the moment, not actually selling the apartments off the plans).…
The Volkswagen saga
One of the biggest news stories this last fortnight has been the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal. In a “wildly illegal” strategy spanning many years, Volkswagen deliberately ‘cheated’ on emissions tests of its diesel vehicles, with software which could identify when the car was undergoing a test, and activate emissions controls only during those times.…
Last Call – TransportBlog Movie Night: Wadjda
This is the final reminder about our upcoming fundraiser event tomorrow night at Capitol Cinema, on Dominion Rd. We’ll throw open the doors at 7:30 pm (or maybe we’ll just open them gently) and the film will start at 8:30. You can order tickets here.…
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