Did you know the government is proposing to allow building structures of up-to 60sqm in residential and rural zones to be exempt from building or resource consent? The building structures will need to meet certain criteria (yet to be determined) but it’s a step in the right direction to providing more affordable housing for families.

We have recently had a couple of clients wanting to know how excess rental property deductions/expenses (essentially a rental loss) can be utilised now they have sold their only rental property and they are no longer in the rental property business. Generally the excess deductions/expenses can only be utilised from future rental income or a taxable property sale. This goes to show how unfair the IR ringfencing rules can be for property investors.

Having to obtain a market valuation as part of a finance condition when buying a property can cause some unintended lending consequences, I found out recently. The valuer made mention of a few minor cracks in the fiber-lite cladding. The repair of those cracks within a short time period after settlement was then escalated to a condition of the lending.