Frank Newman

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New lending restrictions target property investors

The Reserve Bank has its sights set on property investors. The Bank has said for some time now that Auckland's runaway property market is unsustainable and a risk to the financial stability of the NZ economy.


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The economic horizon

Last month the Reserve Bank released its half yearly Financial Stability Report. Its purpose is to report on the soundness and efficiency of New Zealand’s financial system and the measures undertaken by the Reserve Bank.


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ELECTION 2014 - the winners and losers

The votes are in. While politicians spin the results, the numbers tell the story. So who won? Who lost? And why? National is celebrating an historic victory; Labour has the knives out for David Cunliffe; and Hone Harawira is still in a state of shock.


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Beware: Housing WOF on way

Two pilot warrant of fitness trials for rental properties are presently under way. One is a government initiative involving 500 Housing New Zealand properties and the other involves a “consortium” of interests involving the Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin councils, ACC, NZ Green Building Council, and the University of Otago.


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Orange - a sign of our green times

One knows all is not well within local government when a council makes national news for something as trivial as a road sign. Here’s some of the background. In 2005 a local business person placed a sign (no larger than an election hoarding) on an existing frame on private property set well into a paddock some 30 metres from a local road.


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Affordable housing

Home affordability has been in the news in recent weeks. The “problem” is a perennial political football, but things got a little more serious recently when the National Party released broad-brush details of their plan to deal with the issue. The Minister of Finance, Bill English, has correctly recognised that housing is becoming less affordable to low income earners and has proposed a range of initiatives to deal with it:


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Election 2011 - the winners and losers

The votes are in. The winners are grinners, and the losers are out or about to be ousted. While politicians spin the results, the numbers tell the story. So who won? Who lost? And why?


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Capital Gains Tax pitfalls and false prophets

Over the last few weeks various economists and tax experts have been trying to predict the economic effects of Labour’s capital gains tax (CGT) proposal. What the experts do agree on is the best tax is one that is simple, has a broad base and few exemptions and incentives.


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Taxing Matters

Calls for a capital gains tax are gaining momentum, but unfortunately the capital gains debate thus far has been tainted with misinformation and a lack of clarity as to what a capital gains tax would hope to achieve.


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Local Government, for better or for worse?

I guess I am in the unique position of having had two terms on council, one before the introduction of the Local Government Act 2002 (between 1995-98) and one after. After a six year break I went back onto the Whangarei District Council with fresh eyes and an expectation that nothing much had changed. Well that was not the case at all. The changes have been dramatic. I was shocked to see how far our local council - and I suspect all local authorities in New Zealand - had moved in only six years. The shift is seismic.