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Meth contamination is a big worry for landlords, especially in the Waikato, but it won't stop them buying more properties

Property
Meth contamination is a big worry for landlords, especially in the Waikato, but it won't stop them buying more properties

Nearly a third of property investors have been significantly affected by loan to value ratio (LVR) mortgage lending restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank, according to the ANZ Property Investment Survey.

The annual survey of 784 members of the NZ Property Investors' Federation found that the investment strategies of 31% of them had been affected by LVR restrictions in the last year, and nearly half of those (14%) said the the restrictions had prevented them buying additional properties.

More than half of the investors (53%) said the LVRs on their own investment portfolios had dropped in the last 12 months and only 18% had mortgage debt equivalent to more than 75% of their properties' valuations, compared with 27% in the last survey.

However two thirds of the investors said they planned on buying more properties.

The top three areas of concern were the potential for damage to their properties, regulation such as LVR restrictions and tenants not paying their rent.

The biggest single cause for concern around potential damage identified in the survey was the possibility for methamphetamine contamination of their properties.

Thirty eight per cent of the investors said they were worried about the prospect of their properties being contaminated from the production or consumption of meth on their premises.

Those concerns were highest among Waikato investors where nearly two thirds (63%) said they were concerned about meth contamination.

However that doesn't appear to have deterred Auckland investors from pouring over the Bombay Hills to buy up rental properties, with 11% of Auckland investors saying the majority of their investments were in the Waikato.

And 84% of the investors surveyed expected property values to increase by 2.5% or more in the next 12 months and 53% expected rents to increase by 2.5% or more.

Eight nine per cent of investors said they planned to keep their properties for the long term.

"Despite their concerns, a major theme of recent years remains: investors continue to see property as a long term investment," ANZ head of mortgages Glenn Stevenson said.

"They are holding on to properties and seeing significant reductions in their LVR levels, primarily through capital gain."

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9 Comments

Was talking to a rural insurance specialist the other week, he was saying a group that own many farms around the South Waikato had their properties tested, 22 came back positive for meth use and one for cooking

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What it does show, is how effective the government's propaganda machine is in spreading misinformation to its supporters through conservative main stream media outlets. The veracity of these tests has long been debunked. but the results are still being used to induce 'moral panic', among the ill in formed.

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Can you please provide evidence that these tests are flawed.

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Tests are based on MOH guidelines developed in 2010 that addressed meth labs only - not from user contamination.

A govt led working group will be releasing new guidelines hopefully next month. It is expected that the limits requiring decontamination will be higher. You can read more here https://www.standards.govt.nz/touchstone/building/2016/sep/new-touchsto…

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Oh well, if "investors" are going to continue denying people the ability to buy their own homes then present them with insecure tenancies, the more people will continue to lose hope and slowly but surely, as it is, the rot will continue to creep ever up the foodchain, and more people will turn to this sort of thing.
There is a portion of the blame for the breakdown of our home owning society can be laid firmly at the door of those who are creating the situation.

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What are the figures I wonder for owner occupier houses? Probably not much different.
Recent media headlines show that the wealthy are hard drug users as well.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11729207

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It would seem that any trace of "p" is treated as if the property has been used to manufacture it. I would hazard a guess and say a rented property is a preferred choice to the cook's own property. The places I would be wary of would now be the likes of places you'd find on book-a-bach or something similar.
On that article, yes, that will interesting to see if said wealthy person gets the privilege of anonymity, he shouldn't.

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Someday, some tech-boffin will invent a meth-smoke detector that detects real-time and emits a siren-scream that can't be disabled by removing the battery

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We already have units with built in batteries that can't be removed. The problem is that criminals are not opposed to ripping the whole unit out and disposing of / destroying it.

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