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  • The month of August was a HUGE month at Whittle Knight & Boatwood Ltd. Firstly – it was student season and we leased 119 properties !!!!!!! (up from 94 for the same month last year).  Of course, this means January and February will be very busy months for the PM team with students moving in and out of properties. A very strong trend that we saw come through from our busy month was that students are very particular with the property they want to move in to. Insulation was foremost in their minds, as was the proximity to Canterbury University – the closer the better, and by that we mean just a couple of streets away. The further away the property is from University can result in the property taking longer to lease. The limited window of opportunity for Students to take up properties for next year will peter out by mid-September. So if you do still have a property not yet leased, please heed the advice of your property manager because they do know best.

 

  • Secondly – Members of the PM team attended two conferences during the month – covering all things property management, both in New Zealand and Australia – which is all part of our commitment to provide you, and our tenants, with the most up to date management service, together with being totally across all the upcoming proposed changes to Tenancy legislation.

 

  • Just on those Legislation/Changes/Updates – yes all the ‘talked about’ changes to the Residential Tenancies Act that have been swirling in the media since the change of government, appear to be starting a more formal process by inviting everyone to have a ‘discussion’ on the proposed changes to the legislation by submitting their comments before 21st October 2018 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/housing-property/residential-tenancies/rta-reform If you read through this link you will see that most of the proposals are not really any cause for concern. The majority of our leases are fixed, and most rent increases are annual. We do have a couple of complexes which are Boarding Houses – but they are modern purpose built and run smoothly. So many of these proposals will have very little or no effect on how we operate. Of course, it’s important to remember that these are just proposals and may or may not eventuate to law, and even if some of them do, there will be timeframes before they become law. The proposed new standards for rental properties concerning heating and ventilation, came out earlier this week. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106802734/Landlords-face-race-against-time-to-bring-rental-homes-up-to-new-health-standards As with the changes to the Residential Act – these proposals for heating and ventilation are open for public consultation until 22nd Again – these are just proposals and whether all, or any, or none of them become law, or a combination thereof, is yet to be seen and of course there will be timeframes for this too.

 

  • We finished the month celebrating Daffodil Day (supporting the Cancer Society) by putting on our annual morning tea. We appreciate the wonderful donations from our owners and tradespeople that attended. Many thanks to everyone.

 

**Insulation Reminder** – If you are still to arrange insulation to your property(ies), please remember that you only have until 1st July 2019 to do so. Already we are receiving email requests from MBIE to see that we have included the insulation statement in the Tenancy Agreement on various properties.

 

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