Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

A developer taking over the site of an iconic Wellington fruit shop has unveiled his plans to transform the building into luxury apartments.

The second-generation owners of the Eastbourne Fruit Supply are shutting up shop next June, after 65 years of operation.

Locals have been disappointed to learn the Lai family is moving on, but developer Sam Faisandier is also aware of the speculation about what’s next – and notably, how high?

The director of family-run business, the Faisandier Group, said after almost a decade of residential builds in Lower Hutt, he’s excited for the challenge ahead, not to mention the site.

“Corner sites are quite special to get your hands on, every block there’s only four of those in there, and this is probably one of one – it’s got that north-west aspect and it’s in the centre of the village, which is very tightly held.”

The final plans were still underwraps, but he had the vision – 8-10 luxury apartments above 200 square metres of commercial space – including (hopefully) a new green-grocer. Car parks were also on the cards.

The target demographic? The downsizer who wanted to stay in the area.

Faisandier said the size and location meant they’d have to be smart about the build.

“Building up in Wellington has always been challenging. There’s been a lot of under-development. So, I think fitting in with the area – four to five levels is probably where it sits best.”

But best was up for debate, with local of 38 years Margs Mills adamant the new construction shouldn’t be too high.

“Eastbourne is quite an iconic little village that we’re very lucky to live in. To be frank, two storeys high, three at a push, would be more than enough.”

The village centre had only one building higher, Rona House – a seven-floor apartment block. Mills said people love living there, but it hasn’t been without controversy.

“The plan was to have two of them, but once the first one was built – and this was years ago – everyone went nuts and said, it causes a terrible wind funnel.

“We don’t want anything very tall.”

Mills said change was inevitable but it had to be in keeping with the flavour of the village.

As for the commercial spaces below the apartments, she had some ideas.

“Certainly another green-grocer because we’re going to miss the Lais terribly.

“Some kind of gift shop would be really nice. Maybe a nice restaurant would be fantastic, a nice family restaurant.”

Eastbourne Community Board member Bruce Spedding, said he did his best to keep his finger on the pulse of the tight-knit community.

With regard to a new development, he felt the biggest concern was that it wouldn’t fit with the village character.

“Four storeys sounds fairly dramatic for Eastbourne, so it would depend on the impact that that has on the village. How the design fits in with what’s already here.”

He said there was nothing wrong with apartments, but reserved further judgment until he’d seen the plans.

Spedding said a revamped retail strip (in the ground-floor commercial space) would be pretty important, and could see it tying in with a future visitor boom brought about by a new ferry and cycleway into Wellington city.

“So all that will involve a lot more outside people coming into Eastbourne, so we want to be able to cater for that as well. It’s quite exciting, there’s a lot going to happen next year, I think.”

He said ultimately anything that supported Eastbourne businesses was a good thing.

“These things that are happening could in fact be sort of revitalising.

“Basically, what we want to do is just make it viable for what we’ve got to remain here.

“In a lot of other places, businesses are closing down and moving out and communities are losing local resources … so it’s quite a positive thing in that regard.”

Spedding said although it was no longer required in the district plan, he encouraged a community meeting so the developer could share plans and hear feedback – a proposition Faisandier was open to, once plans firmed up.

Faisandier said the company wasn’t in a rush – there were projects to finish first – and they wanted to get it right.

“Our challenge will be to blend it into the surroundings and use the right type of materials and look.

“There is a bit of special flair … I want to reuse some of the exisiting brick. So, there’s a little bit of a cherry … we’ll try and incorporate some of the materials and recycle them into the construction.”

He said all going well, the timeframe to begin work was 2027.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

It’s tough for shoppers buying meat and dairy at the checkout but strong dairy payouts and higher returns for sheep and beef farmers are fuelling the early days of economic recovery.

The latest look at the state of regional economies by consultancy Infometrics confirms the recovery is underway but is still patchy with South Island regions outpacing growth seen in their North Island counterparts in the September quarter.

Nationally, economic activity rose 0.9 percent in the quarter but has not yet returned to the level it was at this time last year.

Infometrics principal economist and lead demographer Nick Brunsdon says the growth story remains a tale of two islands with all South Island regions growing faster than the national average, boosted by the strength of the primary sector.

“Encouragingly, even metro areas are starting to recover, collectively gaining 0.7 percent per annum in the September quarter, although this recovery remains slower than provincial and rural areas,” he said.

“Fonterra continues to forecast a strong dairy payout midpoint of $10 per kg of milk solids and if this figure falls, as the latest Global Dairy Trade auctions imply, farmers would still wind up with the second-highest payout on record.

“Returns for beef and lamb have increased too – at the expense of consumers buying mince – but boosting returns for dry stock farmers.

“Kiwifruit and apple growers are also earning a higher return on elevated export volumes.”

The warming of regional economies has yet to translate through to an increase in spending, he said.

Households were carefully guarding their wallets with a backdrop of continued job losses.

“Businesses are going ‘cool, orders are up, but we’re not quite at the point where we need to hire more staff’ and so they’re generally going to hold off until that order book solidifies and they get the confidence that they actually do need to add to their roster.”

On the jobs front, five South Island regions saw growth in the number of filled roles during the quarter. The West Coast led the pack with 1.6 employment percent growth.

Nationally, employment went backwards, falling 0.6 percent, with metro areas even worse off with a 0.8 percent decline.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Co-Operative Bank says it is the only bank to have passed on the full official cash rate cut to floating mortgages – but other banks say that isn’t the full story.

Since the Reserve Bank began reductions to the OCR 15 months ago, it has dropped from 5.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

Another cut is expected this month.

In response, the Co-operative Bank said it had reduced its floating home loan rate by 3.1 percentage points – or just slightly more than the drop in the OCR.

It said other banks had dropped their floating rates by between 2.55 and 2.7.

Reserve Bank data shows that advertised special fixed home loan rates have dropped over that same period from about 7 percent on average for six-month terms, 6.9 percent for one-year and 6.5 percent for two years, to 4.8 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.3 percent on average respectively.

Mark Wilkshire, chief executive of The Co-operative Bank, said, “With the bank’s floating volumes almost doubling in the last year, we’re pleased to offer both great value and flexibility through our market leading rate.

“We estimate that New Zealanders could be paying more than $100 million per annum extra due to the amount of floating rate cuts held back by the big four Australian banks,” he said.

“With another OCR review due at the end of November, it will be interesting to see how other banks respond in what remains a delicately poised economic recovery,” Wilkshire said.

He said people often did not pay a lot of attention to floating rates but the amount being paid in interest on them would add up.

“There’s $47 billion sitting out there in the banks on floating rates so it does fly a bit under the radar. We thought it was worth taking stock as we head towards the bottom of the cycle.

“How much is being passed on out of that across the whole sector? And it certainly adds up when you look at all the amount that customers have sitting on floating balances.”

But ANZ said people looking at rate changes needed to consider the full interest rate cycle.

“Through the recent interest rate cycle, following changes to the OCR (both increases and decreases), there are times when we’ve not passed on changes to the OCR in full.

“Between October 2021 and May 2023, the OCR increased by 5.25 percent. In response, ANZ increased floating home loan rates by only 4.2 percent. During this time the RBNZ increased the OCR 12 times. Following seven of those announcements ANZ did not pass on the full OCR increase. For example, following the 50-basis point OCR increase in February 2023, ANZ made no change to interest rates.

“Since August 2024 the RBNZ has cut the OCR eight times, from 5.5 percent to 2.5 percent. In response, ANZ has reduced home loan floating rates by 2.75 percent.

“In summary, when the OCR was increasing, ANZ increased home loan floating rates by 105-basis points less than the total OCR hikes. In the more recent OCR easing cycle, we have cut our floating home loan rate by 25-basis points less than the total of OCR cuts to date. That balance needs to be considered.”

It said banks had multiple lending sources and needed to consider a range of factors when deciding to make changes to the interest rates available for lending and deposits.

Reserve Bank changes would influence wholesale market interest rates but were not the only driver.

Westpac said it was working hard to provide value across all lending and savings rates.

“Around 87 percent of our home loan customers are on a fixed home loan rate, where we offer sub-5 percent special rates on all fixed terms from six months to five years – one of the only main banks to do so. Supporting this, an analysis last week by Opes Partners rated Westpac as consistently offering the lowest fixed rates of any [main] bank over the last two years.

“While we’ve cut our variable home loan rates by 2.55 percent a year since the OCR started falling, we’ve cut some business lending rates by 3.05 percent – more than the OCR has fallen – to support them to grow. To support our savings customers, we’ve passed on just 1.75 percent of OCR cuts on our 32-day Notice Saver product.”

Wilkshire said most people were still taking short-terms when they came to refix.

“The majority choice is still going for those one-year rates because they are the lowest rates. But that’s where I think a good conversation with someone who offers good service will actually look at your whole needs and see what suits you and take those circumstances into account because you do want to look at what you’re paying on floating, what you’re paying on fixed and should you be fixing for the longer term as we head towards the bottom of that cycle.

“I think rather just defaulting to the lowest rate at the moment, it is probably just worth having a broader look at the full range of your options.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand