Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Housing Minister Chris Bishop might be encouraging tenants to negotiate a cheaper rent deal as prices drop – but how exactly do you do that?

RNZ reported that rents were at their lowest level in two years in September.

Bishop said after a select committee hearing on Wednesday that tenants should take the opportunity to ask for lower rent if they could.

We talked to two tenancy experts about how you might do that.

Arm yourself with data

Both David Faulkner, a property management expert and general manager of property management at Property Brokers, and Sarina Gibbon of Tenancy Advisory, said it would be important to go into a discussion with a lot of information about the market.

“Don’t lean on headlines and radio stories about national median rents or average rents,” Gibbon said. “No one rents a median or average house.”

She said tenants should look at comparable houses in their suburb listed on Trade Me and realestate.co.nz. “If they want leverage, tenants need to walk into that negotiation with the same knowledge the landlord has.”

Gibbon said tenants could get a sense of their local market by watching how long available rental properties were listed for and whether there were drops in advertised rent. “If there are quiet open homes that is an indication the market is quite quiet.”

Faulkner said people could also use Tenancy Services data.

“From seeing what is happening with rents and how many bonds are being lodged each month, this will help you get an understanding as to what is happening with rents.”

He said keeping an eye on the number of rental listings would help tenants understand how long a landlord might take to find new tenants.

“Knowing the market will help you when it comes to negotiating with your landlord or property manager. Compare your property with what is available, you will understand how your property sits compared with other rentals.”

Consider non-rent options

Gibbon said landlords might not always be in a financial position to move on price but they might be able to offer other assistance. “They might pay for parking for a year or provide parking, pay utilities or lift the maximum number of occupants to help pay rent.”

She said she had seen some taking on more maintenance, such as lawn mowing. “Their ability to drop rent is not endless … their ability to stomach lowered rent is sometimes more complicated than tenants would expect … you don’t have to go to the nuclear option of ‘I’m going to terminate if you don’t decrease my rent’.”

Know your position

Gibbon said how hard someone could negotiate would come down to their own position. “Understand how mobile or movable you are.”

Someone who could move easily would have more bargaining power than someone who was committed to an area because of a job or family ties.

“If there are not many properties in the area and you can’t really move but signal you could move away the landlord could know you’re bluffing. But if the area is saturated with comparable properties and you’re fairly movable, letting the landlord know could be a real pressure point at this point of the market.”

She said if landlords started suggesting a tenant lock in a fixed-term tenancy that could be a sign that the landlord wanted certainty and a good opportunity to negotiate.

But she said people should not overplay their hands, if they were not in a position to move or were not a particularly good tenant whom the landlord might not mind letting go. “The last thing you want is to come out of a very unserious negotiation and be characterised by a landlord as lacking credibility … you’re stuck in the tenancy with the landlord and it can make interactions quite awkward.”

She said a good tenant was a business asset, but someone who was late with rent or did not look after a property would be less likely to be able to strike a deal.

Understand your rights

Faulkner said it was important for tenants to know their rights.

“Market rent is defined in the RTA as ‘without regard to the personal circumstances of the landlord or the tenant, a willing landlord might reasonably expect to receive and a willing tenant might reasonably expect to pay for the tenancy, taking into consideration the general level of rents of comparable properties’.

“Landlords can increase rents annually but in a market saturated with rental properties being available, do not be afraid to negotiate. I understand that tenants may feel that the landlord has the ultimate power and can issue notice if you try to negotiate with them, but that would likely be viewed as being retaliatory and this is an unlawful act with exemplary damages of up to $6500 being available through the Tribunal.

“If you are a good tenant who fulfills their obligations under the Tenancy Agreement and the RTA, a landlord may accept an rent reduction rather than go through the risk and worry of trying to secure a new tenancy. If you can negotiate a reduction, you can also get a partial refund of your bond as a landlord can only hold four weeks bond (or now six if you want a pet).”

Landlords also had to provide and maintain a property in reasonable condition and comply with Healthy Homes as well as building, health and safety legislation. “Make sure any maintenance issues are reported promptly and dealt with accordingly. A landlord does not want to lose a good tenant. Particularly when there is a lot of choice out there.”

Faulkner said tenants should keep records of their discussions. “Any discussions around rent or any other matters should be documented. If you are served an increase, a landlord does not need your agreement to enforce it. However, there is nothing stopping you from doing a counter offer.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

More than 4000 people have been affected by an Inland Revenue error that could have meant they paid the wrong amount of tax.

RNZ was contacted by a reader who said he had noticed the error when he went to finalise his tax return.

Inland Revenue now issues income tax assessments each year for most New Zealanders, which tells them whether they have paid the right amount of tax.

The man said he and his wife would fill out an IR3 every year. “Nowadays the income, tax and imputation credits are automatically filled in, whether that be from investments in bonds, equities, or bank accounts.

“Having always done this myself longhand, I still do this and thank goodness I did.”

He said between them they would have lost about $20,000 in credits if he had not noticed the problem.

“I found that my summary of Income was correct, Income, RWT, imputation credits, but when this was automatically input into the IR3 form the imputation credits were only 50 percent of what they should have been.”

Inland Revenue said it had looked into the issue and identified a problem with how returns in the myIR system were pre-populating imputation tax credits for people who received dividends with imputation credits from jointly owned shareholdings.

“We have fixed this so any returns started in myIR from November 26 will not have this issue.

“Customers were able to amend the figure before filing the return; however, we have identified that approximately 4500 customers appear to have filed the return without changing the figure – so with the incorrect pre-populated imputation credits.

“We are currently working through the best way to amend these returns for the affected customers. Once we identify the easiest way to correct this error [we] will be contacting those affected customers.”

It said it believed the amount involved was an average of about $300 per person, “all in the taxpayer’s favour. Late next week we should have a clearer picture of the exact number of customers and tax involved as we implement a fix.”

Deloitte tax partner Robyn Walker said anyone who had not noticed the problem could have paid more tax than they needed to, or received a larger refund than they should have.

“It’s interesting that the income and tax credits aren’t kept together when the amounts are halved for spouses – I would have expected that the income and credits would have both been wrong.”

She said it was a problem that a system that was meant to be able to be relied upon by taxpayers was not working correctly.

“In the scheme of the total number of people who might invest in shares receiving dividends it’s possibly not a big error population; however the existence of any error in pre-population is concerning. One of the risks associated with income and tax credit amounts being pre-populated is that there is a natural tendency to just accept what is there if it seems ‘about right’ rather than taking the next step of validating that the information is actually correct against source documents. It would seem that this is what those 4500 individuals have done.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Auckland has welcomed the first passengers on what has been dubbed the “world’s longest direct flight”.

A new China Eastern Airlines service from Shanghai to Buenos Aires landed in Auckland just after 6pm Thursday.

Auckland Airport chief executive Carrie Hurihanganui said the new route would boost the New Zealand’s tourism and business links.

The flight from China to Argentina was expected to take more than 25 hours, with the return journey taking four hours longer.

The service will run twice each week, with passengers enjoying a two-hour stop in New Zealand before continuing on their final leg.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Customers who feel they have not been given enough notice about their Sky TV contracts rolling over should ask for a refund or cancel, Consumer NZ says.

RNZ was contacted by a Sky TV customer who said he was upset with how his automatic renewal was handled.

He said he was an annual Sky Sport Now subscription holder, with annual rollover, autorenewal and auto payment clauses in the contract.

But he said he did not receive any notice of the automatic rollover this year. Last year, Sky TV had got in touch a month ahead of time.

He said the annual subscription price rose by 50 percent from a promotional $365 to $549.

Sky also offered an active promotion of $399 but would not apply it to him, he said.

“I emailed within two hours of our card being charged yesterday to see if they would offer us the promotion, but they have not and are sticking to charging us the full $549.

“I am particularly concerned regarding the price aspect here, and whether an annual rollover is fair when the price of the contract increases by 50 percent. We can’t find any notice of that price increase either.”

Sky TV has not yet responded to requests for comment. The $399 offer was a Black Friday deal.

On Facebook, other customers expressed similar concerns. One advised other users to log into their accounts and deactivate automatic renewal.

Consumer NZ said it thought any term that allowed a business to roll over a contract or subscription without adequate notice or the ability top cancel was likely to be a breach of the Fair Trading Act.

“An automatic renewal clause is less likely to raise concerns where a customer is provided with reasonable notice that the contract is about to renew, a reasonable period in which to stop the renewal, and the ability to exit the contract without penalty.

“If Sky TV did not provide adequate notice to the customer, we think it should either allow the customer to cancel their subscription or offer a refund of the difference in price.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Air New Zealand says there will no longer be strike action affecting long-haul or regional travellers, but disruptions to its domestic, Tasman and Pacific services are still possible.

Cabin crew announced last month they were planning to walk off the job for 24 hours after failing to reach an agreement with the airline over pay and conditions.

Air NZ said it had now reached agreements “in principle” with unions representing its regional turboprop and widebody jet cabin crew.

“As a result, the strike notices for these fleets have been withdrawn,” a spokesperson said.

“We are continuing to make progress with our narrowbody jet cabin crew agreements and will provide further updates as soon as we can.”

There were currently no changes to flights, the airline said.

“Our focus remains on reaching agreements that avoid disruption.”.

Unions have been negotiating with Air New Zealand since April.

The airline originally estimated strikes across all of its fleets could affect somewhere between 10-15,000 customers.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Financial mentors are feeling overworked and overwhelmed by the deep economic pressures and complicated issues facing people struggling to repay debt.

Debt purchaser firm DebtManagers commissioned an independent report on the pressures faced by frontline financial mentors, who worked with an average of 40 clients a month, as part of the debt collection process.

“Everyday Kiwis are facing tremendous pressure, matched only by the pressure on the sector itself. Embarrassment and shame are major inhibitors to seeking help,” DebtManagers general manager Isaac Manase said.

“I think the reality of the economy is there’s always going to be difficult debt… but there’s got to be a better way to deal with those customers.”

The national survey of 151 practitioners indicated 46 percent felt they were overworked, with 83 percent working with clients with complex needs beyond financial issues, such as relationship problems, job loss and mental illness.

Nearly two thirds (65 percent) were seeing more indebted middle-income clients.

Ninety-one percent of practitioners considered face-to-face contact as the most effective channel for engaging on difficult debt issues, though only 13 percent felt the current funding model fully supported their work.

Nearly a third (31 percent) said funding hardly supported or did not support their work at all.

“We all have a role to play in lifting financial wellbeing, and we hope this eye-opening report is the start of a deeper, more meaningful conversation about the sector, regulations, policy settings, and how we all work together to achieve that,” Manase said.

“Reaching out early matters, but many people don’t engage because they feel ashamed, embarrassed, or whakamā, or simply overwhelmed.

“Compounding this is a concerning lack of awareness that free support is available through financial mentors.”

Code of conduct would help

He said an industry code of practice would be helpful.

“It’s actually in everyone’s interest to get these people back on their feet. And I think the challenge is, there’s a lot of corporates and government bodies that are all trying to do their bit to work out what’s best.

“But because we’re not consistent, it actually means that a customer who’s in difficult debt is working through different processes for different types of debt to different outcomes, and that actually adds to the stress and adds to the overwhelm and the shame, which is, which is kind of what’s highlighted in the report.”

He said early intervention was beneficial, though resources were stretched, particularly in rural and high-deprivation communities where there may only be small, part time teams available.

“And inconsistent processes can slow progress even when people are ready to engage,” Manase said, adding the report set out a number of recommendations for change, as follows.

Recommendations

• Build a consistent and compassionate sector.
• Establish clear national standards for conduct for government, creditors and collections.
• Strengthen the foundation of practice with better resourcing and more awareness.
• Align wider policy settings for financial stability to address the gap between income and real living costs.
• Human connection should be amplified, not replaced, by technology efficiencies.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Mobile network company 2degrees says it has resolved an issue impacting customers connecting, receiving, or making calls on their mobile devices.

The mobile company’s website says the outage was first reported just after 4am on Thursday morning but was fixed later at about 10.40am.

2degrees said there was no impact to emergency service calling and that 111 calls continued to work during the outage.

It said it was sorry for the inconvenience.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Dairy giant Fonterra has increased its first quarter profits to $278 million, $15m more than a year ago.

Key numbers for the quarter ended 31st October:

• Net profit $278m up $15m
• Forecast FY earnings unchanged at 45-65cps
• Midpoint milk price forecast $9.50 per kgMS
• Lactalis gains OIS approval to buy Mainland

Chief executive Miles Hurrell said earnings were in line with last year on the back of higher commodity prices, and first quarter profits were the equivalent of 17 cents per share.

“When excluding the costs associated with the Consumer divestment, Fonterra’s normalised earnings per share are 18 cents, up slightly on last year.”

“We maintain our full year earnings range for continuing operations of 45-65 cents per share,” Hurrell said.

Fonterra said it is making good progress implementing its strategy to become a global B2B (business to business) dairy provider after it completes the sale of its consumer Mainland Group.

“We are firmly focused on delivering the commitments we’ve made, not least our target to lift earnings back to FY25 levels by FY28, offsetting the impact of the divestment of Mainland Group,” Hurrell said.

Fonterra intended to invest $1 billion over the next three to four years in projects to generate operational efficiencies.

Mainland sale and capital return

Fonterra said the sale of its consumer brands remained on track and the French based buyer, Lactalis, had secured approvals from the Overseas Investment Office.

Separately, Fonterra said it was continuing to work through other regulatory approvals.

The co-operative expects the sale to close in the first half of 2026 after its farmer shareholders vote on the capital return in February.

Shareholders are set to receive $2 per share tax free from the sale, equivalent to $3.2b.

Last week Fonterra lowered its forecast farmgate milk price to between to between $9.00 and $10.00 a kilo of milk solids as increasing global milk production sent prices lower.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Consumers are cutting back on holiday gift-giving and vacations as cost-of-living expenses take priority.

A survey of nearly 1100 Westpac customers indicates nearly three-quarters (73 percent) were either extremely or moderately concerned about the cost of living, which was little changed from last year.

“This year has been tough for many New Zealanders, with prices continuing to creep higher despite inflation coming off its highs,” Westpac NZ general manager of consumer banking & wealth Helen Ryder said.

Only 15 percent of those surveyed expected to spend more than last year, while 42 percent expected to spend less.

Nine-out-ten of those (90 percent) who planned to spend less were cutting back on non-essentials like dining-out, shopping and entertainment.

The survey indicates 39 percent of holiday travellers, who travelled last year or planned to travel this year, were also cutting back, while 46 percent of those who used holiday accommodation were also planning to spend less.

“Taking some action now to plan your spending can help avoid a cash crunch or debt hangover down the track,” Ryder said.

However, just 27 percent had a holiday budget, while 40 percent had not done any financial planning.

“To reduce financial stress, we recommend sitting down as a family and putting some time into planning out your summer spending and then sticking to your plan,” Ryder said.

Tips for holiday spending

• Use a budget calculator to know your limit and then stick to it.
• Budget for the essentials first, like food and travel, before allocating leftover spending money on items like gifts and decorations.
• Talk to friends and family before going gift shopping to discuss whether you are doing presents, and if so, whether you should set a price limit.
• Make a gift list and check it twice to avoid impulse buys.
• Think about grocery shopping earlier rather than later as often items get more expensive closer to Christmas.
• Before paying with credit, see if you can reduce costs or use your savings, to reduce the amount of debt that needs to be paid back in the new year.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Two-thirds surveyed happy at work
• Direct line managers more influential, but only 56 pct happy with their manager
• Purpose is main happiness driver along with responsibilities
• Job security more important for happiness, but fewer feel it
• Nearly a third dread going to work, higher among Gen-Z

Happiness in the workplace has held steady over the past year as employees appreciate the purpose of what they do and the responsibilities that go with it.

A new report from recruitment website Seek showed 64 percent were happy at work, unchanged from the year before, with 12 percent saying they were unhappy.

Other top reasons included people were happy where they worked, the people they worked with, and work-life balance, but that was tempered by concerns about job security and some dissatisfaction with direct line managers.

Seek country manager Rob Clark said the maintenance of happiness was encouraging even with tough economic times.

“What stands out is that even with these pressures, New Zealand workers remain remarkably resilient and clear about what matters most.”

However, he said a mixed bag of factors affected sentiment, with more than a third least happy with career progression, and less than half content with company commitment to ESG (environment, sustainability, governance), salary, stress and senior leadership.

Clark said employers and senior managers should be aware of the changing factors in workplace mood.

“Happier employees are more likely to be engaged and productive, and far less likely to be looking for another role. By focusing on wellbeing, purpose and supportive management, employers can make a meaningful difference to how people feel at work.”

Gen Z least happy

The least happy group at work was Generation Z (those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s) with 58 percent saying they were happy, up from 45 percent in the previous survey.

Notably 40 percent of Gen Z workers dreaded going to work, were more likely to feel burnt out and exhausted.

Clark said Gen Z workers were most likely to have just joined the workforce and be at the bottom of the employment ladder and pay scale.

But the survey showed satisfaction among them for ESG issues, recognition, and feeling listened to or valued.

“In many instances they’re probably being asked to go the extra mile because of the current tough conditions and there’s less resource to go around … and that cohort is most likely to feel the cost of living pressures.”

Clark said the survey did not go into whether economic good times made for happier workplaces, but he suspected it probably did.

“I would say yes, simply because if we’re seeing wage growth and people are getting paid more over time then there’s more resources, and roles and responsibilities they have are a little better, their work is more enjoyable and that drives happiness.”

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