Well, honestly the answer is NO, at least in my case. It has been a challenging year not only for landlords, actually for all of us, as we witnessed the ongoing global financial crisis where the centre moved from US to Europe. You can’t ignore - the world economy shows significant cracks and the banks are nervous. The interest rates remain low but lending criteria are very stringent if you try a home loan application.

This year will be remembered of New Zealand that won the Rugby World Cup 2011 and a year of NZ’s general election with same expected results and surprises.

No surprise as expected, the National Party leads for another term the government but still with 60 seats in the Parliament needs a coalition. Don’t get me wrong but these coalition games have always been a good reason not to deliver as promised and excuses for finger pointing. Why not having a ruling party selected by democracy that is accountable for their legislation? But the public opinion with 55.76% goes with MMP and has to pay for compromises with little results. 

In his victory speech, John Key was focused on "building a more competitive economy with less debt, with more jobs and with higher incomes". How that can be translated for landlords is not really clear to me as residential property investors already had to compensate this year increases in expense and loss by “zero” depreciation. Next year the increasing costs are driven by rising levies from the local government and GST on higher expenses for all sorts of services, petrol and mostly the increase in insurance premiums. Property investors, I know, have already taken all developments on hold this year and it will be even harder for businesses like plumbers, builders, electricians, cleaners, etc to survive. It has been ignored that New Zealand has a property driven economy and all small businesses depend on it.

Big surprise is that Winston Peters returns to the Parliament with more new MPs on his train. Now, we had already a shake recorded as 5.7 magnitude at 7.19pm last Saturday night. Cracks in buildings were recorded but that is not my only concern.

What is about you - did you achieve everything you were hoping for?

I am a big believer in positive thinking. But also I watch what happens around me and when I see that banks lower the fixed-term interest rate for one year below 6% than I can imagine what they expect from the next 12 months. So – be aware of it.

And for the end of this year there is something more - you can't be up all the time. So plan and take a break. Don't wait until December 31st to do this. Life is too short – so enjoy this Christmas season with all your friends and family. Despite of reading above, be optimistic and plan time to recover when life throws something in your way. You are prepared and in business for a good reason!

Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!

Klauster