Landlord charges market rent

Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, July 10th, 2010 - 10 comments
Categories: capitalism, Maori Issues - Tags: ,

Last week The Herald ran this interesting piece:

Rent to start flowing for iwi land

Thousands of tenants in Auckland’s CBD face rent rises from next year as hundreds of millions of dollars worth of waterfront land begins returning income to its Maori owners. Leasehold rent payments on the ex-railway land bounded by The Strand, Quay St and Beach Rd have been suspended since Ngati Whatua bought the 20ha block in 1996. But from August next year, the iwi will begin sending monthly bills to owners of valuable real estate …

The Ngati Whatua O Orakei Maori Trust Board’s chairman, Grant Hawke, said the leasehold income would be hugely beneficial, but urged caution so the rents did not look like “a gold rush” by iwi.

Ngati Whatua O Orakei’s corporate chief executive, Tiwana Tibble, said ground rent income would benefit the iwi’s approximately 5000 members. Education scholarships were a priority. …

“We’re not going to bend over and give huge discounts. We don’t see why we have to,” said Mr Tibble. But the iwis expect a backlash, declaring in the May edition of the newsletter E wawa ra that “there could be negative media coverage aimed at Ngati Whatua as landlords”.

Landlord charges market rent – would this be “news” if the owners were not Maori? Would the land owners be so apologetic if they were not Maori? Would a backlash be expected if the owners were not Maori? Rhetorical questions one and all. We still have a ways to go, don’t we.

10 comments on “Landlord charges market rent ”

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  1. Nate 1
    10 July 2010 at 9:36 am

    Naw, I think that most of it is due to them not charging rent fro the start. Letting the corporations have free space was the problem…

  2. tsmithfield 2
    10 July 2010 at 10:19 am

    I agree that Maori land owners should be just as entitled to charge market rent on their land as anyone else. It shouldn’t become a big news story. Neither should Maori have to feel embarrassed about it. You won’t get any disagreements from good capitalists on this one.

    • QoT 2.1
      11 July 2010 at 12:07 am

      You won’t get any disagreements from good capitalists on this one.

      If only there weren’t so bloody few of them …

  3. Akldnut 3
    10 July 2010 at 11:38 am

    It’s their property, they can charge whatever sum they like.
    If it’s good enough for everyone else, its good enough for them!!!

    I have a property across the road from them and I charge market rent, why shouldn’t they?

  4. Monty 4
    10 July 2010 at 1:39 pm

    I personally would never touch a lease-hold property for exactly this reason. When one purchases a property on leasehold land in theory they should not pay for the land – just the improvements. There may be a sum added for the difference between the current rent and the market rent (NPV) of the rent until the next review.

    However you are wrong if you think they can charge what ever they like. This is not a new lease but typically the owner has perpetual rights of renewal on their lease or are long lease terms so the rents are adjusted periodically. Because of this there is a mechanism for establishing rents or a disputes process – if you do not like it then the matter needs to be referred to arbitration. The current interest rates (such as the OCR) will be about the % charged as a rental on these properties.

  5. millsy 5
    10 July 2010 at 4:40 pm

    Just goes to show that the iwi elite are not the wonderful people that the left think that they are – sometimes that can be worse than the white man.

    • felix 5.1
      10 July 2010 at 7:58 pm

      Um, the right is in govt with the iwi elites you moron.

      I challenge you to find a single positive word about iwi elites from a lefty on this blog.

      • millsy 5.1.1
        13 July 2010 at 6:51 pm

        Felix,

        A few months ago, the people on this blog proposed transferring a large part of this country’s conservation estate to the Tuhoe elite. Who I would presume would charge rich tourists thousands of dollars to access and leave us regular honkies to settle for driving past it in their cars.

        (I wonder what old Don Anderson, the man who lead me into the Ureweras back in 1997-98, thinks of it)

  6. lprent 6
    10 July 2010 at 5:35 pm

    Be good for the NW to get more income. Then they can acquire more land, and send more kids on scholarships. I think that they’re one of the larger land owners around Auckland.

    I think I will have a nosey around and see what the plans are for the future

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