Marketing New Zealand properties to Asia and Australia

'Indonesian and mainland China investors purchased three of the four buildings in the Spark head office complex in central Auckland'.

Expecting strong offshore interest in New Zealand's commercial and industrial property to continue this year, Bayleys will be resuming regular visits to major cities throughout South East Asia and to Australia as well as pursuing a number of overseas marketing initiatives.

The first of these will be "Investment New Zealand: a Focus on New Zealand as a Property Destination" which will include a portfolio of properties likely to be of particular interest to South East Asian investors.

James Chan, Bayleys' Asian sales director, says properties are currently being sourced for the Investment New Zealand portfolio which closes off next Friday February 27.

Chan says Asian investment is mostly focused on large-scale commercial opportunities either with strong tenant covenants and/or an opportunity to add value; substantial commercial, industrial, mixed use and residential land holdings, particularly where development feasibility studies have been undertaken; and properties which have a business and/or leisure component such as vineyards, food production facilities, hospitality premises and accommodation complexes and golf courses.

Chan will visit Hong Kong, Ghangzhou and Shanghai in mid-March promoting the Investment New Zealand portfolio and touching base with Bayley's large database of existing clients in these cities as well as meeting potential new investors.

At the same time, Chris Bayley, Bayleys' international director commercial and industrial, will be showcasing the portfolio in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and participating in seminars on New Zealand investment and immigration. Bayleys has been presenting on the New Zealand property investment market for the past three years at these seminars organised by consultancy company Euro-Asia and run in conjunction with ANZ, business advisors and accountants Crowe Howarth and immigration consultants Malcolm Pacific.

"Attendees are prequalified and must have a significant amount of capital to invest and many have expressed an interest in moving to New Zealand," Chris Bayley says. "The seminars are then followed by one-on-one meetings with investors who have a particular interest in acquiring property or property related businesses."

Bayleys undertook a number of substantial transactions to South East Asian investors in the latter part of 2014, including the sale for around $185 million to Indonesian and mainland China investors of three of the four buildings the agency sold in the Spark head office complex in central Auckland; the sale of the Pakuaranga Plaza shopping and office complex for $96 million to Singaporean investors; and large land holdings in East Tamaki and West Auckland for close to $90 million.

More recently, Bayleys concluded the sale of a substantial Auckland CBD development site to a mainland China developer for in excess of $50 million which is due to settle in March. On a somewhat smaller scale, a Hong Kong investor has purchased a six level building in Anzac Avenue in central Auckland for $6,350,000, at an 8.4 per cent yield on its new 12 year lease to a private education provider and a Chinese investor purchased seven of the larger retail units in the Foundation, a recently completed retail convenience centre in Albany, for just over $11 million.

"Buyers of high value property are discerning and generally undertake extensive due diligence," says Chris Bayley."One of the challenges this year will be securing sufficient good quality larger properties to satisfy the demand from both offshore and local investors."