KEY POINTS:
The sister of Blue Chip founder Mark Bryers is touting for business again, offering burnt Bay of Plenty Blue Chip investors the opportunity to recoup their losses.
Lynda Rewita and her husband Mike ran the Tauranga office of the property investment scheme, before 20 Blue Chip-related companies were
placed in liquidation in February. In recent days the Rewitas have written to some of those who have suffered losses in the collapse offering them another property investment opportunity.
"As fellow investors in the former Blue Chip Company we are well aware of the situation you currently face," they wrote. "We have sourced properties that will enable us to recoup our lost deposit on the unsettled Blue Chip properties.
"We are now working with a new company that is prepared to share some of the margins made available to them from various vendors."
The letter offers a sample of how the investment would work. It says the new property would be valued at $300,000, for example, but would be purchased at $260,000, immediately saving the purchaser $40,000.
If the property's value was to grow at 7.2 per cent per annum, after five years it would be worth $424,713, the letter says.
"We would structure this so your original Blue Chip property loan is incorporated into the new property so that you will not have to carry the burden of that loan," the Rewitas tell the prospective investor. "There is the potential for you to recoup all monies invested in both properties in around 5-6 years."
REINZ figures show the national median house price has fallen 4 per cent since its peak in November.
Last night, Mrs Rewita confirmed the letter, saying she was offering help to people that she knew.
"They're in terribly dire straits, I just wanted to help them."
She said she and her husband were in the same situation, but she declined to discuss their personal losses on Blue Chip. She said she wasn't concerned about entering into more Blue Chip-style property investments as she "totally believed that everything worked perfectly for our product".
"It's just that something's gone wrong somewhere along the management, somewhere, I don't know where, that's the liquidator's job I suppose."
Asked about her brother's role in that management, she said: "I don't think blame helps anybody quite frankly. I just want to see people trying to help people."
Thousands of Blue Chip investors are out of pocket following the collapse of the scheme, with some facing mortgagee sales on their homes. Some have no idea where deposits paid on yet-to-be built developments are, while others have been left holding sale and purchase agreements on apartments they have no hope of affording.