Finance

First-home buyers and investors are weighing the benefits of new builds against turnkey options.

This week’s column explores how to get on the property ladder as national confidence lifts and what it means for Taupō

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA), which issues licenses to advisers, prefers the word adviser to broker.

Financial advisor Brian Coogan takes a look at what we can expect from 2026

Byline: Insights with InFinance by Brian Coogan

It’s the age-old question and the answer is – it depends!

OPINION: New Zealand’s proposed new earthquake-rating framework is set to reshape the commercial property landscape, altering how buildings are valued, financed, and insured — and offering a possible lifeline to one of the country’s most iconic heritage structures, the Chateau Tongariro.

In New Zealand’s dynamic property market, commercial property mortgages continue to play a crucial role in supporting business growth and investment.

As peak season approaches, many businesses face the familiar cash flow crunch — suppliers demanding upfront payment while customers take weeks to settle their accounts.

 Starting and running your own business is the dream of a lot of people - the thrill of being your own boss, doing it your way and the freedom to create what you want – it’s exciting and scary all in one and when you finally achieve success you wonder why you didn’t do it years earlier. Speaking from experience here.

In the current economic climate it may seem like its taking forever for the economy to get going with echoes of ‘survive to 25’ long faded in the distance, it’s a slow train coming.

Homes to be built in the first stage of Taupō District Council’s innovative new residential development at Taupō South are now on the market.

Since the start of this year, we’ve said that 2025 will be all about easing while everything settles down, setting us up for a recovery starting late 2025, through 26 and into 27.

Kicking off our sector on business finance is Invoice Finance, also known as factoring. While popular overseas, it’s a highly underutilised facility in NZ.

While it’s great to have access to insurance facilities and indeed essential to many parts of our lives, there are guidelines we need to adhere to in order to protect our access to it.

As there are many facets to insurance it’s easy to get bewildered about what you need and don’t need and what’s even available out there. That’s where your licensed insurance adviser is qualified to provide the cut through you need.

What a difference a year makes with 2.5% shaved off the OCR in 12 months since August 2024.

While we go about insuring our lives and income so others are taken care of if something happens to us, there’s also our own needs to think of in the event we are no longer able to function as we once did.

Insurance, in one form or another, can be traced as far back as 1750 BC, through medieval times and to modern insurance as we know it evolving from 17th century traders and the advent of mortality tables … it’s been around a long time.

While NZ trading banks are all regulated by the Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) in relation to their codes of practise, not so non-bank lenders, with some exceptions.

As renovations can range from a simple facelift to a full makeover inside and out with structural changes, so too can the loans that can make it happen.

Building a new home from the ground up can be exciting and scary all in one however experienced builders and mortgage advisers are on hand to walk you through the process.

Romance and finance have both blossomed for a young couple who work at Taupō Pak’nSave.