John Kenel

John Kenel Built 1,000+ homes in NZ 🇳🇿
Property, money & what gets in the way
Straight talk to help Kiwis get ahead
New videos every week The result?

Assured Property is based on one simple belief - investing in property should be easy and accessible to every-day New Zealanders. The founder and director of Assured Property, John Kenel, bought his first rental property in 1997. Six years later, as John bought and developed his portfolio, he was driven to share his knowledge and expertise to others - and to assist other Kiwis in experiencing the benefits that rental ownership provided. This drive and belief combined in the creation of Assured Property - offering an innovative product to retail investors. Assured Property designs and builds properties with both the investor and tenant in mind - creating multi-tenanted residential buildings in high-demand Waikato locations. A reliable, tangible asset that provides immediate yield as well as long-term growth. In short - a high-quality rental investment that is ready for tenants, pays for itself - and provides benefits both now and for the future. After 20 years of providing close to 1,000 rentals for over 600 buyers, Assured Property are trustworthy partners with proven expertise. Encouraging their investors to enjoy the benefits of passive cashflow and long-term capital gains, Assured Property has delivered consistent results for their buyers - allowing them to invest and enjoy their new financial freedom.

Week 9 was a big week on site at 88 Aurora Terrace.The slab is down for Units 4 and 5, with the frames due to arrive nex...
20/09/2026

Week 9 was a big week on site at 88 Aurora Terrace.

The slab is down for Units 4 and 5, with the frames due to arrive next.

We've also got the right-of-way manholes going in. Nobody stops to admire a manhole, but it matters just as much as the stuff you can actually see above ground. Drainage, services, access and all the infrastructure underneath it have to be right before everything gets covered up.

Once the frames go up, these last two units will change pretty quickly.

Funny thing about development, you can spend weeks looking like not much is happening, then suddenly the whole site looks completely different.

I'll keep sharing the progress each week. The wins, the stuff that doesn't go to plan, and what I'd do differently next time.

88 Aurora Terrace. Week 9.

20/09/2026

Some cities just keep attracting people. Standing above Cape Town last month, you can see why.

It is not only jobs, and it is not only property prices. It is the whole package.

Climate, coastline, restaurants, lifestyle, scenery, and the energy of the place.

That matters economically. When talented people want to live somewhere, businesses follow. When businesses follow, jobs follow. And when jobs and people follow, demand for property follows too.

I've built around 1,000 homes and I've always thought property is about much more than bricks and mortar. You are really investing in where people want to build their lives.

The building is the easy part. The place is what you're actually buying.

Australian interest in New Zealand property is up almost 190%. That's not random.In May, Australia announced major chang...
19/09/2026

Australian interest in New Zealand property is up almost 190%. That's not random.

In May, Australia announced major changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. From mid 2027, negative gearing will generally be limited to new builds, while the 50% capital gains tax discount is also being changed. Existing investments get protection under the new rules.

The aim is to give first home buyers a better shot. Fair enough. Housing affordability is a genuine problem and Australia, like New Zealand, needs more people to be able to buy their own home.

But here's the bit governments sometimes underestimate. Investors have options.

Realestate.co.nz says Australia based property seekers looking at New Zealand jumped 163% year-on-year in May, when the changes were announced, then almost 190% by August. They're not just browsing either. Enquiries and saved properties have increased as well.

That doesn't mean we're about to be overrun by Australian buyers. New Zealand still has plenty of stock for sale. In August there were 32,908 homes on the market, 45% more than 3 years ago.

But it does show something I've seen over and over again in property. Capital doesn't argue with the rulebook. It just looks for somewhere else to go.

If you want more investment into new housing, make building new housing attractive. Make consenting easier. Get infrastructure sorted. Reduce the costs and delays that get loaded onto every new home.

Because ultimately, you don't solve a housing shortage by shuffling investors around the board. You solve it by making it easier to build more houses.



Link in first comment.

The freight operator can pass the fuel bill on. The farmer says he can’t.That’s the bit that caught my eye in an ABC sto...
19/09/2026

The freight operator can pass the fuel bill on. The farmer says he can’t.

That’s the bit that caught my eye in an ABC story out of Australia. A transport industry representative described fuel surcharges being updated weekly as prices jump around. A grain farmer outside Wagga Wagga said he sells into a global market. His costs going up doesn’t mean he gets paid more for his crop.

Same story. Very different room to move.

You can see how that lands here too. If you’ve already quoted the job and agreed the price, a bigger fuel bill can come straight out of what you thought you’d earn.

Passing it on isn’t always an option. Neither is putting your price up and assuming the customer will stay. And the family at the checkout has nobody to send a surcharge to.

That’s the part I’d like to hear more about when people talk about businesses “just passing costs on”. Some can. Others lose their margin trying to keep the work. Worth knowing which side of that you’re on before you quote the next job.

The cost has to land somewhere. Often it’s with the person who has the least room to move.

19/09/2026

New analysis of the REINZ house price index, adjusted for inflation, shows real house values nationally are back where they were 9 years ago.

Auckland is back to 2015. Wellington is about 42% below its real peak. The Waikato has given back about 6 and a half years of real growth.

For first home buyers that's genuinely good news. More choice, more time, and about 8 months of stock in Auckland.

It doesn't mean housing is cheap. Interest rates, insurance and council rates have all risen a lot.

For years the policy settings assumed property investors were making a killing. That ended on its own, mostly through interest rates, with inflation and new supply doing the rest.

The interesting part is the Waikato, where real prices have gone backwards while average asking rent has hit a record $587 a week. That tells you where the return sits now. Not in waiting for the market, but in the price you pay, the rent the property earns and what you can add to it.

If you're buying now, the deal has to work today. Buying and waiting for time to do the work is over.

19/09/2026

Auckland Council is considering reducing or removing services such as parks, buses, street lighting and some compliance services for fast-track developments it didn't plan for.

The underlying problem is real. Fast-track is a central government scheme that exists because normal consenting has become too hard, so developers use it. At the same time Wellington is bringing in a rates cap.

The council says it has 50,000 to 60,000 homes in unanticipated developments and about $5 billion of infrastructure and services needed. Someone has to pay, and developers should pay their share. We already pay development contributions and connection charges.

But the council also says it wants to recover more from "future residents." Once those homes are built, the people who miss out if services aren't there aren't the government or the developer. They're the family that bought the house and pays rates like everyone else.

Fix the funding. Charge the right costs upfront. Don't use basic services as leverage against people who had no part in the fight.

If Auckland sets this precedent, other councils will follow. That's the part worth watching.

17/09/2026

Do you know the highest mortgage rate you can handle? At what point does a higher interest rate simply become too much?

Most people have never worked it out.

The Reserve Bank has lifted the OCR twice since May and it's sitting at 2.75%. It has said the rate might have to go higher, and that future moves depend on how things track from here. So nobody really knows exactly where rates are going. Not me, not your bank, not the economists. We can all have an opinion, but we're guessing.

There is one number you can know, and that's your own.

Sit down with your mortgage and add every other cost you carry. Council rates, insurance, power, food, the kids, all of it. Then start increasing the interest rate and find the point where it stops working. Not where it gets annoying, and not where you cut back a bit. The point where you've run out of room and there's no money left.

You can't control where interest rates go. You can know how much you can handle.

17/09/2026

60%. That's the pass rate for a group of drivers who were made to sit their driving test again.

The national average is 83%.

So roughly 4 in 10 of them failed.

They were retested because 5 driver testing officers at one testing site had been sacked. 631 people tested by those officers were told they had to sit another test. Of the ones who did, nearly 4 in 10 failed. NZTA calls that an elevated safety risk.

There's now a wider investigation called Operation Kea, looking into allegations of bribery, corruption and fraud in the driver licensing system.

To be fair to NZTA, it says the vast majority of driving tests are done properly.

For any business with people driving its vehicles, there's a practical step here. NZTA runs a free service called Driver Check that shows licence status, classes and endorsements, and notifies you when a status changes.

In certain cases, the police can impound a vehicle and the load for 28 days. If that happens, whether you took reasonable steps can matter. Driver Check gives you a record that you actually checked.

17/09/2026

I ignored a sore shoulder for three weeks.

Kept putting it off, took more ibuprofen, carried on and hoped it would sort itself out. Yesterday I finally went and got it worked on. It feels heaps better already.

Driving home I thought about the logic of that. If the ute had made a weird noise for three weeks, I wouldn't have taken a Panadol and hoped it went away. I'd have had it looked at.

Funny how we look after our gear better than we look after ourselves sometimes.

If you work with your body, your body is part of your gear. It's what earns the money. A sore back, a dodgy knee, a shoulder that won't come right. That's your engine warning light.

Don't do what I did and leave it for three weeks. Book it in.

16/09/2026

Auckland house prices are down roughly 25% in nominal terms, and 35% once you start factoring in inflation...

John Bolton from Squirrel thinks we're now sitting on firm ground and at the bottom of the market at this point, due for a recovery in the near future

Watch the full interview with John Bolton here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl47qbVmEJs

Get finance for your property development with Squirrel: https://funding.johnkenel.com/

 

Education only, not financial advice. Do your own research or talk to a licensed professional.

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