Players soak up property tips

Professional development

ANDY JACKSON

Garry Malcolm speaks to members of the Taranaki rugby team attending a homebuyers seminar.

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Taranaki rugby players looking to life outside the professional game have shown they are willing to learn about some financial matters.

At a weekly professional development session the subject was the ins and outs of first-time home buying.

John Blaikie, Wellington-based Westpac business development manager who liaises with players in the Hurricanes region, rated Taranaki players as interactive, responsive and less likely to get things handed to them on a plate.

"They seem to want to learn, whereas in some of the other unions, if sessions like this weren't compulsory, you would be lucky to get four or five guys turning up," he said.

Like the Canterbury union, Taranaki regarded off-field development as important, Mr Blaikie said.

"Down there (Canterbury), the professional development sessions are compulsory like a training session is. You have to turn up unless you have a valid reason," he said.

"If you can get that off-field stuff happening, it flows on and it's probably nine times out of 10 why Canterbury is in the semifinals."

Colleen Copplestone, TRFU professional development manager, said the players' PD sessions ran once a week. A host of speakers and subjects had been brought in from financial advisers to spokespeople from youth mentoring organisation Big Brothers Big Sisters

"It's about upskilling them and getting them ready for life outside rugby. It could be quite a sudden departure of circumstances so they need to be prepared," she said.

Westpac retail bank manager Richard Martin, who co-ordinated last week's seminar at the Taranaki Rugby Football Union, said interest had been strong and the players were relatively perceptive.

"They're all professionals now, you are not talking to high school students. It's the same with all seminars we do. We get all sorts of people interested.

"They are there to deepen their knowledge and I'm sure even the guys have been through the process [of buying a house] will have picked up something from today."

The session, which attracted 15 players, encompassed talks from Telfer Young valuer Mike Myers, Taranaki Real Estate Institute president Garry Malcolm and Richard Martin.

Mr Myers pointed out that prices in Taranaki remained stable but that it was a buyers' market and competition for homes in the under $300,000 bracket was strong.

Sales volumes, which started rising in 2002, had now fallen back to 2000-2001 levels although the region was doing better than the national average. Building consents experienced a lull from about April to October last year but had risen again this winter.

"The big problem now is we have run out of sections to build on."

And the upper end of the market - the $750,000 to $1.5 million range -there was good sales volumes with agents sometimes struggling to find enough properties.

While people often relied upon the Government valuation, now called the rating assessment, its accuracy varied, he cautioned.

"Usually people use it as guide but they can be damaging. Often the properties haven't been looked at for some years."

Halfback Tyson Keats owns rental properties in Christchurch. In Taranaki playing his first season for the province, he was interested in the changing regulations around loss attributing qualifying companies. "It's about trying to suss out the best structure to benefit rental properties . . . getting the right system in place before you purchase."

Keats' flatmate and fellow player James Broadhurst is considering buying an investment property in the Far North, where he comes from. The valuation information was helpful, he said.

Player Timo Tutavaha, another home owner with aspirations to own more property, said home ownership was a form of compulsory saving.

"You're always putting money in instead of rent, which can be a waste," he said.

Taranaki captain Craig Clarke said he and his partner were getting ready to buy a first home. They'd considered the auction process but now realised they needed to get everything teed up such as a valuation and finance.

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