DIY attitude and cost concerns prompt landlords’ to reject property managers

The findings were revealed in a survey conducted by Realestate.co.nz of its email subscriber base which was completed by 398 people.

The survey found a fifth of respondents identified themselves as landlords (21%), and a further 7% said they are or plan to be a property investor.

Realestate.co.nz chief executive Alistair Helm said he was surprised at the amount of respondents identifying themselves as involved in property investment.

"It's a decent number and would probably give a sense that people haven't given up on investment property - far from it - they're pretty keen to keep in that area of future investment," he said.

Helm said his initial perception was that the company's audience would be "just regular home buyers or first time buyers."

"Clearly the information that we provide is of appeal to people who are in the property investor market. That was quite a surprise and a welcoming insight to see."

Among those indentifying themselves as landlords or property investors, the majority, 41%, said they did not use a property manager as they preferred to do it themselves.

One third (31%) said they employed the services of a property manager and of the remainder, 21% cited cost as a reason not to use a property manager and 7% said they hadn’t considered using one.

The survey also asked landlords/investors how many properties they owned.

The majority owned either two (32%) or one property (28%), while 24% owned between three and five properties and 14% had five or more.

The survey also found 32% of respondents were looking to buy and asked further questions around their intentions.

It found 30% plan to buy a property within the next month, 22% within six months and 15% within the next year.

The remainder was split into three groups of 11% planning to buy within three months, when a deposit had been saved or when the market improves.

More interestingly for current property investors, the survey also asked respondents who identified themselves as tenants when they intended to buy.

The majority, 33%, said it would be when a deposit had been saved, followed by 20% intending to buy in the next 12 months, 18% in the next six months and 15% in the next 18 months.

Only 8% said they were waiting for the market to improve, and 5% said they never intended to buy.