Kiwis not investing

Kiwis returning home are refusing to put their hard-earned cash into the local housing market, says a leading international recruitment agency working with top executives coming back from the UK.

But not all is doom and gloom in New Zealand as some experts believe if you look far enough into the future you'll want to buy now as untapped oil deposits could turn the country into a hot investment.

'Returnees are no longer rushing into a house purchase, and are happy to wait for the market to find a new level and the kiwi to weaken,' said Richard Manthel, local managing director of finance and management recruitment firm Robert Walters which has 5000 ex-pats on its database.

A series of seminars in London run for returning Kiwis and potential migrants shows the New Zealand dollar, at its current levels, is giving a lot of angst to those wanting to move.

'Looking at returning Kiwis, a few years ago they'd charge back, buy a place and it would appreciate. Now they are sitting on their hands because of currency concerns - the British pound to kiwi conversion rate at the moment is just under 2.5, a marked contrast from its more usual three dollars to the pound.

Jodi Wallace, an accounting manager at Tip Top, is one of the former UK-based candidates Robert Walters has placed in New Zealand. She and some of her accountant friends are waiting for the currency to right itself before they buy. She has done the sums and says it makes better financial sense to have her money in the UK earning 5 per cent interest rather than converting it and bringing it home.

On the other hand Bill Buechler, who runs an investment management company in the United States, is amazingly confident about New Zealand's prospects in the next decade or two and believes the Kiwi economy is heading for a boom.

'We are set to enjoy big cash infusions from the continuing commodities boom, New Zealand's image is that of a safe and attractive place to own property, and, most significantly, it has an oil bonanza that could be as significant as the North Sea oil boom was to Britain,' he said.

New Zealand has big, barely explored territories with promising geology for oil deposits. Mr Buechler is convinced there is a lot of oil out there and, with the black gold at more than US$100 a barrel, there is an incentive to look hard for it.

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