Latest / Best of Business / Scott Pritchard: Precinct Properties chief executive confirms move into residential property through proposed Auckland CBD project

Transcript

Scott Pritchard: Precinct Properties chief executive confirms move into residential property through proposed Auckland CBD project · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Together Do for Sea.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Allen, one of New Zealand's largest property developers, has just
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: announced two massive new projects in Auckland. Precinct Properties is
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: buying a property on Queen Street to build student accommodation.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Also bought another property on Dominion Road to build apartments
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Jashi Mark's a big move away from commercial property towards
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: residential property for the company. Scott Pritchett is the Precincts
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Property CEO.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Hey, Scott, hi herether how are you?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. Why have you decided to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: move into the residential stuff?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Well, look, I mean for a long time now we've
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: been developing a commercial office and then in the last
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: few years we've sort of moved into mixed use development
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: where you add retail and other uses to office, and
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: it sort of seems to us to be a really
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: natural extension of our business activities to now move into
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: residential Are.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: You a little bit worried about where things are at
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: on the commercial property front?
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Look, I think for the most part, a lot of
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: evaluation impacts have already been felt. You know, commercial properties
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: down sort of ten to twelve percent over the last
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: two years, and you know, interest rates are moderating, so
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: we expect from here the outlook to remain more consistent
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: and more constant than it has been for the last
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: few years.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Why student accommodation, Well, I.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Mean student accommodation is actually an international students in particular,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: our big economy in Auckland, we're still not back to
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: the levels that we were pre pandemic, and pre pandemic
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: that was a five billion dollar industry. One of the
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: biggest issues that we're seeing is that there's not enough
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: beds for international students to come to Auckland and not
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: enough regional or domestic students to come here either. So
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: you know, we're basically meeting that demand and want to
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: provide new supply so that you know, more students can
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: come here.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Do you reckon apartments are catching on in this country?
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I think they have to. You know, when we
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: have immigration levels at the level that we do, and
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: you know, we have a planning a regime which is
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: very permissive, which actually allows more density in and around
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: the city, I think we're going to see more and
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: more apartment living, and it makes it more attainable, and
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: that's what we think is what's desperately needed.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Does your apartment, your apartment block come with car parks
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: or no?
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely, Heather, you still think they're important. Look, we
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: do think they're important in any location. Frankly, I mean,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: public transport is good and it's getting better, but you know, Ke,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: we still love to drive your car.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Hey, how are you going with the plans for the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: apartments at the Downtown car Park site?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Look there, they're still in design. We're incredibly excited about
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: that opportunity. I mean, bringing that quality and that scale
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: of development into the city center. I mean, one of
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: the things that we think is lacking in the city
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: center is people that live there. We've only got about
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: forty thousand, and we should have more like eighty two
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: one hundred thousand in our city center. So we're going
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: to try and do our part, and we're really excited
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: about that opportunity because of Scotlanden.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, so you've got the stuff going on at
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the Downtown car Park, You've also got the stuff going
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: on at Queen Street. Are you are you at all
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: worried about the level of crime or whether it's going
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: to make those desirable locations or do you reckon it'll
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: be sorted by the time you've actually got people living
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in these buildings.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, we're worried about it. We need more police on
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: our streets in the city center. There's just there's no
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: doubt about that. And I think we've seen a real
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: absence of police and there's a consequence. You've seen chrime
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: showed up to you know, really really, you know, material
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and quite concerning levels. So we need more police on
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: the streets in the city center.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and do you have hope.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm hopeful that they're listening because there's a lot
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: of people talking about it and and quite rightly show
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: because the level of crime is at levels that have
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: never been seen before, so we need a response.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Scott, it's good to talk to you, mate, and best
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: of luck with it. That's Scott Pritchard, precing Property CEO.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talk zed B, listen live on
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on iart Radio.