Latest / Best of Business / Eyal Aharoni: property mogul says earthquake strengthening rule changes unlikely to slow down Wellington projects

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Eyal Aharoni: property mogul says earthquake strengthening rule changes unlikely to slow down Wellington projects · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: The owner of two of Wellington's most infamous earthquake prome
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  Speaker 2: buildings says the new strengthening rules which were announced this
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  Speaker 2: week aren't going to make them changes reno plans. El
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  Speaker 2: Aharni is developing Reading Cinema on Courtney Place and the
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  Speaker 2: Amora Hotel, which have both been shut for years because
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  Speaker 2: of earthquake damage, and he's with us now eyol, Hello, Hello, Hello,
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  Speaker 2: Why have you decided to stick to the old rules.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're lost sticking to the old rules the new look.
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  Speaker 3: First of all, I have to say that I only
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  Speaker 3: know about the changes from the media and from a
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  Speaker 3: bit of a brief so so I'm not that familiar.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I'm not sure if I got it all right.
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  Speaker 3: But they haven't. They changed the requirement off that you
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  Speaker 3: don't need to strengthen answer from buildings if you don't
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  Speaker 3: want to. But the markets, we believe the market and
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  Speaker 3: us will require more resilient buildings, so we will. You know,
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  Speaker 3: in fact, the Reading Cinema we've already committed to some
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  Speaker 3: tenants to go there and they all assets to bring
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  Speaker 3: the building to to a better rating than than just
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  Speaker 3: over the aspect on threshold. And also the insurance. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we all needed to have insurance, and the insurance doesn't
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  Speaker 3: see a building with low seismic rating. And also we've
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  Speaker 3: we've been through a few esquakes and we know that
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  Speaker 3: the rating, the strength and needs actually improved the performance
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  Speaker 3: of the building in an ethuk And we spent we're
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  Speaker 3: going to spend a lot of money on this building,
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  Speaker 3: put a new feet at and you know we don't
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  Speaker 3: want to spend all that money and have another small
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  Speaker 3: ethpect and we all have to do it all again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand. So what do you what do you
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  Speaker 2: think insurance is going to expect? Is insurance going to
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  Speaker 2: look at the new rules and simply accept them.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think the rules. Look as I said,
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  Speaker 3: I'm not an engineer, and I don't think the rules
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  Speaker 3: has changed. You still still have a building which is
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  Speaker 3: weak and the building which is strong, and the insurance
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  Speaker 3: won't have a strong building to protect the insurance. So
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  Speaker 3: whether the government doesn't force you to bring it over
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  Speaker 3: thirty four percent or not, doesn't I don't believe it
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  Speaker 3: we're going to make any difference to the insurance.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the insurance, I mean obviously for some smaller buildings,
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  Speaker 2: it will have an impact, right, because if you have
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  Speaker 2: a building under under under three stories, you're you're not
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  Speaker 2: really required to do anything. Do you think insurance is
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  Speaker 2: going to be okay about that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think it depends on the top of the building. Again,
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  Speaker 3: if it's non reinforced building, I believe the insurance will
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  Speaker 3: still want you to do some work on it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I don't believe the insurance. Look, it's it's a it's
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  Speaker 3: a it's a government arbitrary decision whether you need to
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  Speaker 3: fix the building or not. I don't think it makes
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  Speaker 3: any difference to the insurance. They're still going to have
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  Speaker 3: a look at their risks, what happened to the building
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  Speaker 3: and how much is going to spend on it if
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  Speaker 3: if something happens.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, when need your build things opening.
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  Speaker 3: Well we you know, we will hope for the reading
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  Speaker 3: to open at the end of next year. That more
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  Speaker 3: is going to take longer, but probably a year.
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  Speaker 2: After twenty six and twenty seven.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, that's fantastic.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, this is going to be significant isn't it,
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  Speaker 2: Because those are two buildings in a very crucial part
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  Speaker 2: of Wellington that have really shut down that part of
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  Speaker 2: It's had an effect, hasn't it on that part of town.
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  Speaker 3: I look, there's a lot of empty buildings, but these
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  Speaker 3: two stand out, so people perceive them to be to
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  Speaker 3: make a big difference. Maybe the reading does. I don't
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  Speaker 3: know about them more. Yeah, yeah, hey, I'm raised a
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  Speaker 3: very significant building.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, absolutely, Eel thank you so much for you
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  Speaker 2: time appreciated. E LAHRONI who's a property owner in Wellington.
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  Speaker 2: Hither I'm in insurance. I'm a broker and the new
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  Speaker 2: rules will have no impact on insurance and trying to
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  Speaker 2: place insurance for buildings that are constructed under a certain
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  Speaker 2: percentage that are going to fall over in strong quakes,
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  Speaker 2: and insurance will judge this accordingly.
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