Surprised no one has mentioned the Sunday Star Times article on Terry Serepisos. SCF have the second mortgage on many of his buildings though Marac has a couple and the real surprise was that Hanover might have made an ok loan!
My opinion is that the Wellington commercial property sector is going to be under heavy pressure for the next few years. IRD will be vacating 11 buildings around town by themselves for their new headquarters soon, Asteron are leaving a whole building on the Terrace for 1 floor in the same building. The new Telecom building in Willis Street will see several more older buildings vacated. BNZ's previous tower in Willis Street they left this year for the waterfront is still empty and the for lease sign is up for floors 4-15 in the ANZ Tower opposite me. These are all very large and well paying tenants that will be difficult to replace for the building owners. Needless to say not many government departments are expanding at the moment with most slowly reducing headcount.
Thus lots of reasonable office space available in Wellington with plenty more coming on stream so expect more impairments to come from this sector.
Inside the $230m Serepisos real estate empire
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4002...-estate-empire
Oh and if you need further evidence, here's a special I saw on the street outside a prominent cafe on the Terrace (where coffee alone used to be $4.50) this morning....
"Bacon, Eggs & Coffee for $10"
The Horror!