$12,000 Ground Rent For Apartment Owners

The New Zealand apartment owners are facing a ground rent issue at present. The ground rent has been suddenly increased by 400 percent the previous year.

The earlier ground rent for the Auckland’s Beaumont Quarter opposite Victoria Park was between $1900 and $3900 a year. This was one of the largest high-density housing estates of the country. It consists of 258 apartments, developed between 2001 and 2007 by the Auckland developer Nigel McKenna of Melview group of companies.

With the new ground rents imposed, they will have to pay about $18,000 a year per apartment. While some owners have moved out of their places finding it impracticable to pay such high ground rents, some have filed against the increase in ground rents.

And finally, they were able to settle it to 244 percent increase rather than the 400 percent. Though they have to pay around $900,000 to $3.1million annually, people say it is a big win over the landowners’ actual claim to pay $4.4 million a year.