The John Kenel Show
Straight talk on property, money, and getting ahead in New Zealand.John Kenel has spent over 20 years developing property and 27 years investing in it. More than 1,000 homes built. On this show he breaks down the property market, development, and money the way it actually works, not the way the system wants you to see it.No jargon. No fluff. No spin. Just real talk for tradies, investors, business owners, and everyday Kiwis who want more freedom and more control over their lives.If you've ever felt like the rules are stacked against ordinary people trying to get ahead, this is...
Will NZ's New Housing Policies Make The Housing Crisis Worse?
A smaller deposit can get you into a home sooner. But it doesn’t make the house cheaper. I’ve built over a thousand homes. Here’s my take on the housing promises, the costs that keep piling up, and what I think would actually help.
What’s the biggest barrier for you: the deposit, the repayments or the price of the house?
Recorded 27 October 2026. Policy proposals may change.
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NZ Election 2026: What Every Voter Needs To Know About MMP
You've got two ticks on the ballot paper. One chooses your local MP. The other largely determines how many seats your chosen party gets, if it qualifies.
I work through the room-of-chairs example, the 5% or one-electorate rule, why TOP received more than 63,000 votes but no MPs in 2023, and how ACT qualified below 5% in 2008. Then we get to the part after election night: who can put together the support to govern.
You can give both votes to the same party or split them. What matters is understanding what each tick does. These are examples of the...
NZ's Economy Is Turning: Housing Recovery, Auckland Pricing & New Planning Laws
Can New Zealand build its way out of this slump? And what happens when AI changes how we work faster than the property market recovers?
Andrew Crosby joins me for a conversation about property, business and where New Zealand goes next. We compare how we’re actually using Claude and ChatGPT, from research and development feasibilities to travel planning, and ask what young people should be learning now.
Why are some Auckland townhouses selling below replacement cost? Why have Auckland and Hamilton had such different results over the past decade? And will...
What NZ’s Largest Mortgage Broker Really Sees Happening in Property Right Now
John Bolton is the founder of Squirrel, New Zealand’s largest mortgage broker doing around $3 billion in mortgages annually, and one of the country’s biggest non-bank construction lenders with $700–800 million deployed into development finance.
In this episode, John Bolton sits down with John Kenel for a straight-up conversation about what is really happening in the New Zealand property market right now.
They cover buyer confidence, yield, pre-sales, product mistakes, developer margins, down-sizers, and where the next opportunities may be setting up.
What you’ll learn:
- What Sq...
How A Council Could Halve Your Building's Value Overnight
An election policy announced on Sunday would change how commercial leases work in New Zealand. Two parts. Rent reviews on leases already signed could go down, not just up. And if a CBD shop's been empty for more than a year, the council could give the landlord 8 weeks to find a tenant, then auction off a lease on the building.
My area is residential, so I asked someone who works with commercial leases every day. My son Alex is a commercial broker at James Group Real Estate in Auckland. We go through what a ratchet c...
Why Socialism Suddenly Sounds Attractive (A Property Developer's Honest Take)
More young New Zealanders are looking at the housing market and deciding the system's rigged. In plenty of ways, they're right. I've been building houses for over 20 years and I've benefited from the way things are, so I'm not here to tell anyone they're wrong to be angry.
The question is whether the fix being offered actually fixes it, or makes the same system bigger. In this episode: why the anger is rational, what actually failed (and why "free market" is the wrong name for it), who a bigger state actually suits, the Vienna question, the developer...
Is UBI Really the Answer for New Zealand? Universal Basic Income Explained
Governments around the world are talking about paying you to exist. It's called a universal basic income, and AI is the reason it's back on the table.
In this episode I look at what's actually being proposed here in New Zealand and overseas, what the real-world pilots in Finland and Ontario showed, what a land tax looks like from someone who actually holds land, and the part almost nobody talks about: what happens to the relationship between you and your government when your income and your money both come from the same place.
...
Removing Investors Won’t Fix NZ’s Housing Crisis: Here's Why
Someone commented that developers are deluded and my 695,000 home was a ripoff. Fair enough, I've heard worse. But it got me onto the argument I have nearly every day: get investors out and more Kiwis will own a home.
Partly right, but it answers the wrong question. So in this one I do something simple. I count the houses. When an investor sells a rental to a first home buyer, one household becomes an owner, and that's great, but New Zealand still has the same number of homes on the ground. The name on the t...
NZ Property Market Is Near the Bottom: What Happens Next?
John Kenel sits down with John Bolton from Squirrel, New Zealand’s biggest mortgage broker.
What’s getting funded, what’s getting declined, and why?
They discuss the OCR at 2.5%, the water companies that are now a bigger development risk than councils, why 41% of apartment sellers lost money last quarter, Australia’s negative-gearing changes, and how AI is starting to change the property industry.
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Kiwi's Are Working Harder But Falling Further Behind
You're not falling behind because you're lazy or doing something wrong, the ground has genuinely shifted under ordinary Kiwis and nobody's bothered to explain why.
Power up 12%, council rates up 9%, insurance up 30% in three years, but the official inflation number says 3.1%.
Once you understand what's actually happening, you'll stop blaming yourself and start building a life that can't easily be pushed around.
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NZ's Inheritance Tax: The Government's Cut of Your Life's Work
The Greens are calling it a capital acquisitions tax because inheritance tax doesn't poll well, but whatever you call it, it means the government takes a third of what you've spent your life building. This isn't just a tax debate, it's a family debate. Most inheritance isn't super yachts and mansions... It's a house, a small business, a few rentals that mum and dad built by working hard, taking risks, and saving for decades.
Get finance for your property development with Squirrel: https://funding.tpdc.nz/
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New Zealand Must Learn From Australia's Tax Changes
Its time New Zealand start taking a look at Australia's tax changes and learn from them, both their mistakes and what they do well...
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New Zealand's Pension Problem Is Bigger Than You Think
New Zealand's pension system is heading for a cliff. In 1965, seven working-age people supported every retiree. Today it's four workers per retiree. By 2065, it'll be two workers supporting every person over 65.
The system was built for a different country with a younger population. Now we're trying to run the same pension promise with half the workforce to pay for it.
The usual answer is 'just lift the retirement age.' But that hits people with physical jobs hardest - tradies, builders, roofers can't work until 67 like office workers can.
...
What If NZ Interest Rates Go UP From Here?
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Record Kiwi Leaving: Why Im Still Optimistic
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NZ Property Development Market Has Changed: Here's What To Do Now
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NZ Property Development Market Has Changed: Here's What To Do Now
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What NZ Councils Aren’t Telling You About Water Reforms
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Why Capping Rent Won't Work In New Zealand
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Whats Actually Happening with NZ Property Lending
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Why New Zealand Needs Property Investors
Property investors get a bad rep in the media, but as someone who works in the property space, I think its a bit misguided, here's why...
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Rent Cap's Wont Work In New Zealand
The greens have come out with a handful of new plans around property and whilst on the surface they may seem attractive, the reality is very very different, today I break it all down.
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Waikato Signed Away $3billion In Water Assets: Whats Actually Happening
Ive got a funny feeling about whats going on... Let me know what you think in the comments
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New Zealand's Fuel Crisis: Whats Actually Happening
There seems to be a lot of mixed reporting in terms of whats happening with fuel in New Zealand, so here's everything in one place
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New Zealand's Fuel Crisis: Whats Actually Happening
There seems to be a lot of mixed reporting in terms of whats happening with fuel in New Zealand, so here's everything in one place
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1970s Stagflation: The Economic Disaster Nobody Expected
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Why Debt Runs the Modern Economy: The Cantillon Effect
The Cantillon Effect explains who benefits first when money gets created, but it doesn't explain when things really went off the rails. For that, you need to look at what happened next.
World War I changed everything. Before then, money was tied to gold and governments were constrained. Wars are expensive, so they borrowed and printed. What started as 'temporary emergency measures' became permanent features of the system.
By 1971, Nixon closed the gold window completely. From that point on, money became whatever government said it was. Inflation stopped being an accident an...
Is Free Speech Gone In New Zealand?
The laws have changed, but has the culture? National rolled back Labour's hate speech proposals and forced universities to protect free speech. On paper, that looks like a win for democracy.
But freedom on paper doesn't mean much if people are still scared to speak out. Most of us learned to keep quiet during the Ardern era, not because of what was illegal, but because of what felt dangerous to say.
The real question isn't whether you trust this government with speech laws. It's whether you trust any government to decide wh...
The Truth About NZ Inflation (how it's rigged against you)
The government says inflation is 4%. Gold says it's 19% per year. Someone's lying, and it's not gold.
Most people think inflation just means prices go up. But there's something much bigger happening, a 300-year-old trick that decides who gets rich and who gets left behind.
When central banks create new money, it doesn't land in your bank account. It goes to governments, banks, and big institutions first. They buy assets before prices rise. By the time that money reaches your wages, everything costs more.
This isn't bad luck or...
Is the Kiwi Dream of Home Ownership Dead in 2026?
In this video, I break down what's really changed these past few years in the property space. The equity gap between asset owners and savers. Why DTI rules protect the system but lock out a generation. And the good news... Supply is finally moving, red tape is being cut, and we're past the housing market bottom.
Co-ownership, townhouses, regional moves... Home ownership in 2026 looks different. The ladder hasn't disappeared, it just changed shape.
Stop waiting for the past to return. Adapt to the market as it is.
Sig...
Property Red Flags: What Not to Buy in New Zealand
Some properties will ruin you, not because they're bad, but because they're lemons. I've been buying property since 1997 and I've owned some disasters myself.
Leaky homes, cross lease issues, body corporate nightmares, flood zones, bad orientation - these aren't just minor problems. They're deal breakers that can cost you hundreds of thousands.
In this video, I walk you through the biggest red flags to spot before you buy. From deferred maintenance to unconsented work, these are the traps that catch good people who just want to get on the property ladder.
...BREAKING: NZ Granny Flat Rules Explained (What Actually Changed)
The government just announced new rules for minor dwellings - granny flats, sleepouts, tiny homes. The ads say 'no consent needed' which sounds like you can just drop a small house in your backyard.
Not quite.... So tune in to find out whats actually happening.
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I'm Angry At New Zealand... But Im Choosing To Stay
I'll admit it - I've been carrying anger towards New Zealand for years. It started with the lockdowns, the mandates, the way families were separated and businesses crushed while costs kept ticking. That resentment started bleeding into everything.
But carrying anger like that is toxic. It wears you down and narrows your view. So I made a conscious choice to let it go.
Once I stepped back, I saw what I'd been missing - New Zealand is actually a fantastic place to live. The space, the nature, the simple day-to-day living th...
The Truth About Digital ID In New Zealand (and what to do about it)
We've already seen this playbook in New Zealand. Vaccine passes turned your rights into permissions overnight... No jab, no job, no cafe, no life. That technology didn't disappear. It's still there, updating every six months, waiting for the next 'emergency.'
Now they're pushing digital ID as convenience. Faster logins, easier renewals, all your life in one app. But when everything's connected to one system the government controls, convenience becomes control.
In this video, I break down what's really coming... Digital ID linked to your money, your property, your movements. How ce...
Gold & Silver Boom: What's Actually Happening?
I've been a hard asset guy for 30 years, property, productive businesses, real stuff you can't print. Over the last few years, I've been telling anyone who'd listen to look at gold and silver. Now everyone's paying attention.
Gold's up 70% this year, silver's up 150%. That's on top of strong gains last year. Something's definitely happening, but is it hype or something real?
In this video, I break down what's actually driving these moves, plus, the smart way to get exposure without going crazy or falling for tinfoil hat stories.
S...
Gold & Silver Boom: What's Actually Happening?
I've been a hard asset guy for 30 years, property, productive businesses, real stuff you can't print. Over the last few years, I've been telling anyone who'd listen to look at gold and silver. Now everyone's paying attention.
Gold's up 70% this year, silver's up 150%. That's on top of strong gains last year. Something's definitely happening, but is it hype or something real?
In this video, I break down what's actually driving these moves, plus, the smart way to get exposure without going crazy or falling for tinfoil hat stories.
S...
2026 NZ Economic Predictions: Stop Waiting For A Crash
If you're waiting for house prices to crash or interest rates to fall further, you might have already missed the boat. While everyone was waiting for perfect conditions, something big quietly happened in New Zealand that most people didn't even notice.
I've been through three decades of property cycles, and it's always the same story. The best opportunities show up when things still feel uncomfortable.
In this video, I break down what actually shifted in 2025, what I'm seeing right now, and how I think things play out from here. Plus, a ha...
NZ's $1.6Trillion Wealth Transfer: What You Need To Know
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NZ Housing Oversupply, Gold Surging & Whats Happening To Developers? with Andrew Crosby
Final Property Development Club podcast for 2025! Andrew Crosby joins me to wrap up the year and look ahead to what's coming.
We dive deep into the government's new development levies system - how it'll replace development contributions and what it means for developers. Plus, economist Cameron Bagrie's bombshell claim that we're actually overbuilding in New Zealand right now (34,000 consents vs 20,000 homes needed).
Andrew shares his LinkedIn poll results, we cover contractor availability, the two-tier market, and why some suburbs are up 10%+ while townhouses struggle.
Also: Goldman Sachs pre...
My 2026 House Price Predictions: The Good, Bad & What to Watch
I've been investing in property since 1997 and developing since the early 2000s. I've seen every boom and bust. Here's my take on where house prices are heading in 2026.
I break down the three key drivers: interest rates, immigration, and confidence, plus what could derail things.
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