Waikato Business News July/August 2018

8 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2018
Conversations with Mike Neale
of NAI Harcourts Hamilton
Almost everyone we talk to who
either owns a commercial property
or looking to redevelop one,
makes comments about the increasing
compliance costs and skyrocketing costs
to redevelop - this comes in the form of
central government legislation for seismic
and asbestos compliance, plus ongoing
Hamilton City Council consent requirements.
These consent requirements
come from the associated reports (traffic
impact, acoustic etc), to the often-bureaucratic
red tape that is often followed to
the letter of the law, whereas a different
approach would often provide a significantly
faster and potentially better outcome
for all parties. More rules do not
in my opinion provide a better outcome
as can be evidenced with several in what
can only be described as awful residential
developments (one in Tristram Street and
one in Vialou Street comes to mind immediately)
that were completed several years
ago - but they conform to the rules. What
is often not appreciated of this bureaucratic
process is the additional cost to the end
user due to time delay - every consultant
and scaffolding provider is seeing the
benefit to their business. It’s almost becoming
too complex for building owners
to manage buildings themselves.
ASBESTOS – A SUPER 6 ISSUE
Asbestos is an international problem and
there is no doubt that it is a problem. The
issue being that the legislation does not
differentiate between the 3 main types
(white, blue and brown) of asbestos which
have markedly different risk factors.
On 4th April 2016, new Asbestos regulations
came into force under the Health
and Safety at Work Act 2015. From 1 October
2016, importation of products containing
asbestos was banned.
As commercial and industrial property
owners, buildings constructed before
1990 are likely to contain asbestos materials.
Materials containing asbestos are not
dangerous if they are in a good condition
and remain undisturbed, however we are
now getting requests from purchasers and
tenants as to whether ‘at risk’ buildings
have had an Asbestos Report undertaken.
Typically, industrial buildings are likely to
contain asbestos and it can be found in:
• Roof ventilators
• ‘Super Six’, ‘Super Eight’
roof sheeting
• Skylight and manhole
frames
• Asbestos cement vent pipe
and capping
• ‘Super Six’, ‘Super Eight’ or
architectural designed wall
cladding
• Vinyl floor tiles or sheet
vinyl floor coverings
• ACM woven fencing product
Asbestos testing and removal
is carried out by private service
contractors. The Health & Safety at Work
(Asbestos) regulations 2016 outline the
functional requirements. Testing, removal
and disposal of asbestos must be undertaken
by a licensed practitioner due to the
health dangers of the asbestos fibres.
A SEISMIC ISSUE
From 1 July 2017, the Building (Earthquake-prone
Buildings) Amendment Act
2016 (the Amendment Act) came into effect.
The purpose is to ensure that the way
buildings in New Zealand are managed
for future earthquakes is consistent across
the entire country. This will also provide
more information for people using buildings,
such as notices on earthquake-prone
buildings and a public register.
Due to the new legislation, this means
that the Hamilton City Council’s current
Mike Neale - Managing Director,
NAI Harcourts Hamilton.
Earthquake-Prone, Dangerous and Insanitary
Buildings Policy which became operative
in 2006, is now redundant.
As Hamilton’s geographical location
is considered to be a medium risk of having
a major earthquake, this means that
building owners will have 25 years to upgrade
their building after such time that
the Hamilton City Council send them a
formal notice. Council’s in medium risk
areas, have 5 years to send out formal notification.
Part of the new legislation is the introduction
of ‘Priority Buildings’ within
high and medium seismic risk areas.
Such buildings are considered to present a
higher risk due to their construction type,
use or location. There are two key categories
of priority buildings:
• certain hospitals, emergency and
education buildings
• buildings that include parts of
unreinforced masonry that could fall in
an earthquake which are located with
sufficient pedestrian or vehicle traffic
that warrant being a priority, such as
the central city area of Hamilton.
Such priority buildings will need to
have their seismic work carried out in a
shorter timeframe. For Hamilton, these
priority buildings, will need to be upgraded
in 12.5 years from receipt of official
notice. Hamilton City Council is still assessing
which buildings will fall under
this category.
The legislative requirement is to be
to a minimum of 34% NBS (New Building
Standard), while government departments
and often large corporate tenants
may have a requirement to be above 67%
NBS. The issue that we are facing is that
many of our buildings will not have these
types of tenants, but banks for new purchases
are requiring 67% NBS or costs
to get buildings to this level. Surely if
the building is above 34% NBS and its
insured, that should be sufficient for lending?
at this point if your building sits in
“no man’s land” of 34% - 67% then its
highly likely that you will not be able to
borrow on that particular asset.
For further information on The Building
Act 2004 – Refer to Subpart 6A—Special
provisions for earthquake-prone buildings
(http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/
public/2004/0072/latest/whole.html)
NAI Harcourts Hamilton
Monarch Commercial Ltd MREINZ Licensed
Agent REAA 2008
Cnr Victoria & London Streets, HAMILTON
07 850 5252 | hamilton@naiharcourts.co.nz
www.naiharcourts.co.nz
J1261P
Waikato takes the crown
in New Zealand Business
Case League 2018
A team of 12 management students from
the University of Waikato are relishing the
sweet taste of victory in this year’s Student
Development Society National Business
Case League 2018.
Waikato's case team
were named national
champions at the
weekend following their outstanding
performance in all
three rounds of the university
competition; held in Dunedin
(April 14), Auckland (May 12)
and Wellington (July 21).
“We placed in the top three
in every round, so we achieved
our goal of being strong contenders
at every stage,” says
Dr Stephen Bowden, senior
lecturer in management at
Waikato Management School.
Six universities vied against
each other for top honours. In
each round, teams are given
a case of a real-life company
to analyse. They then seek to
come up with the best ‘real
world’ business strategies in
just a few hours, which they
must present to a judging panel
of business leaders.
Victoria finished second
overall in the league, Auckland
finished third, Canterbury and
AUT came fourth equal, while
Otago placed sixth.
Dr Bowden says the
national competition empha-
sises “real-world connections,
teamwork and thinking on
your feet - plus with small
enough size that you get a lot
of input from academic staff”.
Waikato won the first
round, maintaining its historic
tradition of having never been
beaten in Dunedin. They followed
this with back-to-back
third placings in Auckland and
Wellington, securing enough
points overall to reach the winner’s
podium.
The team of 12 winning
management students from
Waikato are:
Round 1: Keegan Adams,
Renee Butler, Honour
Schuchardt, and Liam Whittaker.
Round 2: Caitlin Langlands,
Loren Morse, Brittany Oliver,
and Elliot Rhodes.
Round 3: Cathan Bowler,
Kelcy Ballyntine, Robbie
Mercer, and Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell.
Waikato team member
Liam Whittaker, who has just
completed double degrees in
Victorious management students from
left, Renee Butler, Keegan Adams, Liam
Whittaker, and Honour Schuchardt.
management and law, says case
competitions play an important
role in “bringing to life all the
business theory you’ve learnt
in your degree.”
You learn how to work in
a group, think critically under
pressure, and effectively communicate
complex ideas to
others – all of which are of paramount
importance in the real
world,” says Liam.
He credits the Waikato
team’s victory to several key
factors: “Our lecturers at
Waikato place a very strong
emphasis on solution-orientated
thinking and work-integrated
learning. All the theory
they teach us in class is with
reference to real-world case
studies, which highlights the
practical nature of business.
So, when you’re asked to present
a viable business strategy
for a company in a short timeframe,
it’s not that intimidating
because you’ve already been
exposed to this style of lateral
thinking previously.”
“It also came down to the
sheer work ethic and talent of
the competitors, and the leadership
and guidance of Dr Stephen
Bowden.”
Dr Bowden says Waikato
Management School (WMS)
has always been a trailblazer in
this area, having launched New
Zealand’s first university case
competition in 1996 – and it’s
still going strong today.
WEL Group welcomes new
group chief financial officer
WEL Group (incorporating
WEL Networks
and Ultrafast
Fibre) has welcomed Sue Tindal
onto the executive team as
its new group chief financial
officer.
Primarily an experienced
corporate and institutional
banker, Sue has a wealth of
international experience in the
financial services, energy and
IT sectors having held numerous
senior or chief executive
roles in New Zealand, Australia,
Asia and the United States. Sue
held the position of group chief
financial officer with Auckland
Council for three years before
resigning in December 2017.
Sue says her decision to
join the Hamilton-based WEL
Group was driven by a conscious
decision to leverage her
skills, experience and passion
for leadership development to
“give back” to local communities.
“WEL plays an essential
role in the region’s economic
and social development and it’s
an exciting time as the business
diversifies from a traditional
lines company to multi-utility.
This is a great opportunity to
be part of a forward-thinking,
innovative company which is
focused on enabling its communities
to thrive.”
And while much of her
career has been based in
Auckland and overseas, Sue
has strong connections with
Waikato.
“My maternal great-grandparents
and grandparents
farmed in the region, my
mother and uncle were born in
Hamilton, my uncle and aunt
still live here, my daughter
attended and graduated from
Waikato University in 2004 and
my nephew attended Wintec. It
feels good to be here.”
Sue is a Member of the Australian
and New Zealand Institutes
of Company Directors,
a Fellow of Certified Practicing
Accountants Australia Ltd
(CPA), a Member of Global
Women and a finalist in the
Women of Influence Awards
2016. She is also an independent
non-executive director of
Mainfreight, an NZX top 20
listed entity.