Interest rates are high, cost of living is high, and most investors with 100% lending are topping up their property every week. This episode of She Owns This breaks down exactly what a top-up includes, the triangle principle that explains why you can’t have everything, and five strategies to make your investment property work harder.

You'll learn:

• What a property top-up actually includes: mortgage interest, rates, insurance, management fees, maintenance and vacancy, not just the mortgage
• The cash flow triangle: why you can usually only have two of high growth, high yield and no deposit
• Interest-only mortgages: how they improve cash flow and when to switch back to principal and interest
• Using a larger cash deposit to get an NZ investment property to cash flow positive
• Adding a minor dwelling: when the extra rent covers the extra borrowing, and when it doesn’t
• Renovating for yield: how it can quietly turn a growth property into a specialist one
• Using Opes+ to model deposit size, interest-only and renovation scenarios side by side

A top-up isn’t a loss. It’s a contribution to an asset that should be growing faster than it costs you.

Women should own half the world. Come own it with us.

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Airbnb apartments get pitched to property investors with impressive yield projections. The real numbers almost never match. This episode of She Owns This breaks down the 2026 MBIE ruling that changed Christchurch Airbnb rules, the actual costs developers leave out, and a real side by side comparison that settles the debate.

In this episode:

• The 2026 MBIE ruling explained: why Christchurch apartment owners now need council permission to run an Airbnb, and what it means for the 5,000 listings already operating
• Airbnb rules compared across Christchurch, Auckland, Queenstown Lakes and beyond: night limits, consent requirements and the councils cracking down hardest
• The GST trap: why some Christchurch one-bedroom apartments advertised at $265,000 actually cost over $300,000 once GST is added
• The real numbers: a $560,000 Christchurch CBD apartment run as Airbnb versus a $560,000 two-bedroom townhouse run as a long-term rental, cost by cost
• Why the Airbnb apartment comes out negatively geared by over $200 a week while the townhouse sits closer to neutral, with better capital growth and a far wider resale buyer pool

A property that only works as an Airbnb has one exit strategy, and the rules keep getting harder. Here is why a long-term rental almost always wins.

Women should own half the world. Come own it with us.

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House price headlines say property is more affordable. So what does $500,000 actually buy across New Zealand right now? Stevie found six real listings and dug into the details the advertising copy leaves out.

In this episode:

• Six real $500K property listings across Howick, Christchurch, Lower Hutt, Southland, Wellington and Auckland Central, compared side by side
• Why a one-bedroom no-carpark apartment in Auckland has a 2.9% yield and almost no resale buyer pool
• Why Linwood in Christchurch is one of the more sensible $500K buys on the list right now
• Why Stokes Valley in Lower Hutt has seen the biggest house price fall since peak anywhere in NZ
• The Wellington apartment with $10,000 a year in body corporate fees that's sold for less than it did in 2017
• The Auckland Central listing that looks like incredible value until you spot the GST exclusion and the management lease locked in until 2028
• Why bare land in Southland isn't an investment property, no matter how good the price looks
• What the $500K market actually reveals about where NZ property is genuinely accessible right now, and where it only looks that way

The price is just the starting line. What it actually buys you is the real story.

Women should own half the world. Come own it with us.

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