Auckland is open for business – with consumer spending and other key economic indicators rebounding strongly – and our investment team has reported international investment projects are continuing at near pre-COVID-19 lockdown levels.
Investors who have not previously considered Auckland as an option have been prompted to look at the region by the Government’s “go hard go early” public health response. Major international investors including Shinsei Group from Japan, Microsoft, Made Group (building 2650 homes), Costco and IKEA are moving ahead with their investments into Auckland despite the disruption caused by COVID-19.
The fact that the economy is gradually returning to pre-lockdown activity levels faster than other developed economies, and Standard & Poor's optimistic outlook for New Zealand’s economic recovery over the medium term, is helping to drive an increase in new investor enquiries.
Our investment team has more than 80 open inbound investment opportunities for Auckland – valued at more than $7 billion – on its books. They are at various stages of realisation, from early inquiry through to strong likelihood of occurring.
In recent months, there has been excellent progress on establishing strong cross-Council collaboration to ensure various CCOs and units within Auckland Council itself which have a large range of supplier and investment opportunities, are all on the same page and tell a united story internationally to potential investors.
Prior to COVID-19, we had a number of fruitful engagements with inbound investment groups from a range of countries, and also took part in showcasing investible Auckland opportunities during trade missions to Japan and China.
That work was boosted by the successful delivery of the Invest Auckland website in early April. The new site links supplier and investable opportunities in key sectors to potential investors as well as providing success stories and resources.
While some discussions with investors that began last year have been interrupted by the border closure preventing investors coming to New Zealand as part of their due diligence and decision-making process, our Investment Specialists have been working hard to keep things moving forward with investors interested in providing capital for sectors such as food and beverage manufacturing, technology, creative industries and health tech. We are planning a revised launch of the Invest Auckland website to ‘NZ Inc’ partners early next financial year.
Central government stimulus funding into infrastructure is also helping, with a number of Auckland projects – including the Skypath, housing development at Unitec campus, and rail and road network upgrades – named in the 11 fast-tracked post-COVID announcement this month.