Property Investment
7 min read
Author: Andrew Nicol
Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Opes Partners is a New Zealand-based property investment company. That means we help everyday Kiwis build wealth through property. Particularly, New Build investment properties.
It also offers end-to-end support with mortgages, insurance, accounting and property management. This is through their sister-companies.
Opes was founded in 2013 by Andrew Nicol, who is still actively involved in the business.
In this article, we'll explain exactly what Opes does and how we help Kiwis grow property investment portfolios. We'll also explain how the different parts of our business work together and how we get paid.
Opes Partners helps everyday Kiwis build long-term wealth through property investment.
At the core, Opes Partners helps people build long-term wealth through property.
That usually starts with a financial plan, which we call a Wealth Plan. From there, we help investors analyse properties and put the right support around them. This is to help make the plan work.
The simplest way to think about Opes is: we’re a one-stop shop.
If you want to buy an investment property, you usually need to deal with several different professionals.
That’ll usually include financial adviser, real estate agent, a mortgage adviser, a property manager and an accountant.
Normally, you would have to find those people yourself and keep everyone on the same page.
At Opes, those professionals work for the group of companies. Often, in the same building.
That means they (and their systems) work together. So you don’t have to join all the dots yourself. We do it for you.
A lot of this work also happens before you ever see a property.
For instance, Opes Property vets the developer and assesses the development. Then, with the help of Opes Partners, we run the numbers on every property. That way, by the time you are looking at a property, much of the groundwork has already been done.
That is a big part of why many clients describe the process as smooth or straightforward.
| What Opes Partners does | What Opes Partners doesn't do |
| Create Wealth Plans and provide financial advice | Act as your real estate agent (that’s what Opes Property does) |
| Help investors develop a property investment strategy | Sell our own properties that Opes builds |
| Recommend New Build investment properties | Develop the properties we recommend |
| Provide access to accounting, mortgages, insurance and property management services | Promise that every property will increase in value or guarantee an investment return (no one can do that) |
Opes Partners is part of a wider group of related businesses. Each one focuses on a different part of the property investment journey.
| Company | What it does |
| Opes Partners | Builds your Wealth Plan and gives financial advice |
| Opes Property | Finds and vets new-build investment properties |
| Opes Mortgages | Helps arrange your mortgage |
| Opes Insurance | Helps with insurance |
| Opes Accounting | Helps with tax and accounting |
| Opes Property Management | Manages your property day to day |
| Opes+ | Free app to track your property journey |
Because these businesses sit within the same wider group, they are designed to work together. That is what we mean when we call Opes a one-stop shop.
But we don’t just help clients one-on-one. We also educate New Zealanders about property investment and personal finance.
You can learn from us through:
The goal is simple: to give people better information so they can make informed financial decisions. That is true whether or not they ever become an Opes Partners client.
Opes Partners doesn’t usually charge for its financial advice. That’s why people often ask: How does the business make money?
Here's how it works. When an investor chooses to buy an investment property we've recommended, the developer pays Opes Property a fee. Some of that then goes to Opes Partners.
The important thing to understand is that this is a flat-fee based on the property's location. It's not a percentage of the property's purchase price.
So, the fee doesn't increase just because an investor buys a more expensive property.
We also apply this to our financial advisers. They receive a flat bonus if you decide to invest. It doesn’t change based on where or what you buy. It’s the same, no matter the property’s price.
That way, you don’t need to worry that your financial adviser is trying to sell you a more expensive property just to get a bigger commission.
Our financial advisers are primarily salary-based employees. They aren’t paid a percentage commission based on the value of the property you buy.
We should mention, there is one-time we typically charge a fee. If you specifically want to work with our founder, Andrew Nicol, there is a $199 fee for that consultation.
We believe it's important to be upfront about how our business model works.
That way, you can understand the incentives involved before deciding whether Opes Partners is right for you.
| Part of the business | Typical cost to you | Paid by |
| Opes Partners | $0 | A share of Opes Property's fee to developers |
| Opes Mortgages | $0 | Bank commission |
| Opes Accounting | $1,350 + $200 per extra property (+GST) | Client fees |
| Opes Property Management | 7.99% + GST of the rent collected | Client fees |
| Opes Insurance | $0 | Insurance company commission |
| Opes Property | $0 | Developer fee |
Because all our business work together, we have internal processes to manage potential conflicts of interest.
These include:
Our legal name is Opes Partners New Zealand Limited (NZBN: 9429041842881). We trade as Opes Partners.
We can give financial advice under the Financial Advice Provider (FAP) licence of Opes Group Holding Company Limited (FSP774012).
This means all the financial advice we give is subject to the requirements of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.
In the real world that means:
If you're unhappy with the advice you've received, you can first use our internal complaints process.
If your complaint isn't resolved, you can take it to Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL). That's an independent and free-for-you dispute resolution scheme.
Andrew Nicol founded Opes in 2013 because he thought property investors were being short-changed.
If you invested in shares and managed funds, there were lots of businesses to help you. So, investors had access to research, data and analysis to help you make smart decisions.
Property investors didn’t have that.
Andrew thought everyday Kiwis investing in property deserved the same level of support.
Around the same time, he came across a company selling New Build investment properties in what he saw as a pretty loose, under-regulated way.
The people selling them weren’t real estate agents or financial advisers, and he remembers thinking: “I could do this way, way better.”
By then, he’d already built a lot of experience as both a mortgage adviser and prolific property investor. He was helping clients map out retirement plans, structure their portfolios, and work out what a good property deal was.
He’s been the driving force behind Opes ever since.
Opes Partners is built for people who want to invest in property without having to stitch the whole process together themselves.
Property investing usually means dealing with lots of different professionals. This leaves plenty of room for things to get missed.
Opes’ job is to bring those pieces together, do the groundwork early, and help investors make informed decisions with a clear long-term plan.
That doesn’t make property investing is risk-free. Not by any stretch.
And it also does not mean every property will perform, or that every investor should work with us.
But it does mean there is a team built to help you think strategically, understand the numbers, and move through the process with far less guesswork.
At the end of the day, that is what Opes Partners is here to do.
Kiwi property investors deserve the kind of research, support and joined-up advice that has often been missing from the market.
Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Andrew Nicol, Managing Director at Opes Partners, is a seasoned financial adviser and property investment expert with 20+ years of experience. With 40 investment properties, he hosts the Property Academy Podcast, co-authored 'Wealth Plan' with Ed Mcknight, and has helped 1,894 Kiwis achieve financial security through property investment.
This article is for your general information. It’s not financial advice. See here for details about our Financial Advice Provider Disclosure. So Opes isn’t telling you what to do with your own money.
We’ve made every effort to make sure the information is accurate. But we occasionally get the odd fact wrong. Make sure you do your own research or talk to a financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
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