The NZPIF Landlord of the Year award honours members of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation who represent excellence among landlords. In considering the nominees, Tenancy Services looked for a landlord who builds positive relationships with tenants and could demonstrate compliance with Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) requirements, specifically the 2016 changes to insulation and smoke alarms requirements.

Tenancy Services attended the NZPIF national conference in Rotorua this year to present the award to the young New Plymouth investors.

Kristy and Richard began investing just five years ago and now own and manage several investment properties. They have learned on the job through personal experience about the challenges and issues that affect landlords and tenants, and are now keen to share their learnings and encourage other young couples to also become investors and landlords.

Together, with two other judges on the panel for the award, Jennifer Sykes from Tenancy Services was “impressed with Kristy and Richard’s enthusiasm and their commitment to treating tenants exactly as they would like to be treated.”

Respect is a key priority for this couple. They try to ensure they promptly complete repairs and maintenance even if it means staying up until 1am attending to detailed cleaning in order to get the property ready for a new tenant’s arrival at 9am the next morning.

“Winning Landlord of the Year was a real ‘wow’ moment for us,” says Kristy. “We entered the awards not expecting to win but more as a self-assessment to see where we were at.  One of our values is to be not just good landlords but great landlords.”  

Kristy adds, “In our opinion one of the keys to being a great landlord is remembering that it is our house but it is also the tenants’ home.”

Congratulations to Richard and Kristy Kelly. Keep up the good work!

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