The Alternative Property Management Show

The PMC 2026

David Faulkner is back partnering with Harrison Vaughan and Samantha Arnold in the new Property Management show where they discuss all things relevant to Property Management in New Zealand. We do not discuss rent roll growth or compliance, we discuss the relevant topics that affect our industry

  1. 2d ago

    You Can’t Blame an AI: Tal Meser on Tapi, Maintenance and the Human Bit

    David Faulkner and Harrison Vaughan are joined by Tal Messa, co-founder of Tapi and principal sponsor of the PMC, with the conference now a fortnight out. Tal tells the origin story properly for the first time on the show. Dropping out of uni, the Creative HQ incubator, an investor asking what on earth he knew about property management, and the answer being nothing. So he and Florian booked forty hours of rental viewings a week until Wellington property managers started asking them to please just take the house or leave. The idea was called Flatfish. Harrison, one of the first doors they knocked on, politely told them to get lost. Nine years later Tapi sits on just under 600,000 active properties, an estimated 95 percent of New Zealand’s managed stock, with Australia growing fast and the UK and Ireland live since March. The meat of the conversation is AI, and Tal takes a position that cuts against the hype. He walks through the shift from systems of record to workflow to action to coordination, then argues the next move is back toward the human. Tapi announced a voice agent a year ago and deliberately pulled back from it, because that was not the future they wanted to build. His case is about accountability: a landlord hands you their biggest asset and wants someone to answer for it, and you cannot blame an AI. There is a drive thru comparison that makes the point better than any slide would.

  2. Oct 8

    Changing of the Guard: Jason Colbey Joins Sam Arnold as PMC MC

    David Faulkner is in Wellington with Harrison Vaughan at Tommy’s, and joined from Melbourne by Jason Colbey, head of community at Tapi, for an announcement. After six conferences on the bounce, David is handing over the microphone. Jason will co-MC the PMC with Samantha Arnold on 29 and 30 October at the Pullman. Jason has MCed BDM summits, PMP awards and industry conferences across Australia, plus charity work with the Starlight Foundation. He also lasted two years and nine months in property management himself, after telling a manager that only a pathetic person would quit inside three years, and he has never forgotten it. That experience is behind the message he wants to bring to Auckland: property managers are the most important people in this industry, and he will die on that hill. The conversation gets pointed on value. Why management fees in Victoria sit at five to seven percent while Tasmania runs at eleven to seventeen, what that does to a rent roll multiplier, and why cutting fees to chase doors leaves everybody poorer. Why property management is still treated as a stepping stone to sales rather than a career. And what Jason thinks New Zealand does better than Australia, which comes down to competing brands actually talking to each other. Also: the Wellington market lifting after a dead winter, what the election is doing to owner decisions, Labour’s flip on interest deductibility, and the PMC Awards judges revealed, eventually.

  3. Oct 2

    Pressure Doesn't Break You, It Reveals You: Rico Gomez on Burnout

    David Faulkner is joined by Rico Gomez of Neurofit, a Christchurch based neuroscience coach who works with elite athletes and business owners, and who keynotes day two of the PMC. Rico came to this work the hard way. He and his wife went through serious mental health struggles about eleven years ago, and after nothing else worked he went looking for answers in cognitive neuroscience himself. What he found changed both their lives, and it became the basis of the rewire process he now runs with clients. His core argument will challenge how most of us think about burnout. The answer is not to remove pressure. Pressure is the hand squeezing the toothpaste tube, and what comes out of you under pressure was already inside you. What determines whether someone lasts forty years or five is not the performance itself but where their head is three days afterwards. For property managers caught between landlords and tenants, and for the managers leading them, there is plenty here that lands straight away. Why your hard conversation should never be your first conversation, and what relational equity means in practice. The trust box and the performance box, and what happens when a leader lives in only one of them. Why scrolling and outsourcing your thinking to AI is quietly making you less resilient. And a story about imposter syndrome that turned into the most important yes of Rico's career.

  4. Sep 24

    The $113,000 Question: Sarina Gibbon on Unlawful Premises and Rent Refunds

    David Faulkner is joined by Sarina Gibbon of Tenancy Advisory, alongside Samantha Arnold and Property Brokers' Sarah Green, to flag a case the whole industry needs to watch. Earlier this month the High Court gave a tenant leave to take a question of law to the Court of Appeal: just how far does a Section 78A rent refund for unlawful premises actually go? Sarina walks through how we got here, from the 2013 Anderson decision that pushed unlawful premises outside the RTA, to prohibited transactions under Section 137, to Winton v Pabu and the "footling breach" line, and why the binding authority everyone has relied on since 2018 may not apply to Section 78A at all. In this case the tenant is seeking $113,000. The heart of it: if the Court of Appeal decides the benefit of accommodation is no longer a good enough reason to discount a refund, tenants will start ringing councils to check consents, and plenty of agencies will not know what is sitting on their rent roll. Sarina's argument is that this is an opportunity rather than a threat, and she gives three moves to make this week. Also: where liability actually lands between the agency and the owner, whether your indemnity clause would hold up, what happens to fees already collected, the granny flat rules and why consent free does not mean compliant, and the question of why the only intervener in this case is a tenant advocacy group. Sarina and Sarah are speaking back to back at the PMC on 29 and 30 October, with the Renti soiree the night before.

  5. Sep 17

    Election Special: Matt Ball on Land Tax, Capital Gains and Interest Denial

    David Faulkner and Harrison Vaughan are joined from Singapore by Matt Ball of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation for an election special, recorded ahead of the 7 November vote and the PMC at the Pullman on 29 and 30 October. Matt has stood for both the Greens and ACT, worked in Parliament and spent three decades around politics, so he takes the panel through what each party is actually proposing and what it would do to rental property. The Opportunity Party's land tax at 1.75 percent, why it hits your whole land value rather than your equity, and the universal basic income that comes with it. Labour's 28 percent capital gains tax from July 2027, and the missing piece that makes it worse than Australia's: no indexing for inflation. Why Matt thinks interest denial is the real danger, what a 50 percent version does to your weekly numbers, and the grandfathering and portfolio size options that could soften it. Plus the death spiral that leads from bad tax policy to rent controls, National's 5 percent deposit scheme with its new $300,000 income threshold, and a prediction on who forms the next government. Also: the NZPIF conference in Tauranga, with a political panel moderated by Heather du Plessis Allen and a workshop featuring Tenancy Tribunal principal adjudicator Brett Carter.

  6. Sep 10

    "People Are Good and Bad Things Happen": Sasha Lockley on Empathy Mapping and Arrears

    David Faulkner is joined by Sasha Lockley of Money Sweet Spot, a former KPMG forensic accountant who now runs a lender built to get people out of debt rather than keep them in it. She's speaking at the PMC in October. Sasha explains the moment on the Harbour Bridge that changed her career, and the principle behind everything she's built since: people are good and bad things happen. The finance system, she argues, is designed as though life is predictable, then punishes people with fees and default interest when it isn't. The conversation gets practical for property managers. Why a text and a 14 day notice tells you nothing about the why. What empathy mapping actually is, and how listening properly makes tenants call you before they miss the rent, not after. How to spot who is spinning you a line sooner. Finding the halfway house between a tenant who needs six weeks and a landlord who says they've got none. And Sasha's challenge to anyone proud of low arrears: at what cost to the human?

  7. Sep 3

    The Future of Property Inspections: AI, 360° Tech & What Comes Next with Jeremiah Antipas

    AI is changing property management fast — but what does that actually mean for property inspections? In this episode of The Alternative Property Management Show, David Faulkner and Harrison Vaughan are joined by Jeremiah Antipas from Inspection Express to talk about the rapid evolution of property inspection technology and where the industry could be heading next. Jeremiah shares the Inspection Express story, from its beginnings in 2013 through to more than 5,000 agencies using the platform across Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The conversation explores 360° inspections, AI-generated condition reports, automated entry and exit comparisons, future integrations with maintenance platforms, asset registers and the possibility of technology eventually detecting everything from moisture and mould to smoke alarm condition. They also tackle a bigger question: as AI takes over more of the administrative work, could property managers become too reliant on technology — and how does the industry continue demonstrating its value to landlords? Plus, the team discusses tenant-led inspections, the debate between all-in-one software and specialist PropTech platforms, Inspection Express' global expansion and what property management could look like over the next decade. Jeremiah will also be joining the PropTech panel at the PMC on 29–30 October.

  8. Aug 28

    "In Writing or It Didn't Happen" Sara Green on AI Complaints, Privacy Requests and PM Safety

    David Faulkner and Harrison Vaughan are joined by Sara Green, National Operations Manager at Property Brokers and a speaker at this year's PMC, for a frank look at what's landing on the complaints desk in 2026. Sara's rule hasn't changed in sixteen and a half years: if it's not in writing, it didn't happen. She explains why a date stamped note in Palace beats anyone's memory, what she asks for the moment a file reaches her, and how to handle the sting of a complaint laid against you. The conversation turns to AI. Complaint volumes have skyrocketed, full of walls of text from people who haven't read what they sent and won't take a phone call. Sarah makes the case for AI as a tool you can only use safely if you already know your subject.

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David Faulkner is back partnering with Harrison Vaughan and Samantha Arnold in the new Property Management show where they discuss all things relevant to Property Management in New Zealand. We do not discuss rent roll growth or compliance, we discuss the relevant topics that affect our industry

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