One show celebrates wealth, the other questions why some New Zealanders have so much more of it than others. Tara Ward watches Bad News and Rich Listers tackle the topic of wealth in very different ways.
Rich Listers premiered on our screens last week as New Zealand’s answer to Selling Sunset. The Bravo reality series follows a group of real estate agents as they sell New Zealand’s most exclusive and expensive properties, taking viewers into a luxurious world of shiny cars, fancy light fittings and million dollar views. In episode one we met Diego, the Italian agent selling the penthouse in the country’s tallest residential building The Pacifica – which despite not being finished, could be yours for a mere $42 million.
Rich Listers is fantasy television that wants to show us how well the rich live, while also reminding us that this is the closest most of us will ever get to it. But it’s hard to escape into the unreality of Rich Listers while the nation is experiencing a cost of living crisis, a housing crisis, even a putting-a-pool-in crisis. The houses are impressive, but by focusing on people who are motivated only by making money in a time when people are struggling to find affordable housing, Rich Listers becomes as empty as the shell of the Pacifica penthouse. Even though there’s great views, it doesn’t mean we want to buy it.
On the other side of the TV cul-de-sac is The Spinoff documentary series Bad News, which began its third season with an episode about the country’s growing wealth gap. While Rich Listers is obsessed with persuading rich people to spend more money, Bad News sees writer and comedian Alice Snedden seek to find out why wealth inequality exists. Why has the gap between rich and poor increased, why isn’t the government isn’t doing more to fix it, and who benefits from it the most? Spoiler alert, it’s probably not you.
Look, there’s good news and there’s Bad News and then there’s watching a real estate agent drool over a $500,000 commission for selling an overpriced concrete cave to an offshore billionaire. Let’s put on our monocle and get our calculators ready for a tour through TV’s contrasting ends of the wealth spectrum.
Bad News: “We have a brutally unequal society. We have the most expensive housing in the world, by any measure, relative to incomes and rents.” – Financial journalist Bernard Hickey on the wealth gap.
Rich Listers: Agent Diego is standing in an empty penthouse at the top of New Zealand’s tallest residential building, pitching the country’s most expensive property to former deputy prime minister turned Bayleys agent Paula Bennett. “The shell you can buy for $36 million, what a bargain. If you want it fully fitted out, I can do you a deal at $42 [million] plus. Fastest elevator in New Zealand,” he tells her. It’s a speedy ride to property heaven.
Bad News: “We lost everything. We lost 80,000 acres. We went down to one quarter of an acre.” – Ngarimu Blair (Ngāti Whātua) on the loss of Māori land during the nineteenth century.
Rich Listers: With the penthouse’s high price tag, Diego and Paula discuss approaching their international buyers. “I’m pretty lucky I work a lot with that big kind of wealth, and the world actually,” Paula says, who as minister for social development oversaw significant welfare reforms and the sale of state houses. “As long as they pay the right money, anyone is welcome.” Diego agrees.
Bad News: “We used to have pancakes for dinner. I used to be like, ‘mean, pancakes’ and then realised afterwards, you just had flour and water.” – Comedian Bubbah, on growing up without money.
Rich Listers: Wellington agent Karl shows a prospective buyer through a seaside property that recently saw a $2.5 million renovation. Coral loves it, but she’s not sure her husband wants to move. “We live right on the eighth tee of the ‘Paraparam’ Beach golf club. He’s got his own little golf buggy and he can drive straight on,” she explains. The house also comes with a fitness pole. “I’ve never sold a house with a pole in it before,” Karl says.
Bad News: “Essentially, we are turning into a landed gentry. Anyone who owned land from the 1980s onwards is now rich, and anyone who is a renter – which means mostly young people, mostly Māori, mostly Pasifika – is dirt poor, financially stressed, and got the worst treatment from the government through Covid.” – Bernard Hickey on the absence of capital gain taxes.
Rich Listers: Cheryl and her granddaughter Holly visit a property for sale in Remuera, and Diego reckons Cheryl’s reputation for selling real estate is well deserved. “If you’ve been rich for more than two generations, you’ll have Cheryl on speed dial.” Back in Wellington, Karl explains the opportunities that money can bring. “People say money doesn’t bring happiness, but I’ve never seen anyone crying buying a pair of shoes.”
Bad News: “It does seem pretty unfair that an individual can do what we’re doing now and tick up a huge profit with nothing going back to the safety net that we need to help people who are genuinely having a tough time of it.” – Ngarimu Blair, on the need for a capital gains tax.
Rich Listers: Diego and Paula work for rival companies, but the power of a huge commission is bringing them together like a jaunty property version of MMP. Your economy, your future, New Zealand, and Diego’s sales pitch wins Paula over. “I’ve worked with the smoothest of the smooth, I’ve heard quite a lot of BS in my time, and may have even spread some myself,” human Vegemite Paula says of her new bestie. The only way is up, unless you’re already in the penthouse.
Bad News: “It’s not my land.” – Bubbah, on why she doesn’t see herself ever owning a home.
Rich Listers: “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay,” says agent Dave, who’s desperate to get his hands on the penthouse commission. Dave reckons it’ll earn him over half a million dollars, but he’s puzzled why buyers trust Diego. “It must be his hard fade,” Dave says of his competition’s haircut, because that’s billionaire logic for you. Dave’s wife Monique says Diego’s hair is not the reason, but who can truly predict the housing market these days?
Bad News: “It’s always, always about the land.” – Bernard Hickey. “Shiiit.” – Alice Snedden, about everything else.
Rich Listers: “All’s fair in love and real estate,” Dave says, as he cuts a deal behind Diego’s back on the Pacifica. The credits roll as next week’s preview promises more big houses, fancy cars and Paula Bennett cackling as an agent says the magic words “multi, multi-millions”. Rich, beyond their wildest dreams.
Watch Bad News episodes here. Rich Listers screens on Bravo on Thursday nights, and is available on ThreeNow.
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