The Fall of the House of Du Val

For decades, New Zealand’s love affair with property has pulled everyday investors into schemes that promise certainty and deliver risk. Over and over again, the same story.

 

In the final episode of The Fall of the House of Du Val, Maria Slade asks whether this cycle is finally starting to break.

 

She presents the features of a fringe investment to first-year university students to test a simple idea. Are they more financially literate than their parents, or are we raising the next generation of willing believers?

 

The Retirement Commissioner lays out her Five Golden Rules for Mum and Dad investors, cutting through decades of property mythology with uncomfortable clarity.

 

For Du Val investors still owed $64 million, the outlook remains bleak. And yet, group founder Kenyon Clarke vows "I'll be back".

 

Brought to you by BusinessDesk with thanks to The Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.

 

Host, researcher, writer: Maria Slade 
Producer: Hamish Williams
Lead Sound Design: Mick Andrews
Additional Sound Design: Lara Healy
Executive Producers: Jane Yee and Duncan Bridgeman

 

https://businessdesk.co.nz/du-val

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For decades, property has been sold to New Zealanders as a sure path to financial security. But history tells a more complicated story.

 

Maria Slade revisits the collapse of Blue Chip and speaks with investors still living with the fallout years on. Why do cycles of booming property schemes, persuasive marketing and heavy losses keep repeating. And why ordinary New Zealanders continually find themselves exposed to risks they don't fully anticipate?

 

Economists, financial commentators and a psychotherapist help explore the psychology of chasing returns, the deep Kiwi faith in housing, and whether a changing market might finally force a rethink.

Brought to you by BusinessDesk with thanks to The Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.

 

Host, researcher, writer: Maria Slade 
Producer: Hamish Williams
Lead Sound Design: Mick Andrews
Additional Sound Design: Lara Healy
Executive Producers: Jane Yee and Duncan Bridgeman

 

https://businessdesk.co.nz/du-val

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As rumours swirled of work stalling on Du Val sites due to non-payment, subcontractors were left demanding answers. What they got instead were tense meetings and vague promises.

 

Maria Slade takes us inside a period of mounting pressure, where she hears how frustration on the ground collided with Du Val’s increasingly feverish attempts to control the story.

 

She also explores the system that enabled Du Val’s rapid rise, including the eligible investor loophole that saw would-be investors targeted by marketing for wholesale products that arguably weren't suited to them.

 

Brought to you by BusinessDesk with thanks to The Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.

 

Host, researcher, writer: Maria Slade 
Producer: Hamish Williams
Lead Sound Design: Mick Andrews
Additional Sound Design: Lara Healy
Executive Producers: Jane Yee and Duncan Bridgeman

 

https://businessdesk.co.nz/du-val

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maria Slade speaks to an investor who lost tens of thousands in Du Val about why she ignored the red flags.

 

She also talks to a former employee about Du Val’s tactics in selling both investments and houses off the plans to ordinary New Zealanders.

 

The Du Val Group thrived against the backdrop of the biggest housing boom New Zealand has ever seen.

 

But the boom couldn’t go on, and when interest rates rose, the market turned - and so did the tide for Du Val.

 

Brought to you by BusinessDesk with thanks to The Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.

 

Host, researcher, writer: Maria Slade 
Producer: Hamish Williams
Lead Sound Design: Mick Andrews
Additional Sound Design: Lara Healy
Executive Producers: Jane Yee and Duncan Bridgeman

 

https://businessdesk.co.nz/du-val

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A big-talking showman and his charismatic wife: Who are Kenyon and Charlotte Clarke?

 

Maria Slade talks to a Du Val investor and friend who gave Kenyon his start in real estate and describes him as exceptional.

 

We hear how Kenyon rose phoenix-like from his first business collapse, and as the New Zealand housing market boomed yet again, vowed to create a billion-dollar empire.

 

The Clarkes were prolific self-promoters, even making a reality tv series about themselves.

 

But was it a veneer?

 

Brought to you by BusinessDesk with thanks to The Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.

 

Host, researcher, writer: Maria Slade 
Producer: Hamish Williams
Lead Sound Design: Mick Andrews
Additional Sound Design: Lara Healy
Executive Producers: Jane Yee and Duncan Bridgeman

 

https://businessdesk.co.nz/du-val

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The glamour, the ambition, and how it all came crashing down. 

 

A five-part investigation from BusinessDesk, coming soon.

 

https://businessdesk.co.nz/du-val

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.