Alex Tarrant of the New Zealand Herald reports that savers frustrated with record low returns from bank deposits are diving into lightly-regulated commercial property deals that forecast nearly 10 per cent cash returns, but can carry significant risks.

Advertisements for syndicated property deals have been prominent in newspapers in recent weeks, promising high cash returns for investments in syndicated property. The deals and advertisements are exempt from the usual requirements for prospectuses under the Securities Act (Real Property Proportionate Ownership Schemes) Exemption Notice 2002.

Bayleys Real Estate agent Mike Houlker has been promoting the deals for the last 6 six years. He told interest.co.nz that public interest in the syndicated investments had been rising, along with the number of syndications being offered.

"Before the change in the property market, they were less frequent, with fewer players in the market," Houlker said. "But now a lot more people have been through the numbers, and it's starting to work with interest rates being so low."

Six month bank term deposits are now averaging around 3.9 per cent before tax, just above their early March lows of 3.6 per cent, the lowest since 1966.