About Us

About Ted

Ted was born in Otahuhu Hospital where his parents Colin and Rae rented a small apartment in an old house.

He was the second child to an older sister Carol. Teds father, Colin, was a door to door salesmen selling Rawleighs products and was struggling to put food on the table. When Ted was 4 the family moved to a 3 bedroom state house in Kupe St Orakei. Ted went to Orakei Primary School and Selwyn College, then Auckland University, studying valuation. As a young person Ted was always hustling, making money and doing things out of the usual.

Ted started the family business with his father Colin in 1975. The pair began a cycle of buying old houses to renovate, paint and then sell. They started out small, buying and selling two houses in the first year, 18 the second year and over 40 the third year. Ted purchased, renovated and sold all the houses while Colin raised the money to settle them and slowly built up the firm's infrastructure.

During most of the 1980s, they were buying and selling more than a house a day. By the mid-1980s, they owned 640 rental properties, seven commercial buildings, five petrol stations and two dairy farms. During the Muldoon era and the highly restrictive lending period, the Mansons watched many people unable to get money to buy their rising stock of renovated houses. So Colin and Ted began to be bankers, funding thousands of buyers into those properties during the restrictive lending market of the 1970’s and 80’s.

Together they grew the business and weathered the economic downturn of the late 1987 Share Market Crash with all their main developers-competitors going bankrupt. They didn’t lose a cent of anyones money barr their own. By the 90’s buying and selling old houses didn’t work anymore so Ted and Colin started buying and converting large old office buildings in Auckland City into apartments, building new apartment buildings, upmarket houses and around 1996 started building their first large Commercial development. Colin became ill in 1995 and sadly passed away in 1998.

Ted’s sons had worked for Manson’s in their school holidays and joined the company straight out of university or school. A new generation had arrived so in 2006, Mansons TCLM Ltd was registered to cement the start of the long standing partnership we all have today, with TCLM standing for Ted and his three sons Culum, Luke and Mac, the third generation involved in the running of the family business. That experience helped shape the approach to business that forms Manson’s TCLM business ethos today. A "hands on" approach with the understanding of every aspect of their business dealings, including buying, leasing, selling, construction and finance. Every base is covered giving them Financial independence. The 2008 Global Financial Crises was therefore not an issue with most other Developers and Finance Companies going bankrupt.

For the majority of its projects Manson’s TCLM is both developer and building contractor and funding is mostly from the Manson family's resources. Since 2006 the company has built over 400 residential dwellings and over 600,000m2 of Commercial Office space which dominate the Auckland skyline. Mansons TCLM is readily recognised as New Zealand's largest privately owned property development business.

Through Teds companies and Trusts he has consistently given substancial amounts to Charities but in 2014 decided to form the The Ted Manson Foundation to make a real difference. Ted now spends 70% of his work time on charity work, 30% on Mansons TCLM and most of his spare time being with one of his 10 grandchildren.