Can you afford a home in NZ?

[evil_si]

my mortgage repayments along are $2800 a month, im fixed on a 9.1 interest rate till next feb,

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

People don't choose to live in Auckland, people live in Auckland because this is where job is.

nope, its cause thats where they get off the boat/airplane

i hate Auckland personally
i got offered a job up there with Auckland Regional Council doing pretty much what i do now around a year ago, but for nearly twice as much - but i turned it down.
partly cause im lazy, but mainly cause Auckland would screw with my lifestyle and cost too much to live
plus waiting for half a dozen cars is enough to piss me off without most of the population driving pass

got offered a job in Palmy a couple of years ago doing same thing, but Palmy weather sucks, and Brad lives there, and he scares me...

Man, you come across as a glass half empty kinda guy.
Why do you have to earn illicitly? I, just today, reached an income goal I've had for a few years. It will defiantly help out with paying for the house/race car. Everything above board, and I ain't got no degree. Highest piece of paper I have is high school UE.

But Garnett, youre a lucky asshat!


Me and CarpetBurn brought our 4 bedroom house, 1/4acre section around 5 years ago for $217k in little old Inglewood, 15mins from New Plymouth central where Ngaere was working at the time, and 25mins the other direction from Eltham where I was working at the time. I got made redundant and managed to pick up another job in Stratford 20mins from home (at a lower pay, initially), but we still survived. Now i get paid more plus have a work ute so hardly use my car now
however Ngaere got made redundant twice within 3 months, and is currently getting paid way less, but she is doing graphic design/photography on the side (plug: www.octopusink.co.nz - in progress)
When we got the house we borrowed extra money and paid off some loans at the same time, and had no deposit at all, however my old lady went guarantor on the mortgage. The old GV was only $130k from memory at the time, however the house had had major work done and the market was booming.
It was my first house (Ngaeres second), and we did get sucked in a bit and pay too much i reckon, but youve got to start somewhere and learn from something i guess.
since owning it Ive spent a bit of money and built a huge deck, installed a solar hot water system, built some fences and we've done other things slowly, including hopefully doing some more driveway work this weekend unless I decide to mission to the V8's. with other plans to do more as you always have
We can still afford the $1800/month in mortgage payments, as long as we dont go wasting money friviously, however we dont go without what we want as such either

Inglewood was far cheaper to buy than NP, plus we got a much better house for the money, plus a decent section. It was in the middle for both of us for work, and theres not too much to do in Inglewood, which is good as it saves money. However the fire brigade (and associated socalisings) seems to eat much of my time, and the fire brigade bar tends to suck far too much of my money at times, which is bad considering the piss is cheap and I am the bar manager....

[Adoom]

my mortgage repayments along are $2800 a month, im fixed on a 9.1 interest rate till next feb,

WOAH! How much did you borrow??!?!

.....Me and CarpetBurn brought our 4 bedroom house, 1/4acre section around 5 years ago for $217k......We can still afford the $1800/month in mortgage payments, as long as we dont go wasting money friviously, however we dont go without what we want as such either

Hmmmm, maybe my mortgage is not so bad. My repayments are still a couple hundred less than yours. What rate are you on?

[mjrstar]

my mortgage repayments along are $2800 a month, im fixed on a 9.1 interest rate till next feb,

My payments are around 5400 a month. on 2 properties one is @ 5.9 and the other is at 6.2%. of course that is nominating to pay much more than the minimum.

[Heylin]

My partner and I were lucky enough to get our first house (a do up) while prices were good about 8-9 years ago.

paid about $130,000 and spent $15K doing to up

got it revalued and borrwed 185K for a rental propertie which we spent 20K doing up

Sold house 1 for $270K during the properte price increse
Sold House 2 for $285K just before market crash

Then took out 1 mortgage for new house build and rented for 1.5 years while it was built. Been there 2 and a bit years now and hop to have paid off in 3 years.

Current payments are $400 a week for $220,000 over 2 mortgages. Doing short fixed terms of 1 year to allow for bulk payments at end of each year thus reducing the payments and allowing more savings for next bulk payment.

I think there is still some good priced houses out there and some money to be made on do ups for first home buyers and middle income couples but the time frames to freehold it will be 50% more than it was 8 years ago.

Key is to

a) find a partner who works (2 incomes really help)
b) start small (but make sure it meets your needs)
c) invest in renovations wisely (dont over capitalise)
d) sell for a profit when market is good (this may take time)
e) upgrade and start the process again

do this 2-3 times and you should have enough to build new

Looking back I would have rather lived in our do up and lived freehold after the sale of the rental, new is nice, but freehold allows you freedom to buy toys, travel, save or all 3 depending on how much you earn.

Anyway this is just my experience. Keep it coming good reading how others made their way in the property game.

[sergei]

I really hate idea of selling. I hate selling anything. Not my cup of tea.

[~SlideWays~]

I really hate idea of selling. I hate selling anything. Not my cup of tea.

You're already selling yourself to your employer?

Seriously though, you really need to look at starting smaller then upgrading (selling) overtime because every cent you pay in rent is paying someone elses mortgage rather than your own.

[Heylin]

Seriously though, you really need to look at starting smaller then upgrading (selling) overtime because every cent you pay in rent is paying someone elses mortgage rather than your own.

Wouldnt it be great if cars were like houses

AW11 + Modifications sell for gain
Buy SW20 modify sell for gain
Lotus Elise for 2 years or so then sell for gain
Buy Lotus Esprite V8 Twin Turbo

In less than a decade you could be driving a Veyron

[~SlideWays~]

Seriously though, you really need to look at starting smaller then upgrading (selling) overtime because every cent you pay in rent is paying someone elses mortgage rather than your own.

Wouldnt it be great if cars were like houses

AW11 + Modifications sell for gain
Buy SW20 modify sell for gain
Lotus Elise for 2 years or so then sell for gain
Buy Lotus Esprite V8 Twin Turbo

In less than a decade you could be driving a Veyron

Bahaha I was thinking 'Veyron' before I even read the last sentence

[solitaire]

Seriously though, you really need to look at starting smaller then upgrading (selling) overtime because every cent you pay in rent is paying someone elses mortgage rather than your own.

From the little auckland based research i have done this Only applies if the interest (not interest + principle) on said mortgage is less than the rent of a similiar house.

If you pay more in interest on a place than you would to rent it, you are better of renting and saving what you would have paid on the mortgage.

This statement is very dependant on the area... based on some trademe rental research i did a few weeks ago the closer to auckland cbd you go the better off you will be renting, the further out you go the more sense buying makes in my humble opinion.

small caveat: Bling made the very good point that if you do not have the discipline to save you are better off buying a house anyway... as it is a form of enforced saving, even if you would be better off renting + saving

[Bling]

If you pay more in interest on a place than you would to rent it, you are better of renting and saving what you would have paid on the mortgage.

Don't forget it house prices go up that can count towards buying being a good option. I think of lot of people relied on this theory though and went all out with 100% mortgages and will be now kicking themselves as they will have stayed in the same financial position over the last 2 years. (rough rough idea)/ Simple due to the fact house prices didn't really change from 2 years ago to now, the dropped and have come back up. So those that saved a good deposit will still have that equity in their house, those that saved none, will still have none.

100% mortgages are pretty lol really, unless you have some sweet plan to get in boarders to help pay off some decent principal, they are kind of hard to make work. Well, as they have been as described above. If the market had kept increasing without the 'crash' those borrowers plans would still be on track.

I had to save 10% I think to get my foot on the ladder, that was to buy a section during the times where 100% mortgages were the in thing. That was split between my partner and myself so not a huge amount each. Then I ended up off work for 5 months getting barely enough to cover my share of the repayments, so everything got put on hold as prices of materials kept on going up. Wasn't a happy time But we stuck at it, paid every spare $$ we had on the house as it was being built to reduce the mortgage we would need at the end. It would have been much easier for me to stay renting as hell that was only like $130/week or something ridiculous. So we now put most of our wage into the mortgage and have treats every now and then. This all on what I would say are average (if that) wages.

If I didn't have a mortgage I would have a 1UZ corona and a mint condition mk1 escort. The mrs would have 50 pairs of shoes but we'd have nothing in the bank. We'd also travel a lot more but have no savings left in 5 years time. But to do well with our place I have a rusty standard corona, an escort that needs a fair bit of work and the mrs only has 15 pairs of shoes Our savings are locked in our house until we sell. My goal is to get down to a mortgage one wage will be able to take care of then look at having kids.... medium term goals. I know for a fact I can't afford a house on one mortgage, so I will work out a way to get to that point however is required. I will not however sit back and watch the market take off and me get further and further from reaching said goals.

[solitaire]

If you pay more in interest on a place than you would to rent it, you are better of renting and saving what you would have paid on the mortgage.

Don't forget it house prices go up that can count towards buying being a good option.

Yeah, you've got to weigh it up eh? If the money you save renting plus the cost of rates etc is less than the rate that the house is increasing in value you are absolutely right. Up here in auckland over the last few years that has not been the case (at least for howick/orewa) so thats why i think the way i do.

Aware that the big ChurChur could very well be the oposite though

[Al]

SRS thread needs some LOL cats.

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

my mortgage repayments along are $2800 a month, im fixed on a 9.1 interest rate till next feb,

WOAH! How much did you borrow??!?!

.....Me and CarpetBurn brought our 4 bedroom house, 1/4acre section around 5 years ago for $217k......We can still afford the $1800/month in mortgage payments, as long as we dont go wasting money friviously, however we dont go without what we want as such either

Hmmmm, maybe my mortgage is not so bad. My repayments are still a couple hundred less than yours. What rate are you on?

i cant remember, it came off fixed a while back (im thinking october?) and ive been too lazy to refix, which i really should do, but not sure what rate/term.
i just got a statement in the mail yesterday and they've only been taking out just over $1400/month since it came off fixed, so might slam some more money off the mortgage while i can i think

[1I1]

at cats

[evil_si]

my mortgage repayments along are $2800 a month, im fixed on a 9.1 interest rate till next feb,

WOAH! How much did you borrow??!?!
?

from memory it was 395k

[Gudgen]

live in dunedin. you can buy for decent house for $250,000 in an awesome suburb. every suburb is max 10mins from the centre of town.

[1I1]

live in dunedin. you can buy for decent house for $250,000 in an awesome suburb. every suburb is max 10mins from the centre of town.

Nah Feilding - 5 mins max from any part of town to the centre

[fangsport]

but the time i am of retirement age, there will be no gov.t support for me in any size shape or form because there are too many getting handouts now, so.............
i consider house ownsership retirement income, for sure me and wifey would be living super comfortably with $250-300 surplus each week, but out of that i would need to pay rent for a toybox that involves driving across town to get to, so.................
when the house across the road came up for sale, we bought it to build a shed on and the $150/w we contribute to the outgoings is no different to leasing a workshop, plus it runs at a loss so i get a rebate.
why not put the surplus into investment???............... i would rather have control over my money than let some theiving maggot in his ivory tower rip me off while he is prancing around in golden underwear and sleeping on a fat mattress of ill-gotten monies.

if they want to tax landlords, no worries, i'll put the rent up and so will everyone else.

[MAGN1T]

Too many immigrants, that's why house prices are so high, it keeps the economy going, keeps builders working.
We sort of need immigrants, probably because a high % of the local inhabitants either don't want to work or aren't capable of it due to lack of education, in turn because our education system is so crap.
Sergei is a specialist, me too except I've retrained maybe 4 or 5 times now. can't remember. Being a specialist is good because you learn more and more about less and less so eventually you know everything about nothing and then you're unemployable once technology moves on.Last time I retrained was to do cat 5 and 6 cabling. That took about an hour.
Back to houses. After I got married, plus no 1 kid, lived with the parents for over 3 years until I could afford a deposit on a house in a suburb many would call a shit hole. Missus didn't work due to kids however I worked fulltime plus overtime every saturday, all day, plus worked for myself every evening (used to buy dead philips K9 TVs, fix them, sell them to people with rentals, for the price of 3 months rental , give 3 month warranty, put the local rental companies out of business. also fixed car stereos for several auto electricians). At the time interest rates were 16% and went up to nearly 20% (1987 ish through the early 90s). Parents bailed me out with the morgage, then paid them off in 10 years.Then got rid of the ex (I brought the kids up while I still worked) . It's now owned by a family trust, son lives there with fellow TS flattie. That's the best way for a house these days considering the chances of still being with your partner for ever? I don't own anything, I rent the place I'm in at the mo (off another family trust). At the same time it's not worth buying a house and having it in your name if you're single. There's too many mad hoes out there seeing you as an easy target to clean out in 3 years time. My last ex owes me $6K in court costs after trying it on. Big fail on her part.
You want a house? you've got to work for it, make the woman work too.

Steve