Can you afford a home in NZ?

[Bling]

If I started tomorrow I would be better off. The last couple years have been a stand still prices wise. Interest rates are 3-4% lower, property prices haven't changed much. No way to tell that when I jumped in 2-3 years ago though.

Auckland is different to chch, I get an average wage and with my gfs wage we have a nice place in a below what i'd call a relatively average area. You just have to work with what you have I guess. No two situations will ever be the same. No right or wrong answers as no one can predict the future etc. But if I could have picked a time to jump in it would be now not 3 years ago.

[mjrstar]

Out of interest; if you had to start building your portfolio from scratch again in the current market do you reckon your could it?

I would have loved to have put every cent in to the bank instead of into property over the last 5-6 years. I'd be lucky to get what I paid for the auckland property back in 2006.

But hey like I said back on page 1 or 2 property is more about emotion and having somewhere tangible to hold your money than expecting to make megabucks by simply buying property and sitting back on your arse expecting to become wealty overnight.

I also had a dabble in shares (which I know nothing about) and did poorly I may add, it is soul-less compared to actually seeing the property you own.

the next form of investment i get in to wil be much more interesting/fun.

[frost]

what did you buy into last time?

i had 15g in a forestry stake about 5 years ago, i was expecting to wait ten + years for payback but the whole lot was brought out buy a overseas company, got my full returns in only 2 years, everyone laughed at me when i told them i was investing in tree's

if i had put half of my total mortgage payments into tree's again i think i'd be very well off by now(house wise), especially as the Chinese are buying up all the lumber they can find, oh well, hindsight

[mjrstar]

a few random nz companies, just a small tinker with $ I could afford to say goodbye to..


Trees sound great I might have to go get some

[GTsedan]

Bored at work and thought it might be interesting to drag up this thread (1 yr on)

3 of my friends have bought houses in the last 3 months (2 got a good deal, 1 paid a pretty penny for an av house in a flash area) and I'm about to move into my own place next weekend. Also have one more friend actively looking.

Appears to be alot of 1st home buyers round here, prices are still flat (hope it stays that way)

[edwagon]

Bored at work and thought it might be interesting to drag up this thread (1 yr on)

3 of my friends have bought houses in the last 3 months (2 got a good deal, 1 paid a pretty penny for an av house in a flash area) and I'm about to move into my own place next weekend. Also have one more friend actively looking.

Appears to be alot of 1st home buyers round here, prices are still flat (hope it stays that way)

Just remember that:
- The average house in a better area will rarely be a purchase that you regret
- Whatever you pay for a house today will seem absurdly cheap in years to come - talk to an older relative and they'll tell you about the time they got a house for $26,550, and they almost lost it squabbling over that last $50 - the joint will now be worth 5?-6?-800,000?, but that $26,550 seemed like a kings ransom at the time

I just shake my head at some of the comments in this thread though - typical 'soak the landlords' rhetoric, while at the same time saying 'no one can afford to own their own house' - so who does that leave? - the government, and we have seen that would be a disasaster after the Farmers Cresent debacle this week

[BZG Wagon]

We've been looking since February (bar a month off for a trip to the states) & haven't had much luck.

Everything is either going to auction or multi-tender.
* Auctions have cost us a fortune in prepurchase building inspections. Then there are always 2 bidders who are completely desperate and push the auction $50k+ where it should be (in $500 incremental bids). Or a vendor that wants $50k more then anyone’s prepared to bid. How can you compete with a family that are desperate for a house and go well beyond reasoning with their bids?
* We are being beaten by completely unconditional offers in multi-tender, despite being on the money with our offers. How can you compete with people that don't want a building inspection or don't care whether they see a LIM? Some of the more recent multi-offers we’ve been in have had 6 – 9 other offers on the table.

Our 'specs':
* 3bdrm.
* Minor do-up or better.
* 45mins or better to get to town in traffic.
* Reasonable area North or West.

$470k - $550k gives you nothing in Auckland.

Half the problem is listings - sometimes it takes 2 - 3 weeks just for a single decent listing to come up and then 10 people will go ape over it. Real estate agent's we're dealing with are complaining about 'decent' stock and reckon they're finding it tough.

So, we're considering moving to Sydney, London or Vancouver next year to earn more money (I can jump around $40k nzd in salary and get work to pay for the transfer to Sydney), and most likely settle in Sydney in a few years to be closer to family that have moved there already.

[/Life Story]

[AE86less]

That sort of money buys something very decent around Northcote/Glenfield/Birkenhead etc. Takes me 10 mins to get to Barry's Pt from Glenfield and 30 mins tops from there to CBD. Lots for sale around the area too.

[Zitchu]

Man cities suck. Got a brand new small 3 bedroom home as an investment a few months back for 240k here. (Whakatane)

[Bling]

Rates are low so it's more affordable now than when I first posted in here. My view is still to move / look at cheaper areas if you can't afford to buy, but want to. Been in my place 3 odd years now and not having to move was so worth the slight premium we paid over renting costs to not have to answer to anyone. Current rates mean i'm (we) are paying something like $400/week extra off mortgage on top of minimum payments. Just had a call out of the blue from an agent enquiring about my place as I had it listed for sale MONTHS ago. Not sure what angle they were going to use to try get a foot in the door but I politely declined. Quakes have changed a lot of plans down these ways that's for sure!

As for buying, get in there

[GTsedan]

$470-$550k for ONE house?

Jeepers, $200-250k can get you something nice round here, or $250k gets you something average in the fancy areas (only a few areas are crappy in DN, usually because they get no sun).

Prices have dropped 15% since the boom of '07 (primarily eaten away from inflation) and if they stay flat for 3-4yrs more (quite a possibility) they will be back on the long term average anyway.

[BZG Wagon]

$470-$550k for ONE house?

Yip - and that won't even give you a nice one (unless you move miles out of the city). Auckland sucks.

[Al]

$470-$550k for ONE house?

Yeah my cousin and his wife are buying in Torbay for their first home. Budget $550-$600k...

[Toby]

Quakes have changed a lot of plans down these ways that's for sure!

Agents are being pretty vicious at the moment, looking to make as much as they can out of the current situation and turnover everything they can, esp with the insurance companies offering only partial payouts if you just want the cash they have pretty much gone feral

[evil_si]

sold our house in auckland privately, advertised it in May and in 5 weeks the sale was unconditional,

found what we wanted in tauranga, semi rural lifestyle, just over 10km into the mount,
we went unconditional today, been on the market since beginning of the year, we got it for $150k below the original advertised price

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

Auckland sucks.

you hit it on the nose there!
I dont think I'd ever live up there
got offered a job doing the same stuff I was doing/still is doing with the Auckland Regional Council a couple of years ago for nearly double the salary I was on at the time, but turned that one down pretty quick
not my cup of tea
better lifestyle and lower cost of living makes a huge difference IMO

[thornz]

Our 'specs':
* 3bdrm.
* Minor do-up or better.
* 45mins or better to get to town in traffic.
* Reasonable area North or West.

$470k - $550k gives you nothing in Auckland.

[/Life Story]

Thats pretty crazy, I knew Auckland was pricey, but not like that!

We are just about finished building down here, just on outskirts of CHCH, brand new home, 1400m section, 250m house for about your budget.

Just have to put up with shakes I guess is the trade off

[BZG Wagon]

I'm a Chartered Accountant working in the finance industry for 7ish years. So moving out of Auckland would be quite limiting career wise.

Maybe in a few years when I'm older, have kids etc. & priorities change I'll look into it more seriously.

[solitaire]

I'm a Chartered Accountant working in the finance industry for 7ish years. So moving out of Auckland would be quite limiting career wise.

Maybe in a few years when I'm older, have kids etc. & priorities change I'll look into it more seriously.

I'm living up just north of orewa, i have ultra flexible working hours/work from home etc so driving into town isnt so bad - can't see myself ever leaving this area. Plus houses are cheaper!

[BZG Wagon]

I'm a Chartered Accountant working in the finance industry for 7ish years. So moving out of Auckland would be quite limiting career wise.

Maybe in a few years when I'm older, have kids etc. & priorities change I'll look into it more seriously.

I'm living up just north of orewa, i have ultra flexible working hours/work from home etc so driving into town isnt so bad - can't see myself ever leaving this area. Plus houses are cheaper!

I'd love to move (back) to the shore / or further north somewhere like Mahurangi. It would only work if I was based on the shore or out west for work though, and my last three jobs back been in downtown highrises.

Technically I have 'flexible' work hours, a laptop, aircard, blackberry and get to manage myself / my day however I want (yes... I do duck out to go fishing, play golf or a 3hr lunch on occasion – or not show for work up at all), but due to my workload and level of meetings I attend on a daily basis I generally work 8.30am(ish) to anywhere between 6.30pm - 10.30pm. Plus the odd weekend (usually from home though).
I certainly don’t get any ‘overtime’ back like most govt. departments.

Sounds like you’ve set yourself up pretty well. Do you work from home mostly or just different hours?