Can you afford a home in NZ? Mark II

[Bling]

Blatant copy of the previous poll from four years ago.

Keen to see how things have changed in those four years for people. Still chipping away at the mortgage here. Was supposed to have stepped up the ladder by now, but earthquakes put a stop to my plan. New plan on the cards though, more debt will be part of it. Amazing how much property prices have changed since the previous thread. There was talk of 350k houses in Auckland in the last one, hate to think what they would be costing now.

In the last four years, have things changed for you, to the point your poll choice has changed? Opinions / views on the current housing situation and outlook welcome.

[d1 mule]

Have house in CHCH (live in 'Straya), rented to friends, mortgage currently just making ticking on interest only as I havn't put a cent into it for over a year (due to travel but that's about to change) not sure what to do with it however.....Has prob increased 100k since i brought it in '09 due to Quakes and being undamaged etc...

[duddley]

Prices in Auckland have gotten silly. You have people wanting over 500k for a 40 year old fibrolite dump in some of the rougher suburbs and that translates into a 100k deposit. I think alot of Aucklanders will end up moving to the Waikato and commuting each day.

[thegreatestben]

Had house almost two years now. Got cracking on reno's.

Hoping house will fetch me a good profit in another 2 years or so. Otherwise I'll just rent it out/keep living in it/buy another using equity in this house rent that.

Affording mortgage waaaaay easier now as both mrs and I are earning a lot more compared to 4 years ago.

[Dell'Orto]

I'm now the opposite, as banks won't lend me SFA Hutt Valley prices are falling currently, the 20% deposit rule has really hit quite hard around here.

[Stott69]

Been in ours for almost 2 years now. Luckily we got in before the deposit hike. Brad Wainuis not that bad and half the price of the Hutt. Been talking to a couple of chaps at work, one guy who's just finished his apprenticeship, just brought a 3 bedroom with lots of shed space for ~250k

[Dell'Orto]

Wainui sucks a bag of dicks, sorry. If it wasn't for the hill it'd be ok.
Added comedy - bank will only lend me $100k because single man

[Bling]

Did they check your forum signature contents? Five bikes and a car, not a bad collection.

250k, dang that's cheap! 200k would be minimum for a good section down here.

[Leon]

Buy in Otaki, I'm attempting to sell my mum's house in Otaki.

No buyers to be found! Her nice three bedroom double garage house, is worth a bunch less than my tiny townhouse in J'ville

[rollaholic]

we got a 3 bedroom place for 300k in one of aucklands worst suburbs. getting by on one income currently. fixed about 6 months before rates started to rise, mortgage is actually less per week than what the place was rented for before we moved in.

auckland is $&#$%. i'd have left years ago if it werent for some long time friends still being here, and the wifes family. i can actually see it turning into a massive version of queenstown, none of the people doing your average jobs will actually be able to afford to live here.

even though we've got a reasonably bright future in terms of income improvements, im still dubious about moving to any half decent suburbs -prices are just ludicrous. for what you spend i'd almost rather go further out and get an actual amount of land / sweet house.

then again if you move far enough away to make commuting prohibitive, income options disappear. sigh.

[Boosted_162]

Wainui sucks a bag of dicks, sorry. If it wasn't for the hill it'd be ok.
Added comedy - bank will only lend me $100k because single man

Feel your pain there Brad! I actually did end up getting preapproval for one before the hikes, but basically after all costs I couldn't afford to eat and had to have a flatmate, who signed a paper to say they were paying rent etc.

Ended up spending half my deposit on cars saved the rest, and will buy out of Auckland in next few years instead! I hate Auckland

[Dell'Orto]

Did they check your forum signature contents? Five bikes and a car, not a bad collection.

250k, dang that's cheap! 200k would be minimum for a good section down here.

6 actually, I don't have the Mondeo there, because Mondeo basically
Wainui is insanely good value for money, but the only way in and out is via the Wainui hill. It's not a bad road but daily driving it hammers brakes and tyres. Our old rep lived there and would chop tyres in 15k.

Buy in Otaki, I'm attempting to sell my mum's house in Otaki.

No buyers to be found! Her nice three bedroom double garage house, is worth a bunch less than my tiny townhouse in J'ville

Where abouts is her place? The real estate market is pretty screwed now with the 20% deposit rules, has taken nearly 2 months to sell the house in upper hutt/ Otaki is cheap as there is next to no work there. Couldn't see myself living there again tbh!

Wainui sucks a bag of dicks, sorry. If it wasn't for the hill it'd be ok.
Added comedy - bank will only lend me $100k because single man

Feel your pain there Brad! I actually did end up getting preapproval for one before the hikes, but basically after all costs I couldn't afford to eat and had to have a flatmate, who signed a paper to say they were paying rent etc.

Ended up spending half my deposit on cars saved the rest, and will buy out of Auckland in next few years instead! I hate Auckland

Yeah I am equally screwed due to having kids, so until I decide to shack up with another wench, likelihood of owning a house again is slim. May just wait until the property market truly collapses and buy in then

[Boosted_162]

Wainui sucks a bag of dicks, sorry. If it wasn't for the hill it'd be ok.
Added comedy - bank will only lend me $100k because single man

Feel your pain there Brad! I actually did end up getting preapproval for one before the hikes, but basically after all costs I couldn't afford to eat and had to have a flatmate, who signed a paper to say they were paying rent etc.

Ended up spending half my deposit on cars saved the rest, and will buy out of Auckland in next few years instead! I hate Auckland

Yeah I am equally screwed due to having kids, so until I decide to shack up with another wench, likelihood of owning a house again is slim. May just wait until the property market truly collapses and buy in then

Yeah $&#$% that, kids would put a stop to everything!

I'm also hoping the market crashes

[Bling]

In regards to the large deposits / 20% rules, they only apply to banks. I've read comments from a broker (on trademe boards) about that certainly not meaning you can't get lending with deposits less than that via other lenders. I guess it's all case by case as well, as those loans are still possible at banks, they just can't lolly scramble them from helicopters for now.

[Dell'Orto]

Yeah absolutely, but it has scared a large proportion of first home buyers off. There is a marked down turn in property sales since that came about

[Mr Revhead]

Not down here it hasn't. Houses in Richmond are still climbing

[Stott69]

I don't see a problem with the wainui hill, our cars seem fine with it. Big car was going through tires every 18 months when it was a daily. Wifes car also seems fine ( tho on eco tires, super cats I think?). The hill scares off lots of people but if your a driver its a fun drive home.

I was under the impression that backs could still do 10% loans but could on do 5% of their lending at that rate rather than the 40% they were.

[rollaholic]

i believe its only 10% of their lending can be at less than 20% EVR.

most seem to be sitting around 6 or 7% of their lending so far, i guess so they have a bit of a safety margin.

as if it wasnt bad enough already, those people they ARE lending to are apparently being charged higher interest rates / fees etc - i guess the banks have to replace that lost revenue somehow.

i used to quite enjoy the wainui hill, though a fair bit of the road surface was in shit condition the last time i drove it (10 years ago)

[Dell'Orto]

i believe its only 10% of their lending can be at less than 20% EVR.

most seem to be sitting around 6 or 7% of their lending so far, i guess so they have a bit of a safety margin.

as if it wasnt bad enough already, those people they ARE lending to are apparently being charged higher interest rates / fees etc - i guess the banks have to replace that lost revenue somehow.

i used to quite enjoy the wainui hill, though a fair bit of the road surface was in shit condition the last time i drove it (10 years ago)

Yup I also found that when talking to the mortgage people, you get shafted royally. Less than 20% deposit means ~.5% higher rate than advertised, more fees and no real likelihood of freebies like they were doling out left right and centre.
I can sort of understand what they were wanting to achieve by doing it, but I think it's hurting the smaller towns more than slowing down Auckland's pricing.

[Bling]

Didn't it used to be the same deal with people borrowing 100%? Had to pay a higher rate than someone with a deposit. I guess the goal posts just moved. It might have been 10% or less and you get hit with the higher rates, and now is 20%. I get the impression the rule won't be around forever, so just need to keep saving dat cash. Trying to save what I can at the moment so we can have a mini Bling in a couple of years. Would be much easier if Mrs Bling didn't want a bigger house before then! Double the mortgage on half the wage will not go down well with the bank balance.