Can you afford a home in NZ? Mark II

[wde_bdy]

Higher rates for low deposit are nothing new, I faced that 15 years ago. Also had compulsory income protection insurance, way paying 8.8% interest etc. If you seriously want a house it is achievable, just comes down to what you are willing to sacrifice for it.

Callum

[92mr2paddy]

definately possible if you work hard at it, got our first house around 6months ago literally a week before it went to 20% we got in with our 10%, we live out of auckland but only takes 25mins to get to work in manukau, way home it takes fukn hour, but your going to get that anywhere in aucklands sh*t traffic. the house we got would be double price anywhere in auckland just because of the land size, just have to bite the bullet and comute!

[DRFTIN]

I'm getting into this buying stuff at just the wrong time, trying to get in a fixed rate quick before they go up again
seems to be some big differences between banks right now, broker said he'll struggle to beat the 6.29% BNZ are doing for 3 years

[92mr2paddy]

never a wrong time i reckon, even spending 3/4 on interest is better than 100% on rent throwing it down the landlords throat. the higher interest rates will only mean slightly higher repayments.

[e30-323ti]

...If you seriously want a house it is achievable, just comes down to what you are willing to sacrifice for it....

^^THIS^^

The car gets no funding but we have our own roof.

Never too sure if that is a Win or a Fail.

But the wife & kids are happy, so.....

[pureadrenalin]

Yes, can afford a house. Have been in this one nearly 6 years, thinking of selling this summer coming and maybe building.
Does help that I choose to not live where 25% of the population does, and live somewhere nice.
Also helps that I'm a manager at an oil and gas design company.

[no_8wire]

Yes, but not in Auckland without the wife having to work full time.
Looking at moving to New Plymouth actually, seems to be the place for civil engineers!

Higher pay + cheaper housing = win.

[solitaire]

I can remember friends saying that auckland house prices were too high and they were waiting for them to come back down... i rolled my eyes at the time.

Basic supply and demand, and supply will never outstrip demand in auckland for a freestanding house. Apartments maybe.

[Bling]

Supply and demand is pretty bad down here too at the moment. Well since the quakes 3-4 years ago. Upsizing next year, so will have a decent sized mortgage again to chip away at. Land in sought after areas is selling super fast, so they can ask what they like within reason.

You'd be mad IMO to sit on the sidelines really. If your reasoning is to wait for the bubble to bust. I just can't see how it's possible for it to happen. Auckland prices are crazy, but as you say, supply and demand is not in buyers favour. Pretty sure that has been the case for at least as long as i've been taking notice of such things. 8+ years now. I got on the ladder in 2007 at the peak, so bad timing. But even so, it's not like waiting and renting would have been a better way to go really. Not looking forward to interest rates continuing to increase as my mortgage will be tripling next year due to taking our next step on the ladder.

[duddley]

There are a few reasons why more houses aren't getting built in Auckland #1 council wants crazy fees to let you build and this means building affordable 3 bedroom houses isn't viable#2 douchebag neighbours have too much say over what you can build , #3 some developers think there houses/land are made of gold and will sit on them a few years #4 all the good tradies are making $$$$ in perth/mines. Unless the goverment or council start building more of there own subdivisions I can't see Auckland getting affordable anytime soon.

[Al]

Government/council don't want affordable housing. Too many interested parties want the prices kept high.

[d1 mule]

[quote="duddley" #4 all the good tradies are making $$$$ in perth/mines.[/quote]

LOLD!!!

Im currently on a construction project for Sino / Citic Pacific just south of Karatha in WA building a 300 man extention to the camp, the crew is approx 15 atm and there are 8 kiwis lol.

Can you blame us tho? I paid over double what i was making a week in NZ in TAX last week......

[RS13]

Brother in law works for the mines near Newman. Makes huge money.. but works long hours in a super hot dusty shithole in the middle of nowhere. Rarely gets time off (Christmas day included), lives a 7 hour flight from family and is a constantly a shade of red from the copious dust that he also inhales daily. So yeah, good money.. but for a job that takes years off your life, you'd hope it would be. Rather earn half as much and have a proper life back here.

[RS13]

Government/council don't want affordable housing. Too many interested parties want the prices kept high.

We've been looking at houses for over a year now (half-heartedly, in no hurry to move) and have noticed increasingly less people through open homes, increasingly desperate agents repeatedly calling us due to "deadline sales" with no offers, auctions being passed in.. we went and had a look at new houses in Rangiora the other day, there must have been at least 12 open homes within a 1km radius of the house we went to see, turns out that they normally sell around 25 houses a month but the backlog is already closer to 50 houses. I was always skeptical, but as much as all the back-handers want their precious housing bubble to continue, down here at least the arse has fallen out of it to the point where the gap between GV and actual sale prices has decreased quite a bit. Wouldn't surprise me if it dropped further.

[d1 mule]

Rather earn half as much and have a proper life back here.

*Near enough to 4 times what i was getting in NZ as a sparky weekly.....

Sure its less than ideal working in bumfuck nowhere, long hours and $&#$% hot (was 43 yesterday) but the only other mid 20s people making more money than me are professional sportsman and actors essentially......

gotta make hay while the sun shines.

[RS13]

Fair enough. Again though, I'd rather earn less and live comfortably.

[rollaholic]

i wish i had done a few years before i got all familied up, i hope you are putting plenty of that money away D1 for house deposit or sweet race car or both.

[d1 mule]

^ yeah bro brought this a couple months back lol


saving for house #2 at the mo, while getting in as much travel as i can.

[Timmo]

I can afford a house....just like I can afford to pay $10 for a cup of coffee or $20 for a ham sand-whitch.....doesn't mean it's good value. Many people would say 'nah bro, I'm not paying that' and I think many people will do so with housing.

[SX60cresta]

I think this all comes down to each individual an what they actually want

House prices in auckland are somewhat rediculous but I was fortunate enough to buy and sell one before the 20% deposit change and brought again with similar mortgage but far better property/area. I now have a child which really puts things into perspective but I go out into the shed and sit in/touch/ wish I could spend more money on my car haha.

I will quirte happily ride the wave of growing value then one day buy somewhere away from auckland and live happily ever after with my project that took 20 years to get finished