Property costs in NZ - the heart of evil

[98tls]

Sure you can,,in Te Teko,Murapara,Ohura,Mangakino and a few others.'
In fact you can pick up a nice 1960's ex NZFP home in Mangakino for around $50,000.
Hell,I bought my own house in Tokoroa for $89,000 which is a bit over the budget but it's gone up almost $30,000 in the 8 years since I bought it,,so it's all good an you never know,,one day I might even be able to find work there and actually live in the place myself.

What your going to do with "your" flash new place in Mango' is of course,,another story.

Fwiw bought my place down south for $73,000 seven years ago,spent $30,000 on it and GV is currently $200,000.Will admit though its an inflalted GV made to suit our councils neverending quest to raise money.

[Road kill]

Fwiw bought my place down south for $73,000 seven years ago,spent $30,000 on it and GV is currently $200,000.Will admit though its an inflalted GV made to suit our councils neverending quest to raise money.

GV on our place currently $134,000,,,but market value no more than $110,000 if we could sell.
I hear you on the rates thing,,doubled in 8 years,but the town is not improving for it.
Plan on retiring there free hold in 10 years so it's not all doom an gloom.
Really feel for younger people trying to get into a home today.

[98tls]

GV on our place currently $134,000,,,but market value no more than $110,000 if we could sell.
I hear you on the rates thing,,doubled in 8 years,but the town is not improving for it.
Plan on retiring there free hold in 10 years so it's not all doom an gloom.
Really feel for younger people trying to get into a home today.

Agreed on that,sure is tough for them no matter how hard they try.Sounds like you have a good plan,enjoy.After 8 years in the Nth isle i left to come back down South,never intended on staying in little ole Oamaru but did and glad of it,a house for $73k and all thats good re rural living ie fishing,fishing and not to mention the fishing and the great motorcycle roads close by just a bonus.Whenever i have to go to the big smoke i just cringe and cant wait to get outta there.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Actually having properly considered the implication of UTA2010 I can see that it is going to fast track a lot of rash homeowners and investors out the back door.

I can just imagine old slumlord smiffy (or whoever) sitting on a dozen units with 30 to 50% equity in run down or rotting developments, happily collecting rents and chipping away at the mortgages. What a shock they will get when they are forced to either cough up the cost shortfall for half their neighbours (to pay for rebuild/maintenance) or forced to sell for ten cents on the dollar to a developer who is prepared to fund the whole thing. Imagine owing 50% to 70% on a dozen properties worth 10 to 30% of their bargain basement $75K purchase prices. That ain't a back door, it's a trap door over the pit of despair.

Banks must be thinking pretty hard about their exposure on unit title properties now. That will likely make it very difficult to get loans on them.

Look out for cheap units in the near future eh!

You've missed your calling, you're a poet really.

UTA2010 has the potential to be really good: where it falls down is the myriad small developments with low cap values: I have two files on my desk (well, on the floor near my desk) relating to unit titles and the stupid earthquakes. One was a prestigious, professionally managed high cap value block of apartments: there, the insurers have coughed, everybody is going to get paid, and well paid, and they all move on with their lives (this one had a $2M demolition cost). The other is a small 8 unit retirement type complex. The owners will get railroaded into Option 1 becuase the insurers have said "Nah mate, thats a repair" (its redzone: it cannot be repaired) and the thing is the BC (owners) have neither the means nor the will to take the insurer on. They know it, I know it, even the owners know it.

Tale of two cities.

There are many two to four unit BC developments where (in spite of the UTA 75 and UTA 2010) there are separate insurance policies for each unit. thats freakin' hilarious.

the new regime will be good. I think if you have a new, 5 unit plus, professionally managed one, you're golden.

[Andy67]

GV on our place currently $134,000,,,but market value no more than $110,000 if we could sell.
I hear you on the rates thing,,doubled in 8 years,but the town is not improving for it.
Plan on retiring there free hold in 10 years so it's not all doom an gloom.
Really feel for younger people trying to get into a home today.

Me too mate and I guess that's the OPs point with all the pseudo science stripped out, fucking tough all round but....make it work to the best you can afford, think about what you want and how to get there in small steps. Amazing how quickly 10 years flies past. Interestingmthat many people in the world never seek home ownership at all, it's all about choice and what you can do with your hard earned money. Real estate is not necessarily the be all and end all but as economist will say it has a lot of "utility" meaning it serves more than one purpose......Europe and much of Asia sine the late 90s has seen negative equity in property as the norm, in fact that's what kicked off the Asian crisis, late 90s....that my friends was a gentle breeze compared to what we have now. Be thankful food is not a discretionary spend and that's what we do well.

[Coldrider]

Try Murapara http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-408836140.htm
Ohura http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-414991392.htm
Mataura http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-462280179.htm
Ohai http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-443845894.htm

Others I know of in Tuatapere, Kaitangata, Authers Pass, etc.

Crikey, I am gonna get myself a South Island batch, er sorry, crib. When I am in the SI I don't want to go anywhere near work.

[Winston001]

Fwiw bought my place down south for $73,000 seven years ago,spent $30,000 on it and GV is currently $200,000.Will admit though its an inflalted GV made to suit our councils neverending quest to raise money.

Good on ya Mike. Oamaru is a very pretty town, a harbour and Cape Wanbrow, close to Dunedin, not far from Chch and with interesting high country in back. I had a few misspent years at Waitaki Boys.

[Winston001]

Shirley there is nowhere in this country you could buy a house for $75k

DON'T call me Shirley.

[Winston001]

Try Murapara http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-408836140.htm
Ohura http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-414991392.htm
Mataura http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-462280179.htm
Ohai http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-443845894.htm

Others I know of in Tuatapere, Kaitangata, Authers Pass, etc.

Good man, and there are plenty others in Southland, North Canterbury, Wast Coast, and Central North Island.

Cheers! Very good of you an all. That means that my observation that the opportunity to purchase needs to be qualified by a bit of research into employment opportunities rather than left to chance/"luck"....

Despite my agreement with Jantar, you are right. Not much chop buying a house and having no job. Still, its worth knowing that it is possible to buy a home - yours, no landlord, your own peg in the dirt - on a benefit or a low wage. There is a strong psychological value in terms of personal security.

I can also say that there is work in some of these areas but the farmers/locals don't bother with TM. Its word of mouth and good employees keep the job. My brother-in-law struggles to get a reliable farm hand - they just don't turn up or are dumb as a bag of hammers. Jobs do exist in these out of the way places.

Furthermore lets think laterally: the internet changes things. The OP is a patent attorney. It is possible to provide intellectual advice and knowledge these days from anywhere in the world. Granted its no use to a truckie or an electrician but computer literate people can work living where they want to.

Personally I prefer face to face but I've had clients I've never met (including in Australia) through the internet. The telephone and email plus a bit of post does the job. So living in an expensive large city is not as essential as it once was.

[Smifffy]

Yes, and my point was that the research wasn't that difficult, but it does actually involve a little more than simply asking "where pray tell are all of the opportunities?"

Still, I guess it must be a lot easier sitting around waiting for either divine inspiration, an answer on a platter or a waaaaaaaambulance.


Apparently good quality housing in sought after and affluent parts of the country is in high demand and can command high prices. Affordable housing only exists in areas that are less desireable or sought after, and hence lifestyle and employment options maybe be limited.

No wonder the country and economy are fucked. No doubt 150k would buy a lovely hilltop home in Malibu or perhaps a 3 brm with all the mod cons in a leafy suburb of London. How much do you reckon a decent house would cost that is within an hour's commute of central Melbourne?

I know for a fact that 150k would get me a very nice place in 'rural' north Mississippi, and what do you suppose the job prospects are like there? Of course, compared to Oz or the USA, NZ has vast tracts of unused land that could be opened up for low cost housing, subsidised by the people that have chosen to live within their means. What are prices like in Otahuhu these days? That's where I lived when I first left home and headed to the big smoke to make my way in the world. I was boarding with a young professional couple who had just bought their first house and took in a boarder to help with the mortgage. They were always destined for Remmers or Mission Bay, and no doubt they got there, or wherever they ultimately aimed their sights. It was good enough for the mad butcher.

I never once advocated jumping in,leaving anything to chance or luck. What I am saying is that people tend to do better if they decide exactly what they want and then go about achieving it. Putting forward all of the reasons why something can't/won't happen is not generally the best way to reach one's objectives. Really buying a house is not much different to buying a motorcycle, it just takes a bit more commitment. Oh but the price of a new Diavel is so high, somebody should do something about it..

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, just decide and then do. Live your dream.

Cheers! Very good of you an all. That means that my observation that the opportunity to purchase needs to be qualified by a bit of research into employment opportunities rather than left to chance/"luck"....

didn't really warant the comment...

when in point of fact, you acknowledge that you didn't jump in boots and all leaving it to luck, but rather researched and even sampled the local employment options before you purchased.

Yeah I see exactly where the Tui's are

[merv]

If you say you can or you say you can't - you are right. If you have every reason why you can't buy a house then you never will buy one. Those that buy them decide they can and go about achieving that.

As per this guys stuff http://www.richdad.com/about/rich-dad.aspx

[Tigadee]

...someone should start caring because pretty soon there will be signs at the airport saying "Please will the last Kiwi person leaving switch off the lights".

Fixed that for you...

[Flip]

Its just symptomatic of the I want generation. I want a nice house in a good area, I want a fast car, I want a overseas holiday, I want a 52" flat screen TV, I want, I want, I want it NOW!

Tought titties, people make a lot of money from the I want generation.

What I did was.....By the time I had finished my engineering quals I had almost saved enough for a deposit on a basic house. At 24 I brought my first house, it was in the middle of Wellington very close to the CBD and it cost me $107k. It was a rundown 100 year old dump in 2 flats but the basics were right, it was the worst house in a good street. I fixed it up over the next 10 years. I then got an work assignment in Christchurch so I rented it out for $260 pw, which covered the morgage with about 6k to spare, moved and brought another house. Well just that wee 2 story Wellington house now has a GV of $600k. There an't no more new land being developed in Wellington, so even if the GV is a little high, who cares, the house will double its value over the next 10 years.

If I had brought the house across the road that was worth $260k I would not have had the funds available to fix it up and I would have had a morgage over a much longer term that I would have struggled to get on top of.

Buy the worst rundown cheap house in a good area that you can easily afford and stop paying rent to others. Fix it up and get some capital gains. Wait a couple of years and rent it out and do it again, by the time you have done it 3-4 times you will have a million dollars worth of capital. Don't buy the best house in a cheap street ever.

Never buy a new house as a first home, you will never get ahead. Places close to the CBD like Newtown in Wellington are always going to be popular with tennants. Never rent to students, unless you like fixing houses and want to run a bording house that is.

I remember when Ponsonby was not a nice place to be.

[HenryDorsetCase]

I remember when Ponsonby was not a nice place to be.

shit yeah, I remember going to a party in this old shitter of a house in the early 80's (81, or early 82) It was the first time i had ridden a bike from Wellington to Auckland and I had no idea...... anyway, the house this party was at was awful, full of punk rockers and boot boys and drugs and stuff. And it could have been bought for (I think) $60k. Even the site would be $600k today probably.

We paid in 1988 $60k for our first house and had a $15k deposit. It took us 9 1/2 years to completely do the old girl up, bought a second hand garage, put it up, every weekend doing landscaping, painting, joinery, yada yada yada. We did the last wee bit of painting after it was sold the night before we moved out of it. Sold for $145k I think. and so on.

Its quite rare now for me to see people doing the same thing. and at the same age: I was 24, SWMBO was 23: first home buyers now are in their 30's


One thing I am pleased about: in early 2008 we were looking at the big "Fuck you peasant, look how wonderful I am and what a lovely house I have" house which we would have had to buy with a massive mortgage (no problemo, right, I was making really good money at the time). Thank goodness I didnt because I'd be bloody broke by now. Debt is BAD. Starting to get itchy feet again though. plus the garage is too small. Time to build?

[jasonu]

What I did was.....By the time I had finished my engineering quals I had almost saved enough for a deposit on a basic house. .

How did you save enough cash to put a deposit on a house while still at enginimeering school?