New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[davetapson]

Damn - just watched a property we'd've offered 1 - 1.1 just go for 1.388M.

Houses in Rangi/Westlake school zones just frggn ridiculous.

[patches]

Still wrassling with 'is this a bad time to buy property thing'

 

We've found a house that we can live with, in an area we can live with... but wondering, is this peak property price time?  It would seem like it, but who knows... I rented a flat in London when I first arrived in 1997 and the agent told me 'you shouldn't be renting, you should buy, but not just now, property is a bit expensive.'

 

Property prices proceeded to rise in a straight line and that same flat was probably worth three times the price I could have got it for by the time I left the UK.

 

We're paying $830/wk = $43160/yr rent.  It seems to me that even if the price drops 10% over the next two years, we'd have paid just about that much anyway in rent, and will have the first two years of bond payments done.

 

Is this thinking straight?

 

As someone with very limited economic or property investment knowledge, but by virtue of the fact that I have facebook and instagram and therefore find myself fully qualified to answer this...

 

Just kidding... I'm crap with instagram

 

But yeah, first time buyer (in any country) about 18months ago. I thought the prices were pretty much peaked, as as the Auckland 2012-16 boom had already taken its toll. Managed to get the house for $5000 under CV (which I thought wasn't bad considering CV's were 2yrs old at the time).

 

Watched eagerly around the area as houses were listed and sold. One was sold twice within that 18 month period, and it was done up before the first sale. The second seller sold for 10% more than they paid.

 

Then just last week I saw an article on a house 3 streets over. Simple little 3 bed, 1 bath, 600sqm freehold. Decent condition, but nothing fancy... BOOM! over $1.565m. That's $265k (20%+) over CV.

 

So despite very real economic challenges, Auckland property seems to be on the up-and-up (at least for now).

 

Factors like an increase in returning professionals and a supply shortage could have bearing on this. I'm no expert.

 

All I know is that 18 months ago I thought I bought at the worst time ever, and now looking back I feel lucky.

[patches]

Damn - just watched a property we'd've offered 1 - 1.1 just go for 1.388M.

 

Houses in Rangi/Westlake school zones just frggn ridiculous.

 

Yup! pretty much the exact area referred to in my previous post. In fact the house used as an example is 750m walk to Westlake Boys and 850m to Westlake Girls. (I'm just over double that, but still pretty close).

 

One of the guys I work with just bought a house in Forest Hill and listed his house in Glenfield, purely because of the Westlake zoning, and his son going to highschool next year. I think he's still in shock by how much the price jumps just based on that imaginary zoning line.

[patches]

Damn - just watched a property we'd've offered 1 - 1.1 just go for 1.388M.

 

Houses in Rangi/Westlake school zones just frggn ridiculous.

 

Maybe now is a good time for me to implement my 5-8yr plan.

 

Sell up in Auckland. Buy down on the South Island for half the price. Have a fraction of the mortgage.

 

 

...Wanna buy a house? 

[davetapson]

All I know is that 18 months ago I thought I bought at the worst time ever, and now looking back I feel lucky.

 

You've bought a gold mine.  You auction that house, someone will keep sticking their finger up no matter what...

 

The 1.338M house cv was 1.160M, but it was real old and tired and smelled of incontinence.  Edit: and 6 feet from Beach Road. 

 

So call it another 100k to make it habitable...

Edited September 10, 2020 by davetapson

[davetapson]

Maybe now is a good time for me to implement my 5-8yr plan.

 

Sell up in Auckland. Buy down on the South Island for half the price. Have a fraction of the mortgage.

 

 

...Wanna buy a house? 

Is it in Westlake zone...? 

 

I suspect extremely very strongly my kids are destined for Long Bay College.

 

Personally, I'd prefer Orewa College and one of those possies along the beach, but seems as the other members of my family are not fully convinced.

 

Even better, I found a piece of ground along the banks of the Waiwera river, but that was even less convincing apparently.

 

A bar buys you a whole bunch as soon as you are out of commuter distance.

Edited September 10, 2020 by davetapson

[patches]

Is it in Westlake zone...? 

 

I suspect exremely very strongly my kids are destined for Long Bay College.

 

Personally, I'd prefer Orewa College and one of those possies along the beach, but, uh, married life and all that.

 

Sure as heck is 1.5km walk to the girls school. 1.9km walk to the boys school!

 

As for Orewa and Silverdale etc... I drove out that way to fetch the track saw I bought off a builder on TradeMe... Such a nice clean neat area. I'm a big fan! My work commute would be torturous, but there's plenty of series to watch on the bus (also nearly-married life and all that, hahaha)

[patches]

Is it in Westlake zone...? 

 

I suspect extremely very strongly my kids are destined for Long Bay College.

 

Personally, I'd prefer Orewa College and one of those possies along the beach, but seems as the other members of my family are not fully convinced.

 

Even better, I found a piece of ground along the banks of the Waiwera river, but that was even less convincing apparently.

 

A bar buys you a whole bunch as soon as you are out of commuter distance.

 

Longbay though... can't go wrong with that. Sure it seems far, but the busway is being upgraded. And the suburb is nice, new, thought out, the regional park is awesome, and one's money goes a LOT further out that way. I have some really good friends that bought there a few years back and they love it.

 

And waiwera... well you should see what 1 -1.25 bar out Puhoi way will get ya! Beautuful houses on amazing hilltops with vast blocks of land! But yeah... may take a LOT of convincing

Edited September 10, 2020 by patches

[davetapson]

The Good: just bought my daughter a Suzuki Swift, $4k, paid, rego changed, insured, all online, all in about 15mins, all in the comfort of this chair.  As has been mentioned before.

Also, nice, decent, straight forward people to deal with.

Edit: I lie, it was probably less than 10 mins.

Edited September 10, 2020 by davetapson

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

The Good: just bought my daughter a Suzuki Swift, $4k, paid, rego changed, insured, all online, all in about 15mins, all in the comfort of this chair.  As has been mentioned before.

 

Also, nice, decent, straight forward people to deal with.

 

Edit: I lie, it was probably less than 10 mins.

 

Who did you use Dave?

[DJR]

When are one of you NZ Saffas going to post pictures of the fabled South Island Brown trout the size of your arm that you caught of a dry fly? Come on, don't tell me none of you emigrated to NZ for the flyfishing! Otherwise I think I might just have to fly over there and do it for you.

[patches]

When are one of you NZ Saffas going to post pictures of the fabled South Island Brown trout the size of your arm that you caught of a dry fly? Come on, don't tell me none of you emigrated to NZ for the flyfishing! Otherwise I think I might just have to fly over there and do it for you.

 

hahaha, I have spent plenty of time wading through the majestic South Island braided rivers (mostly to get my bike though). I have also stood next to the giant salmon statue in the town of Rakaia.

 

But sadly I have never dropped a line in the water on the South Island. It is a crime though. A colleague spent nearly 3 months travelling and fly-fishing across the South Island and it sounded amazing.

[davetapson]

Who did you use Dave?

Ah, maybe I should be more clear.  Kid is doing her drivers test next week and it's become apparent that our current vehicles are not appropriate for a kid doing a driving test - which is next week.

 

So spent the morning on TradeMe, found a good one in driving distance, went out and drove it, made an offer, transferred the cash online on the spot, got home, did transfer and insurance online.

 

All completely painless, no queues, no photocopying of id book, no sullen govt employees to deal with.

[davetapson]

When are one of you NZ Saffas going to post pictures of the fabled South Island Brown trout the size of your arm that you caught of a dry fly? Come on, don't tell me none of you emigrated to NZ for the flyfishing! Otherwise I think I might just have to fly over there and do it for you.

They (we?) use spinning rods here mate...

[Wayne Potgieter]

Getting excited now.

 

In 2 weeks we leave for a 10 day South Island trip.

 

Fly in to CHC, drive to Lake Tekapo and then meander down to Queenstown. A short hop from QTN to Dunedin and we fly out.

 

Things on the list to do:

 

Lake Tekapo - St Johns Observatory

Mt Cook -  Lots of walks (hooker valley track)

Wanaka - Go look at that swimming tree

Queenstown - Jet Boat, Onsen Pools, Indoor Skydiving

 

Lots of walking, exploring and eating in between.

 

Here are some photos that OTHER people have posted online. I plan to spam the crappola out of this thread in a few weeks with my own images.

 

 

[patches]

Getting excited now.

 

In 2 weeks we leave for a 10 day South Island trip.

 

Fly in to CHC, drive to Lake Tekapo and then meander down to Queenstown. A short hop from QTN to Dunedin and we fly out.

 

Things on the list to do:

 

Lake Tekapo - St Johns Observatory

Mt Cook -  Lots of walks (hooker valley track)

Wanaka - Go look at that swimming tree

Queenstown - Jet Boat, Onsen Pools, Indoor Skydiving

 

Lots of walking, exploring and eating in between.

 

Here are some photos that OTHER people have posted online. I plan to spam the crappola out of this thread in a few weeks with my own images.

 

Can't like this one enough! I'm envious! You'll have a great time!

 

4 of us did a very similar trip back in Feb (Christchurch, Tekapo, Fairly, Cromwell, Wanaka, Dunedin). February seems like a lifetime ago. I'm overdue some South Island!