Before this year gets away from me altogether I thought I had better provide you with an update. Last year ended with some good and some bad as they usually tend to. We were delighted to have Nana Lady (Haydn’s mom) with us for 3 months which seemed like a long time until the last week or two which just went unbearably fast! We have also had a flying visit from Gary and Henriette and it was great to have a catch up with that side of the family too – wish more of you could make the long and expensive trek to visit but of course we are all yet to find that blasted money tree!
This year has some big milestone events… Haydn and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage in April and on the same day my darling Tyler will turn 10 years old, (swallows a thorny lump of sadness as she is brutally aware that the last time she laid eyes on him in real life he was still crawling) and my folks will celebrate 50 years of Golden wedded bliss later this year.
Bang, bang, bang on the door, baby bang, bang!
I am afraid that I am still banging on the same old door as last year and so I am sharing a message to the Auckland Property Market and those involved…
Ours is pretty basic: due to circumstances beyond our control my partner and I who earn a little over $180,000 per year – before tax; who have Kiwisaver; own our cars outright; have practically no debt and $35,000 in the bank are not able to buy our own home! Why? We earn too much to qualify for any special schemes but we don’t have enough for a 20% deposit!
Firstly to the Reserve Bank of NZ:
Your LVR does not fix/help/save anyone, the only people it is hurting are the poor buggers who are trying to buy their own house. You say that this is to help those who are vulnerable to an economic or financial shock. I can see the reasoning however, you should be looking at how you can address the over inflated housing costs! Your actions are basically as effective as giving a birth control pill to a man.
You throw first home buyers a bone and say that they can have special treatment under the Housing NZ Welcome Home Loan scheme but in Auckland you can only borrow up to $436,500.00 (average house price is $697,454 with the North Shore being at $730,112) AND there are income caps- so sorry if you and your partner have a joint income of more than $120,000, you’re out! Ahh you say… you can also use your Kiwisaver fund – but there is an income cap on that too!
Okay, you say again... then buy a new build and qualify for as little as a 5% deposit - well that's just great, except the cheapest new build is $750,000! What if we don't want to spend that much?
Right now those buying are either investing or financing offshore and then renting these houses out (at the cost of a mortgage repayment) to tax paying New Zealanders. We basically pay their mortgages for them and are forced to live by their rules and be subjected to inspections every 3 months! Instead of making it impossible for us, why not rule that you have to be a permanent resident of NZ to buy property or that investors be subjected to capital gains tax? That might cool things off a bit, and help the so-called vulnerable - don’t you think?
Secondly, to all Landlords and their agents:
Believe it or not folks, not every tenant should be featured on “Renters” – there are actually some of us who look after a house even better than we would if it was our own because we would like our deposit back when we leave AND we are not *filthy pigs! Furthermore, the fact that a person has a pet should be irrelevant – you should rather do a proper reference check and find out if the pet has ever damaged/destroyed/caused the applicant to fail an inspection or lose a deposit. If you search the internet you will find that as a rule, people who have pets are well-adjusted and responsible. We are so freaking tired of being treated like lesser humans just because we have a dog.
NEWSFLASH many of the houses that say “no pets” are not fit for my pet and her family to live in, because we are NOT *filthy pigs! I have seen my fair share of homes of people who have no pets, but live in nasty messy houses that indeed would be offered a tenancy before us! Likewise there are some pet owners who don’t take reasonable care of their homes or their pets but come-on, please don’t paint every tenant with the same brush – DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
NEWSFLASH many of the houses that say “no pets” are not fit for my pet and her family to live in, because we are NOT *filthy pigs! I have seen my fair share of homes of people who have no pets, but live in nasty messy houses that indeed would be offered a tenancy before us! Likewise there are some pet owners who don’t take reasonable care of their homes or their pets but come-on, please don’t paint every tenant with the same brush – DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Ironically one of the main reasons we want to own our own home, is so that we can have another dog!
Finally, to anyone who buys a house in Auckland at these ridiculous prices:
While naturally I am a little jealous, I would also like to say that either you are very rich or slightly not right in the head. If you buy at these over-inflated prices you are telling everyone that these prices are okay. They are NOT okay! They are insane! A basic weatherboard 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house of about 110m²on a 600m² section should not cost more than $450 000 – surely?
Stop buying and price will have to drop. Who’s with me?
* I of course, mean no disrespect to the humble pig, only that the analogy sufficiently communicates my frustration.
http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/financial_stability/macro-prudential_policy/5406365.pdf;
http://www.welcomehomeloan.co.nz/key_facts.php;
http://www.kiwisaver.govt.nz/new/benefits/home-sub/
