BEVS

Aye. Sunshine dollars and quite expensive real estate but it is a great area to live.

Charismatic

Full story.

Couldn't have been much closer in calling policy than that. There isn't one.

Bellasmum

ah but he never actually said that there wasn't any policy in the wings.

IMHO his quote "we wont be rushing into that" is quite telling, especially with election year on it's way.

Tom1983

Shock..... horror!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/bus...from-LVR-rules

Doesn't surprise me at all, especially on the day they were shocked that their new lending restrictions did not do anything to reduce house prices,I wonder if Fred Goodwin works for the RBNZ?????

Knowing the luck i've had, this'll curb again once we've obtained the required 10% for a new build purchase

Little positive I suppose Davros... that's if the new builds in Auckland are worth the money?

bourbon-biscuit

Watch new builds SHOOT up in price now

FFS, why not just make it only not apply to first time home buyers? I don't get it. Well, I do - the rich always look out for the interests of the rich and current government is composed of rich businessmen - but I don't like it one little bit.

davros1984

Hmm... if this was targeted at first time buyers it would be great. However, I just see the rich exploiting this, or landlords snapping up those new homes for investment purposes.

If they want to do something positive, they need the help to buy scheme like they have in the UK, but restricted to first time buyers only (and with the restriction that you have to live in it and cannot rent it out).

bourbon-biscuit

They have that here! It's called Welcome Home Loan. The problem with it is that the amount your home can be worth is so heavily capped that other than in the cheapest areas you can only buy dumps. In Cambridge you can only buy a home with WHL of up to $300k, which buys you a shite unit made of plastic stuff - not a welcoming family home. Family homes here start at around $380k, tho was more like $320k before the RB came up with their genius scheme to cool the market.

davros1984

Totally right, the limit for Auckland is not realistic.

Crucially..... and you omitted this - There is also a cap on your earnings So if you are in skilled work, you probably earn too much to be eligible for it (believe its 80K for individual, 120K for joint earnings).

The UK scheme does not have a cap on how much you bring home, in fact that's the idea, to help those who want to get on the ladder, especially skilled professionals who can afford a mortgage, but struggle with the deposit.

I think they need to do something here in NZ specifically for first time buyers who are resident in NZ.

Tom1983

Isn't the UK version enabling deposits of 5%????

We took a similar thing on when we got our house back in Barking. That was mainly because the wife was seen as a key worker and Uncle Kens scheme targetted key workers before Bojo made some amendments. Good scheme as well

Mark Smith

I think the UK taxpayer stumps up 15% and you 5%.

pippalonghorn

Correct me if Im wrong but you do have to pay back the 15% which is lent to you. I think it gives the first time buyers the leg up they need to get onto the property ladder. It would work over here too.

Charismatic

The LVR restrictions where only ever a short term measure, they talked about excluding first time buyers but it becomes very difficult. All LVR restrictions do is defer demand for a short time and only where people don't have that deposit level, you don't fundamentally change the supply situation at all.

In fact you can discuss all sorts of measure and restrictions but what will fundamentally change the situation is increasing supply. So affordability is about to get much, much worse in my view because supply takes years to come on stream and we're still sitting on our hands about almost all measures to increase that future supply.

...So that leads back to the Reserve Bank increasing the OCR to arrest the situation but they are still running crisis rates in a post crisis world to try and protect exporters.

Mark Smith

You do have to pay the 15% back, absolutely. Only problem is if there is a major correction and the music stops, then the taxpayer is left holding the baby.

Tom1983

GJ Gardener have called for GST to be removed on new homes it seems

Interesting but I think that would attract the people they're not really looking to attract. Watch many GJ Gardener homes being bought and rented out for a lot of finance

Tronik

Im a mortgage adviser in the UK. The help to buy schemes are designed for people who are bringing home enough money to support a mortgage but who find it difficult to save up the 10% deposit required. More lenders are releasing 95% products at the moment but in order to qualify for these they want to know your inside leg measurement.

Help to buy 1 is for new build properties. You put 5% deposit down, the government lend you 20% and you get a mortgage for 75%. You don't start paying the government loan back until the 6th year. If you want to sell your property before the 6th year then you can only sell it for 80% of its true value.

Help to buy 2 is for second hand properties so to speak. You put a 5% deposit down and the government guarantee you 15%, they don't actually loan you anything. Its like the old MIG mortgages. The lenders will credit score you at 100% so you do have to be squeaky clean to qualify.

Me and my partner are currently saving up in order to travel New Zealand and find a place we would like to settle. Reading this about the housing situation has put me on a downer. I believe renting property is hard enough if your a pom and it seems the government don't want to help first time buyers, which for expats would be huge.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards with the saving and lets hope things change for the better.