jads

We have had about 10 viewings in about 3 months (now dwindling to zero), the estate agents are dropping like flies, and now the rental market is flooded!
Oh what Joy, I thought the exchange rate from £ to $ was improving but now seems to be cooling back off aswell.

I have just spoken to a friend on the Northshore (who is sick of all the rain in NZ, sounds familier!), he reckons work is slowing up and house prices cooling off, also sounds familier!

The NZ dream doesn't seem as important in the current climate, it could be about surviving where you are and just hoping the mortgage gets paid every month.

The last thing you want is to arrive in a country that is heading into a slow period alongside being a fish out of water!

Talk about not knowing what the future holds????????????

Cheers Jads

elsieB

Hi, we sold at end of July, Guess we were really lucky, had to take a 60k drop, but we figure that the lure of no mortgage payments in NZ just seems too much of an opportunity to pass on.

We reckon that if the worse happens, we will be no more worse off than we are now. Just had a bit of an adventure on the way! After all, you can't take it with you!

At least we'll still have our health!

hippychic23

sold??? no, and this is holding up our move to North Shore..... where my job started on 4th Aug, just hope they keep it open for me.
we have resigned ourselves to possibly having to rent it out, and stay in rented accomodation for a lot longer.
truth be told, people will always want houses - the fact that there are fewer new houses being built, means that our 'second hand' ones are more available, and I have had 2 people look this week - they need to sell theirs though (sigh)
well - just the medicals to go then..... how high IS my blood pressure now???:confused

Fooferfish

Doom and gloom all over mate.

We came to NZ in 05 and things were just about coming to a peak in house prices, and now they are taking 3-4 months to sale, thats if you get a buyer!! Otago has probably been the driest area in nZ and we know many Jafa's Aucklanders who are moving south because they are fed up with the wet weather all the time, i hear they have had months of the stuff, they did get hit with a cyclone, be careful where you buy a house as some have ,lost theirs due to being built on hills with land slips, yep the economy is taking a dive down, Dunedin lost over 850 jobs this year and most were unskilled labour, lots of firms going off shore to China and Mexico, cheap labour.

My MIL in Poole Dorset has said you realy need to hang onot your jobs there as the market is so fierce and tough and flooded with people looking for work, Southland in NZ will expereince growth and will need thousands of workers in next few years, but cant find them, Dunedin hospital needs over 50 nurses.
Not sure how long this slow bit is going to be, but there is a trend in NZ for 5 year cycles, but if you dont make the jump now, when is the right time ??

Nige, Dunedin since May 05

scrubbedexpat094

Hey, sorry to hear that things aren't moving, literally! But I wouldn't worry too much about losing your job, NSH are desperate for staff. They have lost quite a few to Oz.

Good luck to all of you trying to sell, must be extremely frustrating for you. :curse:

jads

Thats a good point, about fewer new houses being built so '2nd hand houses' may be more sought after. I wonder if immigrants are less required and resented when the economy is slower.

Good luck with the house

Cheers Jads

sunshine n jim

hi jads
wow 10 viewing is gd, think people are still waiting to see if the govt put hold on stamp duty.
we have had 1 veiwing on our house in the 9 weeks that its been up for sale and although they said they wanted it there is a problem with them getting a morgage and the estate agents dont seem to be letting on much info.
changing agent next week so hope to get better agent and better response.
keep your chin up on this rollercoaster ride that seems to have more lows than highs. just keep the dream in your mind and hope that one day we will get there.

jads

Cheers Jim, good luck on your house sale

11ThousandMilesFromHome

Hi, we've still not sold...we have had 3 viewings in 6 months and have dropped the price by £50,000 I'm hoping that my husband will decide to put it up for rent soon as this being apart (been 9 months now) is doing the family no good.

It really get you down in the end...so lets hope it doesn't take much longer:curse:

Mattyk

We have had ours on for 4 months no offers and only 5 viewings, so it's been on for rent for 2 weeks and it's tough out there with the rental things as theres so many properties on the market to let. And we have a really nice 3 bed detched house which everone says 'oh how nice blah blah' but no offers.

The way we are looking at it is we won't sell our house, even if we did who's to say the chain won't collapse just b4 you sell and we couldn't handle it. So we are going to rent, which covers the mortgage and we were only going to rent in NZ for the first year to make sure we live in an area which we like. So rent for maybe 2 years and we will know by then if NZ is for us.

When we are ready to buy in say 2 years the market hopefully will be back to where it was last year. So we won't loose 30K in our property because we won't be able to save this much in 2 years over in NZ.

And if it doesn't work out we still have our house to come back to. If you sell your house now the reduction in the asking price is a killer and it's such a bad time. The banks and goverment are a waste of space, bring on NZ.

hippychic23

yep - have come to the conclusion my house is just TOO good for everyone!!! (well, I love it - ha ha). It is a real shame - a lot of this 'credit crunch' is media created - if they didnt rub your nose in the fact that there are no houses selling and the price is dropping....dropping, then i really believe that people would not be as scared to commit to another property as they now are, i have a strong urge to swear at the tv broadcasters..... wont do any good, except make me feel a bit better.
the only positive thing i have is that if something is worth doing - it is worth fighting for, so we are going to have such a WONDERFUL new life - that this stress is going to be worth it in the end. I would also rather rent my house out, and sell it eventually to the people that it is right for, who will love it as we all have, rather than drop the price and regret it. Rental in NZ is good - you can look around and choose the perfect one to buy in the right area when the time is right.... does that all sound over optimistic?? good, thats how i need to feel right now... oh great, more paperwork to plough through before we get into the country.... sigh

chocolate cake

I see the UK Govt have tempararily axed Stamp Duty on properties below 175k, as mine is just over that hopefully it might make a difference.

Hardly surprising that something had to be done after the chancellor's ridiculous statement last week about '"the worst economic conditions in 60 years".

Browner_

Trying to sell my house in NZ but its nothing doing at any price really. It maybe a good time to buy here if you are arriving with cash - just make any old stupid offer thousands below the asking price and you might get lucky.

I am mortgage free here which is a saving grace, but am fed up with the average freezing cold noisy and delapidayed NZ home and wish for something better - but that will cost $$$!

Am struggling here on one salary, but having just returned from the UK I am amazed how anyone survives the costs there - there must be some big salaries and some big mortgages!

teebrown

We couldn't sell our, so we put it up for rent (it's in Scotland), we had 3 people fighting over it, so it is now rented indefinately, so that make us happy, my Sister in law will look after it for us and then we will try and sell in 2 years.

Good luck to the rest of you.

11ThousandMilesFromHome

where i'm from it's not that end of the market that's having a problem...you'd just about get a one bedroom flat for that. it's the houses over 300k that are struggling so lets hope they axe it for all properties