claireh1981

Is this a viable option or hugely expensive? Can you get a mortgage to build your own house, and do things like heating and double glazing installation cost the earth? (yes I know, I am a heat loving wimp)

We will be bringing approx $220 thousand with us, and dont really want to borrow more than another $200 thousand from the bank. Is this relistically enough to biuld our own place or am I living in a dream world?

sky

You should be able to do it with that budget yes. We're building our own house (or will be once plans are approved) and to have double glazing does not actually cost that much extra.
You have to buy a section first though or block of land and depending on where you want to live in NZ the price could vary enormously.

Wiz'n'Ton

Ahhh.... a subject dear to my heart as we are doing just this ourselves.

In brief:
No, it doesn't cost the earth
Yes it is DEFINATELY viable
Double glazing in most 'Kiwi' homes comes as standard
Central heating will cost you between $7 and $10k extra
We plan on building a 5 double bedroom house, double garage, en suite, all mod cons, COMPLETELY fitted out (kitchen, oven, heat pump, central heating etc) for $460k - and that includes a 2000 square metre section.
You are being realistic, you are not in a dream world, you are right on the money for Christchurch.

Ask away re anything in particular.....

Wiz

claireh1981

Thanks!

Wiz, we might not even be able to make it accross, judging by the problems I just read you are having with NZQA. I am a teacher too, though not primary!

Your house sounds lovely though. Have you designed it yourself or are there a number of set designs that you chosse from?

Prices sound good, and I have to have heating. I don't cope well with being cold!

Claire

cherry

The average price of a home is around$350.000 ,buying your own section and building a home to your own specs could cost more depending on where you want to live and how big/heating/glazed you want your home to be.
We just bought a 2 yr old home and although it is single glazed it is well insulated ,even so it does get chilly some nights and we have not had a full winter yet.We have been looking at some pellet wood burners that are fan assisted and are self lighting,no mess storing and chopping wood and no pollution or mess to clean up.Cost @$4800-5200 installed and $12 a 20 kg bag of wood pellets made from compressed sawdust.The demo fire was just too hot on full and looked real nice just like a proper fire would.Running costs cheaper than a gas fire or electric ones as our house has 3kw fan heaters built in I dont fancy using them all winter with the cost of leccy here.Wood burners are being outlawed now as pollutants ,Chritchurch is taking the lead apparantly with the new pellet burners.Our friends have a section at Aeotora which cost $110,000,plus the $370 ,000 the builders want to put up the 2 story and thats only double glazed and standard insulation with no c/heating ,a decking and a double garage (integral) .Gives you some sort of an idea to think about.Good luck with your wishes .

Wiz'n'Ton

Naaa - you'll be 'sweet as bro' as they are gagging for secondary teachers - it's the primary there's loads of. Just get the NZQA in as early as possible, as all will hinge on that coming back to you. If we went out into the sticks, I'm sure there'll be work, we're just not ready for that yet.

Have a quick google for Canterbury Homes, Benchmark Homes, Today Homes and Golden Homes. They'll give you an idea of what you can get. You basically pick a plan from a whole range, then modify and adjust it until it suits you, your family, your budget and your section (bit of land, pronounced 'sicktion' here in jolly old ChCh )

A typical 'Kiwi' home is a bungalow, with 4 bedrooms, 1 with en-suite, and a double garage, nice open plan kitchen/ dining area, and separate lounge. It will be a wood frame, with stud and plaster interior walls, and stud + brick exterior. All with glass fibre or polystyrene insulation in the walls and ceiling.

We have picked a design and just made a few very minor changes. We've added underfloor polystyrene insulation, as well as a gas to air central heating and air conditioning system. We are still at the pricing stage, so have miles to go yet. It all depends on T getting the job, to allow us to get the mortgage!

You can get some truly wonderful houses for notalotofmoney, but it's the section you buy that will cost you. A section in ChCh of maybe 400 square metres (just big enough for a house + garde) may be $300k+. Our one in Rolleston was around half that. Location is the key. Will see if I can attach a plan of ours and stick it up here.

Wiz'n'Ton

Don't those pellet fires rock? I really wanted one, and we saw a great one in Place Makers, and they REALLY chuck out the heat. As you say, great flame (not as good as open fire, but good all the same) and super hot. If we were going for a smaller plce then I'd get one straight off.

claireh1981

do they have planing restricions? Ideally we want to buy a piece of land outside of Christchurch because I have horses. Can you build on land like that or is the whole countryside planning restriction thing similar to here. I know that land is cheaper the further out you go which is not a problem - I commute into london so I am sure a car journey wont be as bad! I suppose then you might run into costs of water, gas supply, etc?

Thanks for the advice anyway!

Claire

P2L

Wiz

Being nosey!!!

Have you financed it all yourself??? We'd love to build, but TBH this whole process is costing a lot more than we 1st envisaged, plus we took a much lower offer on our property, so not sure if we're going to be in a position to do that for a few years now

Wiz'n'Ton

You'll have no worries. There a bunches of 'lifestyle' sections out here that you can build on, and yes - there are restrictions - but nothing you can't get around. I was chatting to a lady yesterday about stabling, and she said 'It's very rare around here, most people just keep them on their land'!!! How cool is that? It will take up to 5 months to get plans approved by the local council, and then another 2 to 6 months for the build - depending on the type of house of course. Most sections nearer towns and cities are supplied with water, reticulated gas and electricity and sewage. The further afield you go from cities and towns, the rarer this will be. If it's a 2 acre+ site, you may be best in buying an established area + house, but there will certainly be a million options for you. Property out here is going mental, hence us buying a section only 4 weeks in - any longer and we'd have been priced out!!!! And if it all does go tits uppermost re us getting residency, then selling our section should comfortably finance the trip home. Up here for thinking, down there for dancing

claireh1981

Sounds promising.

Have to say though, I nearly choked when I saw the interest rates out there! No wonder people strugle to buy anywhere. Our house over here is not even 3% and is fixed for 3 years! I think we might borrow money off the inlaws and pay them back instead of the bank!

Thats a higher rate than getting a persoanl loan!

Wiz'n'Ton

We bought a decent deposit out with us, and have used this plus a smallish mortgage based on my salary to buy our section. When my lovely wife gets a job, our combined salaries will finance the house build.

We have no kids, so will then work hard for a few years to get ourselves established. Should all work fine...

...we hope

You can see why the job thing is causing so much bovva!

Fingers crossed it sorts itself out soon.

Wiz'n'Ton

Bloody good idea. We got a 'bargain' at 8.19% fixed for 30 months. And they are only going to go up over the next year or so in my opinion. Deffo borrow offf the inlaws - it's another trick up my sleeve i have yet to share with mine...

God - how boring am I, talking about interest rates, and actually enjoying it. I am my dad... shoot me now!!!

claireh1981

Bloody brits - sssoooooo dull!

Have to agree though, finally my inlaws may be useful for something!

It would be nice to not have to get a mortgage over there, the interest alone must make such a huge dent in your wages, and being a teacher, and other half being a copper, I don't think the wages are going to be massive anyway!

Are you enjoying it out there? Any regrets?

Wiz'n'Ton

You should be OK. Will be ove the 100k mark with you both working I guess, and with a 'little' $200k mortgage you'll be fine I reckon.

Any regrets? Only that we should have waited in the UK and earnt more UK££££'s till the NZQA thing was sorted, but we didn't have a choice there. As you could tell ealier, we get frustrated at times, and that bothers us. Starting to miss friends and family too, but that will pass as we make contact with a social circle around here. So no, no regrets.