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Housing and mental health

Housing and mental health

Old Feb 3rd 2016, 12:01 am
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Default Housing and mental health

If this has been talked to death please feel free to remove. Just wondering if there are any useful links to discussions on the current 'crisis' in Auckland?
I posted a long time ago about how it was affecting me and it is only getting worse.
I've been in therapy for anxiety over the whole situation as home ownership slips further and further away. I now have sleepless nights about renting in old age and I'm not coping very well with it.

I also wondered if anyone knows of a support group in Auckland for long term renters? I'm not looking for a group where we cry about how unfair t all is because I know more than anyone, that's just life. I'm more about hoping I'm not the only one who's mental health has suffered over the insanity surrounding having a roof over our heads.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 12:52 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

No doubt you've been asked this question before but why don't you just leave Auckland, it did us the world of good and I'm sure it'll do you good too. It was bad enough 4 years ago when we decided enough was enough but it's gone from bad to bloody awful.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/37...sh-met-caution
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 1:11 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

I wish I could and I have been asked time and time again why I don't just do that very thing. It's just not that easy, it's not. For a start, my partner is Kiwi and does not want to leave Auckland. I also part own a business here which I cannot work for remotely. I need to stay in order to get paid from said company and build it up in order to get more money from shares that will go into my savings for retirement.
Also, I guess there's some unhealthy stubbornness as I've been saving for years to be able to settle here and in the past 4 years I have realised I am being driven out.
I talked to someone about it over the weekend and how I don't know how I will cope when I have to rent in retirement. She said jokingly 'oh you might not even make it to retirement anyway'. It was funny at the time, it's not funny anymore.
What baffles me is that two of my friends jumped in and paid for a pretty ramshackle little house here for half a million. All good, they could afford it obviously but I cannot get my head around the fact that the 'shed' they live in will soon be worth 1 million dollars. I don't get how this will be sustainable and acceptable? Ugh, and then I spiral...
Sorry I know your comment was meant to be helpful and I wish I could just go. I'd sacrifice all of the friends and familiarities in a heartbeat for a quieter life but I still have to work.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 1:35 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

That's fair enough.
I think the only shred of comfort for you is the Auckland property will eventually implode and you'll have a big old smile on your face as you'll be one of the lucky ones not strangled by having hundreds of thousand of dollars in negative equity.
The bubble will burst.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 1:37 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

I guess you've looked at links like this for shared equity schemes? Waimahia Inlet, Auckland - New Zealand Housing Foundation
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 1:41 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

Originally Posted by barnsleymat
That's fair enough.
I think the only shred of comfort for you is the Auckland property will eventually implode and you'll have a big old smile on your face as you'll be one of the lucky ones not strangled by having hundreds of thousand of dollars in negative equity.
The bubble will burst.
Thanks Barnsleymat, I appreciate your feedback. I think the headache for me is that maybe, just maybe at a stretch and a push I could just about get myself a $700K shed. However, the monthly repayments, repair, rates, insurance all the rest of it would drown me. So, on the one hand I have the panic setting in that I'm being left behind and then on the other hand I have the worry that even if I stretched myself too thin the above scenario would be exactly what would happen and I'd be screwed. Either way I'd be hanging on to the edge of a cliff with my fingernails. Stuck, stuck, stuck!
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 1:46 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

Originally Posted by Mark Smith
I guess you've looked at links like this for shared equity schemes? Waimahia Inlet, Auckland - New Zealand Housing Foundation
Yes, thanks. Our household income means we don't qualify for this. We also don't qualify for the Welcome Home 10% deposit loans for the same reason.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 3:23 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

Do you mind me asking how old you are? Are you near retirement?

Last edited by jmh; Feb 3rd 2016 at 3:52 am.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 5:54 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

Originally Posted by jmh
Do you mind me asking how old you are? Are you near retirement?
I turn 32 next month. I had wanted and planned to be in my own place by 30 but I've passed that and it is only getting further and further away. Even with saving We're finding it impossible to keep up with the rising prices. I have recently taken any plans to have children out of the future. Sad, but I can't see us bringing up kids in a rental and stretching ourselves further financially.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 6:06 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

I'm pretty sure you could afford and apartment in CBD or somewhere like Albany - I see two bedroom places close to CBD with harbour views less than $350k - this may not be your ideal for the long term and but it's a step on the ladder and you are still relatively young in my opinion.

You need to live in the here and now, you're talking of retirement like it's on the horizon in the short term when in reality it's a hell of a long way away. 30 years is a lifetime and in that time you never know what might happen, you might inherit, win lotto, change jobs, country, earn a fortune and your circumstances may change beyond your wildest imagination ten, twenty years down the track.

http://www.realestate.co.nz/resident...tment/auckland
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 6:54 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

Hi Angeshirl,
I read some of your earlier posts and presume you rent out in west Auckland? If you extend your search to South Auckland, you can find small houses well within your budget, with the added benefit that they will likely have a decent sized garden. Most of the so called rough areas of South Auckland are no worse, and likely better than parts of west Auckland. You've been here for years, so you will know what I mean. You can buy a house for around $500K more or less, and if there's a crash these properties will hold their value much better than the absurdly inflated central Auckland properties. There are good train links at Otahuhu, Middlemore (Mangere East), and Papatoetoe, although you might not find a cheaper property in Papatoetoe. Both the Southern and Southwestern motorways are nearby, and Sylvia Park and all the necessary shopping very conveniently situated nearby.

If you decide to have children while you live there, you won't have to worry about schools for a few years, and when the time comes you can move. You can always use childcare nearer to your work.

We've lived in South Auckland for many years. It's no different than West Auckland, although possibly less diverse culturally. My child commutes to better schools. It's not ideal, but we've loved our house (which we improved to a good standard), and the big garden has been a joy. We will be selling up soon and moving overseas (our house is not a first time home buyers kind of property). We know the area very well, and I can tell you there are several properties you'd still be able to afford. The area is changing fast, and I imagine these lower prices won't last forever.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 6:55 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

I agree with Bo, you need to live in the here and now!! If you want to stay in Auckland then you need to come to terms with the property situation. The sooner people start realising they might have to do a few years in a pokey apartment the better. Why anyone would pay $1M+ for a three bed doer upper in Auckland needs their head read.
I have never considered Auckland because of the propery prices, even growing up here they were out of whack with the rest of NZ. It just seems like madness!!!
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 7:29 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

Originally Posted by Angeshirl
I turn 32 next month. I had wanted and planned to be in my own place by 30 but I've passed that and it is only getting further and further away. Even with saving We're finding it impossible to keep up with the rising prices. I have recently taken any plans to have children out of the future. Sad, but I can't see us bringing up kids in a rental and stretching ourselves further financially.
Please don't think I'm being harsh, I do sympathise with your feelings and know only too well what depression feels like, but - renting really isn't that bad. Many people rent their whole lives and we survive. Many families live in rented accommodation - just because you can't buy your own property there's no real reason to abandon the idea of having a family.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 8:28 am
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

I understand depression and I understand anxiety. I get how disabling they can be. I have and do suffer with both. In the past I have felt in a complete panic over being trapped here, to the extent that I thought death would actually be a better option! Thankfully I never acted on these thoughts.

I say the above only to acknowledge what you are feeling is very real to you, as it was to me. You are still relatively young and you have time on your side re:home ownership. Things are not turning out as you planned currently, in terms of what you envisaged probably when you were younger. Do you know what? That's okay. It's time to look at different options, there are choices out there. As others have said, concentrate on the here and now. We don't know what will happen with the housing market in the future, so you can only make your decision on how you feel about perceived risks. Like you I wouldn't want to be mortgaging myself to the hilt, so look at the options others have mentioned. You may have to lower your sights but for me it's all about taking steps. Our first house was in a less than desirable part of my hometown. I coped with it for 5 years before moving to a new area and into a house I adored. Despite everything( and it was very difficult at times) it gave us the start we needed. With hindsight I don't regret it.

As someone who would've loved to have children but couldn't, for goodness sake, do not put off having them because you are in rented accommodation. There are far better reasons not to have children and that isn't one of them. I should know, I'm also a midwife .

Retirement is actually a good way off for you. You need to rationalise your thinking and you may need counselling to help with that. I haven't come across any psychologists that do Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in NZ ( that's not to say they don't exist here) but can I recommend books by Dr Windy Dryden. I have one by him and Dr John Traverse which I found extremely helpful in dealing with similar thought-patterns as you are having. Try Amazon UK. I'd also recommend you doing some Hatha yoga to help with relaxation and breathing techniques.

Just my two cents.
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Old Feb 3rd 2016, 6:30 pm
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Default Re: Housing and mental health

I agree renting is not a reason to not have children. many countries the rental market is much higher than owners market and you can get some lovely rentals, so maybe have a look around.

I also suffer the same, can only get through the day on medication, but I am slowly coming to the realisation that we are here and at the moment cannot make a move back and to be honest it would be starting all over again as we did when we came here but with far less money, so I might as well put my energies into trying to make things different/better here.
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