TommyLuck

Genesis;

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=586079

It's interesting that people were willing to back the £ back in 2009.

Hindsight 20:20 vision and all that.

Genesis

Maybe because we (or I was anyway) stupidly chasing the magic 3 for 1.

One is looking very silly now. Bad call, bad punt, bad choice..bollocks. My fault. Ho hum. You lose some you lose some!!

TommyLuck

Perhaps 3:1 is a pipe dream for now, I suppose you can reassess at 2.2 and if the £ is climbing you can take a decision.

I suppose, technically, you haven't lost anything. It's just not as beneficial, if at all.

The real winners are the ones who changed up £ --> NZD when it was 3:1 who are now changing thier NZD back to £'s.

Ker-ching.

simonsi

Assuming they came out of the UK property market and now wish to go back in....I think you will find they ave still lost out massively to house price gains in the same period, even with the stagnation/drops since 2009...

TommyLuck

True. Not being home owner I don't think along these lines, I'm just thinking from a cash point of view.

BlackCrossInResidence

Mixed news for sterling Aug 12, 2012 - 4:00 pm

This week Alice Ross, the FT’s currencies correspondent, is joined by Javier Corominas, head of research and fx strategy at Record Currency Management, to discuss what’s driving the pound and euro weakness as the Draghi effect fades. They also look at the strength of the Australian dollar and the Japanese yen.

http://podcast.ft.com/index.php?pid=1569

Charismatic

Both the Reserve Bank guv' and Minister of Finance have pointed out this week that New Zealand is still about 25% above it's long-run average value in house prices. Those countries that experienced significant adjustment like the US is probably pretty safe.

Also thinking about prices you have to take into account localisation of markets, Auckland's north shore has price-to-median household income income multiples exceeding 7 whereas Wanganui sits at about 2.5 times median household income.

_0v0_

I suspect that in Auckland the problem is simple old-fashioned supply vs demand, especially cheaper housing. There are some quite scary stories about overcrowding in the poorer districts, particularly Manukau. So possibly no bubble at all now.

Justcol

The rents in Auckland go up every time the herald runs a story (usually backed up by one if the big real estate companies) about housing shortages.
The rates up here are currently going through the roof which will also drive up rental prices

TommyLuck

This post is about rent, as opposed to owning. I know nothing about owning or buying;


Everything is relative. For what we pay in London for a modest 2 bed house with a teeny garden, in Auckland I could have so much more. I've checked.

In fact I've (my wife has) checked the other way round in the areas of Grey Lynn, Westmere and Pt Chev and for what we have we would pay about 3 times less, exchange rate considered.

Without being too candid, we could afford to pay quite a bit more than what we currently do for our ramshackle in London - but given the info above - We could (and are willing to) take a reasonable cut in pay and still live comfortably in a place much bigger than what we've become accustomed to in London.

I suppose ones view of "value for money" is specific to each individual/family.

Justcol

Auckland is pricey for NZ but try as it might it could never compare to London rents.

I find grey Lynn to be a pretty soul less place but each to their own

TommyLuck

The soulessness of anywhere surely can not compare to Brentford;

On the flight path to Heathrow, one small to mid-sized supermarket (Morrisons), a McDonalds, 6 pubs within a 250 yard radius of my house, literally nothing to do unless you're under 5 years of age - there's a couple of parks.

It does however have a very good fish and chip shop, which is rare in the South East.


Good to know about Grey Lynn, I suppose the clue is in the name ...

I've only really driven through with my wife pointing out various places. It's where she grew up and spent time with her Mum, through her Mum's final years, hence her looking in to it.

Having said that, as I understand it, it's got a past of being a bit of a hippy area?

I'm not sure if this is prevalent to this day.

simonsi

Indeed! This is why most potential expats questions along the lines of "what sort of life can I lead on an income of $xxxxx" are doomed from the start, we can only provide some empirical costs based on NZ experience, the potential expat has to then put those costs as appropriate into their required lifestyle to answer their own question....

Justcol

I think I will have to agree on the point about Brentford.

simonsi

x2