Money Matters
 

We have sold our house in UK and our little family are heading to Auckland next month. We plan to rent for a while while we look around and decide where we want to settle before we buy. In the meantime, we are looking for the best (low risk) option for the proceeds of our house sale. We are considering an offshore account or the highest interest e-savings account we can find. We also came across a forecast (from the National Bank I think) which said the GBP would be much stronger by mid 2007 which makes us inclined to hang in the hope that this comes to pass. We would be interested to hear what others have done and any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Re: Money Matters
 

Hi we rented here for a year then I decided to sell my little house in the UK. Basically what I did with the money is... got the solicitor to pay off our debts in the UK by transferring the money into OHs building society. The bulk of the money was then transferred by the solicitor (by Swift) to an account over here.

I was extremely lucky as I got 3 dollars to the pound so made quite a bit on the house. We kept bank and building society accounts open in the UK when we moved... its been really helpful to have them open there.

We are in the process of selling our other house in the UK at the moment but the exchange rate isnt so good now and my OH will get the solicitor to put money into UK building soc. high interest a/c and transfer it over when he feels the time is right.

Sorry if that doesnt give you any answers but thats what we have done.

Re: Money Matters
 

Its all a risk aye? We sold up and moved over with our money..didn't get the $3 a pound touch..much less infact..however with the money we had we bought a house..a house that had we rented initially whilst we waited or hoped the exchange rate to improve, the house we bought would have increased beyond our means. So you gain here and you lose there.

There is much talk of an upcoming adjustment in NZ house prices.. just waiting to happen..and we are apparently about 90% certain of having the latter..but when???? Prices still seem to be going up inspite of big mortgage rates. With respect to $ v £, I was advised by an exchange co that $2.64 was a good rate and that the dollar was on its way down..with a probable long term stay down in the low 2's...how wrong was he?? It did go down below $2.64..and I was delighted to have bought when I did...BUT a few months later and it pushed up to $3 and beyond..it is all such a gamble!!!!!

The benefits of immediate purchase are instant settling in, not having to move again and feeling more at ease than one might in a rental..however rental means that you get to test the area and hopefully prices come down while you bide your time..then again they might just keep going up!!!

Final point is what we would have made on a better exchange rate by waiting and leaving the funds in an account would have been less than we saved by buying 18 months ago..so all in all..FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE I appear to have done the right thing from a fiscal point of view!!! :mad:

Re: Money Matters
 

Yes - I get the feeling that no matter what we do it will be a case of 'if only'. Roll the dice, hopefully get lucky and keep going without wondering what might have been seems the best philosophy.