claireh1981

We were originally planning to bring £80k with us through the sale of our house, and had intended to borrow the same again to buy our house. Looking at interest rates for home loans, and the wages we would be taking home each month we are going to try and get as much money together as possible so we don't have to borrow too much! Is anyone else in a similar position (or planning to be) and has it made a lot of difference to your lives?

P18PPS

We planned to be.... however once we got out here we found that in order to buy a house in the area of Auckland that we really loved, that unfortunately we had to mortgage ourselves right to the limit. We were really (and still are) on "beans on toast" diet and holidays and expensive treats are out of the question.
This was not the ideal and certainly not what we wanted to achieve when we got out here, however we took the view that we are essentially starting from scratch in a new country and there are sacrifices that you have to make - we are in our mid 30s and careers are still on the up, therefore so are salaries, so we can see light at the end of the tunnel in that hopefully in a few years time we'll be in a similar financial situation that we were in the UK before we left - free cash for a couple of holidays a year, lunch out on a Saturday, coffee and cake when shopping, buying something here and there on impulse etc etc. 18 months down the line and things are getting a bit easier.
It also depends on where you go to live and what sort of lifestyle you want/need - like all things in life there are sacrifices and compromises to be made!
I don't think £80k would buy you much in Auckland (circa $240k), but if you were to double that figure then you'd certainly get something in most areas (again depending on what you want - number of bedrooms/land/location etc). I think the average house price in Auckland is just over $500k.
Good luck!

Nice Guy

Hi Claireh1981

I'm mortgage free in OZ, took a long time and one hell-of-a-lot of sacrifices, in retrospect probably too many.

You are right to save like the clappers to bring a hefty amount over with you, once here do not fall into the trap of thinking everything is so cheap, it is not, it is all relative to how much you earn.

The more dosh = less mortgage = more free dollars.

Good luck whatever you do, but keep saving!

Some piggy bank karma coming your way.

backdoor

500K for a house!!! My Canadian dollars will not go far! What is the length of an NZ mortgage. We have to renew here every five years and have 15 years to pay off our house. (shorter if you make extra payments) Hopefully, they give you a longer time frame to pay your mortgage.

Cheers

sky

Up to 30 yrs and you can keep fixing the interest rate every 2yrs which I was told was the best way to do it and open a savings account and bung money into it as much as you can and at the end of every two years fixed pay the lump sum you have saved into your mortgage account and fix again. Knocks something like twelve years off a 30yr mortgage.

Genesis

Yes we are mortgage free...one of the benefits for us of living in NZ, paricularly in Palmerston North where you get a lot of house for your money. In the UK we had a small mortgage and reasonable pay, but we were slaves to it. 33% of my month's wages went on it. Here we have none and by contrast the banks pay us a sum each month in interest on our savings.

We wanted our new life to be significantly different from the old one in the UK...it is!!!

We came here for our kids. The financial stuff is just the icing on the cake. Life here for us is uncomplictated, relatively stress free (apart from 3 X under 6 fiesty rascals!!) and very easy. We have space, fantastic amenities and lots of fun. Our lives here are sooooooo different to what we left in inner city midlands. Which is nice. Good luck on your move. 2years on and it just gets better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lenmil

That was our plan initally. Sell our house here in the UK to buy one in NZ and be mortgage free. Unfortunately for us it all failed as our house did not sell and we ran out of money and had to return back to sort it out. 2 years later we are still in the UK but plan on going back asap. Our house has gone up in value since then but so have the NZ ones. This time round we are not going to tell estate agents (if we use them) that we are going to NZ. Did that the last time and many have told us that was a big mistake. Can't prove it but we got shafted by them. Leaving an empty house with no chain in a good area does not sell???? They held it back to sell if things did not go right or they know some one who will snap it up cheap as we are desperate. Another one to remember is don't take too much stuff. If i knew then what i know now i would have sold most of my stuff and just taken cash and buy there. The cost of it all just to make you feel better with stuff you are used to. We are just going to ship personal stuff and my work tools. No furniture, tv's etc. Just our opinion due to our own experiences.

Leighlou

Hi there, Just wanted to say that you have achieved exactly what we would want to. The biggest reason for us leaving the UK is to escape the mortgage trap / rat race, and learn to enjoy life with our children as a family. Good on you guys! Huge inspiration to us who want to have just what you have!
Reading the other comments here, it does look like a bit of discipline will be involved to make sure we do not get sucked into the oh so lovely houses in the oh so lovely areas and get tempted into borrowing again.
Cheers, Leighlou.

Leighlou

Going on from this, would I be right in thinking that there will be very little reason in taking free standing wardrobes as all Kiwi house (or most anyway) have built in ones?

Lenmil

Some of the ones we looked at did. But some of our stuff was not suitable due to the houses are different in size not to mention shapes. We almost chopped it up to use as firewood to keep warm. Thats all it was good for. We just left it there with loads of other rubbish.

Leighlou

Well, here's to getting out there again for you soon. Are you near to getting back again?

Boopy

We knew we wouldn't be mortgage free, but expected a smaller mortgage. The reality is, if you want a nice house you pay alot for it. Don't forget the interst rate is far higher here.

backdoor

What is the interst rate in NZ. Right now our mortgage is at 3.25% in Canada for 275K. Is it higher in NZ?

Cheers

lapsed kiwi

Don't bring wardrobes unless you're planning to buy an old villa, as nearly every other house has them built in (we viewed about 40, and I don't remember any that ddin't). I'd say bring everything else though, as 2nd hand furniture is worth very little in UK, but new stuff is comparatively expensive here.

Leighlou

Thanks for this - ours are rubbish wardrobes anyway and am needing a reason to junk them!