Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

Day dreaming over house adverts is a hobby of mine, now we're coming over to fact find it's becoming somewhat of an obsession. :o

In order to work out a rough budget for new home we were wondering what happens to money from house sales. If we sell our place in the UK for what we hope to and allow for mortgage repayment plus insanely daft amounts of money to move ourselves plus our hairy, four legged family over to NZ we'll still have a healthy amount to put down on a new home.

I don't think we pay tax on proceeds from sale of house in the UK but how does it work with us bringing in a big sum of money to NZ?

Is it better to sell up and transfer money as or before we move? Could we bring money in soon after arriving in NZ if house takes a while to sell? What are the tax implications of each decision?

We know what size salary my better half will (and won't) move to NZ for so can guestimate what size mortgage we could have, it's just how much money we might have from selling up here that would dictate what we could buy there.

It's scary as this is a one way process for us, if we move out we can't afford to move back :unsure:

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

There are no tax implications here because it is not earned income and we have no CGT here. Financially speaking, the two biggest issues are interest rates and the exchange rate. At the moment both are not that great. You will probably be able to get a higher savings rate in NZ and it will make quite a difference on a large sum. However, some believe that the dollar is excessively high at the moment so keeping it in the UK might be a better long term plan if it turns out that the dollar falls. It's hard to say on that score.

I would suggest investing it for at least a year so that you can decide where to buy. Don't rush into buying because you don't know the areas or the types of houses available. Renting's no fun in either country, but it means that you are can compare areas and find the best for your needs, and budget without making expensive mistakes.

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

I agree with Jmh. Don't rush into buying here. We have learnt lots about the areas where we live since coming here. We have also visited a lot nicer areas too that we would have liked to live. :D

Renting is rubbish but I think it's a great idea to help you find where you want to be long term.

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

Keep some of the equity as a rainy day fund so you will be able to leave if needs be.

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

When we moved to our current location we rented for nine months first but we were lucky to not have horses to find new housing for and Mr Hazenut's new employer paid our rent for the first six months. It really did help as we ended up somewhere we hadn't initially thought to look at.

I hadn't thought about interest <duh!!> that would be quite useful and offset human and hairies home rental costs and I think paid interest rates over there are better than over here.

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

I'd backup what everyone else says. In my opinion, I'd just bite the bullet and bring the cash over. The dollar will rise / it will fall / it will do whatever it will do. You can put it in a good account in NZ with better rates than anything back in Blighty.

DON'T BUY WITHIN THE FIRST 12 MONTHS! It never seems to work out. I also loathe renting, but it will allow you to know where you want to be.

I don't really believe in keeping a 'what if' fund for returning. I think if you don't give it everything, you'll forever be comparing and looking over your shoulder at what you leave behind. You need to give it everything you've got and remain positive. If you're living here, I think you need to do it 100% or it's not going to work.

Good luck! x

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

Oh I always think you should have an emergency fund. The need for a trip to the UK can happen at any time for a number of reasons.

Sometimes you can give it 100% and for whatever reason things don't quite work out. You never know what's going to happen. :)

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

6% instant access savings account on offer here...

http://aotearoacu.co.nz/savings/home...s-account.aspx

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

If only it were a simple eggs for eggs exchange! :lol:

I would seriously hedge my bets and do a mixture of things and not make any all or nothing decisions. A change in the exchange rate will have far more impact than the differential in interest. Watching the exchange rate and choosing your moment would be a better bet than worrying about the marginal gains in interest. One also has to bring in the boring old tax equation when weighing up the advantage / disadvantage of leaving money in UK or bringing to NZ

e.g.Mrs Hazelnut might be able to take advantage of the tax free allowance in the UK, that won't be an option here.

Not that it's an issue for me; but due to lack of any bank deposit guarantee scheme in NZ I would also be spreading my money around and not leaving a sizable chunk of dosh with one bank. Although of course the :fingerscrossed: she'll be right :fingerscrossed: brigade are pretty cock sure that the banks here won't fail :fingerscrossed:

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

As with all things that appear to buck the trend - you have to look at the risk. Aotearoa CRU is not a bank, it is a credit union and has no credit rating.

Whilst some Credit Unions do manage to achieve BBB ratings; even this is effectively putting all your hard earned dosh in the she'll be right/ muchly vulnerable category.

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

I'd go along with this.

Re: Selling UK house - bringing money over
 

True, while I already know these points I don't know enough about credit unions to know what the success / failure chances are. We have however had our money, under $40k, in there for the past 4 months.

Given that even with the big banks there are no government guarantees here in the event of failure I'm not sure how much faith i'd put in a credit rating if the bank hasn't fessed up or been aware of it's real financial position when reporting results.

From the information I have seen Credit Unions seem to promise they have sounder lending policies, no massive investment divisions gambling on the markets etc. But as I say I don't know enough to know if this is correct to minimize the risks compared to a high street bank or have enough faith that She'll be right if I was sticking a really significant amount in there..

I should also say I worked for RBS in the UK and was made redundant after it all kicked off. They were a very well respected bank, at the time, but it was interesting to see what they hadn't fessed up to or realized when reporting results over the years proceeding the crash.