Any New Zealanders who can help me with a general query?

[funnypeculiar]

I'm doing a project for a NZ company, & it's got me thinking. Are there any differences in attitudes to house ownership in Uk vs NZ - esp in terms of the financial side of things/property as an investment? TIA.

Haven't lived in NZ for sometime, however I am a kiwi.

NZ is quite similar in terms of attitudes to home ownership as here. IE most people I know own or aspire to own their own homes. Those on lower incomes, tend to rent, in the large cities anyway.

I know a few people in NZ who have rental properties as an investment - I also know a few people here in UK who do. I don't know if it more popular in either place, but certainly people in NZ think of their own homes as an investment.

I believe interest rates tend to be higher in NZ. The buying process tends to be much more straight forward and faster than in the UK. Weeks rather than months are the norm. These days many properties sell by auction - more so than in UK.

OK, that's interesting - for my personal theory I was hoping that Kiwis were less property minded/worried about their investment
Any idea if that's different if looking at an older generation who might be thinking about passing property on (sorry, somewhat morbid I know!)

my Dad is obsessed with property & making money though it. 2 divorces have impeded his success, but still he soldiers on. I've been disinherited though so not sure who it will benefit - his other 4 kids I guess :)

My Mum is on benefits and rents at the lower end of the market. She got half the proceeds from the family home when she split with my Dad 30 years ago, but did not have the income to support a mortgage to reinvest her capital gains. Her landlord is an unmarried man who got work abroad and rented his home out while he is away.

My Grandparents, on both sides, all dead now, each left a modest mortgage free property that was their home, which was inherited by all their kids, sold with proceeds divided up.

I think NZ doesn't have the extremes of the property market here, but yes its a game most people want to be playing.

That's really useful, thanks.

Sounds like you have a 'interesting' family set up! Are you still in touch with your Dad or not?

oh the drama over the years!!

We were completely estranged for a while, but now I see him at 'family' BBQ's/dinners etc when I visit NZ, and the odd random phone call/email/txt. I'm not interested in any 1-1 time with him. I might have to spend a night at his place on our next visit - as there are 4 of us and not enough room to stay at other family member's homes. I'll do it with gritted teeth and the actuality probably won't be as bad as the reality. But I don't enjoy his company much at all. I so used to admire and look up to him - these days I think he's a sleaze ball, arrogant, self obsessed bore. I live in UK though so I it's not much of an issue.

Plus I have my own family to keep me busy these days :)

Hope you'll get some proper actual kiwis along soon to give you more info.

Kiwis are VERY concerned about property IMO as for most of us its our retirement fund. NZ has a very low rate of personal savings per capita. Most couples aspire to owing their own home and get away from renting.

I honestly think you are seen as pretty unsuccessful if you rent and dont own home as an adult. There was for a long time the stereotype of the '1/4 acre" house that people aimed for. Prices have gone through the roof in the last 10 years and NZ is considered to be one of the most unaffordable places for home buying (theres a stat that looks at the cost of the average home vrs the average salary)

Blimey, HopHop - sounds tough. Although you sound like you are being very grown-up about it all - very impressive! Hope your dad comes to appreciate your kindness at some point...

And thank you too, frazlenz.

Humm, sounds like my theory (that Brits are more obsessed with house price rises and are likely to be more obsessed with passing on an inflated house value to their children) isn't going to stack up.

Assume (given space to people ratio) that most NZ-ers have houses rather than flats?

I think kiwi's are property obsessed. Which makes more sense to me the longer I'm here.

Firstly, there are a large number of tax breaks related to owning a buy to let. You can basically write off the costs against your person income tax (i.e salary) so it is almost a no brainer if you can raise a deposit. I know people who own several rentals.

Secondly, people seem to be less informed about other investment opportunities. There are a lot of cases in the papers where people have invested every penny of their retirement fund with an investment company which has then gone bust, leaving them with nothing. At least with a buy to let you don't run that risk.

Regarding homes, we planned to rent here but the rental stock is shocking and you have few rights. We were given 21 days notice over Xmas one year which was horrible.

I also feel that people rely less on the state here so owning a home is seen as an investment towards retirement.

If you rent in nz the landlord has the attitude that he is doing you a favour by allowing you to live in his house. Definitely feel like a second class citizen while renting.

Thanks littlestkiwi & rillyrilly.

Interesting you mentioned people being less dependent on the state littlestkiwi. What I'm looking at is retirement villages - and we're picking up a twitchiness in UK that we're told isn't really there in UK ito happiness to loose capital gains. But maybe there's something else going on - like lower expectations of state help - that is actually driving it.

Humm, thanks!

NZ has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of 'severe unaffordability' of houses in the world...

This is basically comparing house prices and income. It is ludicrous here - houses are so, so expensive. I'm in a pricy suburb admittedly, but the starting price for 3-bed homes with a bit of lawn outside (i.e. the sort of home Kiwis should be able to take for granted) is around the $800,000.00 mark (c £400,000.00). You're looking at over a million bucks for more of a 'forever home'.

I've recently returned home from the UK and we're renting at the moment. The rental market from the renter's perspective is incredibly competitive. There's just nothing out there - it is dog-eat-dog trying to secure somewhere, the demand is so high.

I've been away from a long time - since my early 20s and am now late 30s so it's difficult for me to make comparisons to what it was like before I left as I just wasn't particularly interested or aware of the situation, but it does seem as if very few people do the buy-to-let thing, probably because house prices are so ludicrously high that it's enough of a struggle to get a decent family-sized home as it is, let alone buy a second home - and especially when you take the very high interest rates into account as well.

The thing is, everything is expensive here - I just thought this was indicative of the overall picture, but the results of this affordability surgery have just been released and it seems this is actually a real issue.

SlinkingOutsideInFrocks - $800,000 is well above the average house price in NZ. $349,000 is the average. Of course it varies between locations but most people expect to pay more in Remuera or Devonport than in Levin.