Out biking with Glynn on Saturday. Stunning day (if a little windy)… up in the port hills above Sumner. If there was an area of ChCh I was going to buy a house in this would certainly be it (more on that later)…
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We went out again on Sunday for a blat around Bottle Lake – our usual haunt – and graham came too. Unfortunately no pictures of this one – but Glynn managed to crack his rear axle. One can only assume it’s one too many pies and the bicycle simply sat down and refused to take any more abuse. Poor thing (the bike ;).
Still, it’s a great excuse to get a new one – which I know is something he has been wanting to do for a while.
Other news – just about to book tickets to Uganda (via South Africa). $3000. Ouch. Coupled with the Toyota TownAce van that I am thinking of buying (another $3000) it’s going to be an expensive little week for me.
So yes, more on buying houses. Many friends back home are getting them. And here too. I can understand why having a house / apartment would be a nice thing to have. Well, I kinda can. However.. let me outline my situation.
If I wanted to get a house in ChCh – I could probably get a 3 bedroom detached house in a reasonable part of town – for around about $300,000. Mortgages here run about 8%. This means that just servicing the interest alone would be $24,000 – or roughly that for the first year. This is $2000 a month! My rent is $320 a month. So, I could save $1680 a month. Obviously, when you’re paying your mortgage you’re going to be paying the full $300k eventually.. so potentially you could just save that instead of paying it (plus the interest).
Now, of course where this all falls down (from my point of view) is that
a) I will not own my own place and the security which comes with that
b) If house prices rise then I will be loosing out – and it will become correspondingly harder for me to get on the property ladder – if and when the time comes.
However, what you have to remember is that interest rates are pretty low (in Europe) at the moment… but they can increase – in fact the UK is about to hit 5% (highest since 2001). So if the property boom doesn’t continue.. and the rise in prices don’t match the interest rates increases … But sure what do I know (honestly not much)
I dunno, really not made up my mind about this yet… but, sorry, there’s no way you’re going to catch me shelling out half a million euro for a house in Dublin when I can spend 1/2 that over here and get something bigger & a lot closer to the beach and hills (and ski fields). Besides, as I’ve not earned Euro in 3 years I’m pretty skint (were I to move back – which I’m not!)
ra ra ra NZ is great NZ is great.. ra ra ra. Actually, I hope ppl don’t move over here – it’d ruin the country for the rest of us ;)
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