| Two
years ago my wife and I returned to New Zealand after having visited the
spectacular South Island several years earlier. we decided to spend three
weeks on the North Island and were not disappointed. It reminded us of
our early childhood years in Southern California before the incredible
population and price explosion of recent decades. At that time it was possible
for odinary people to have beach houses for weekends and summers. Traffic
jams were rare and the smog was only beginning to get bad.
We didn't go
to NZ with any idea of buying property, but when we looked at the prices
for ocean or lake- oriented property, we decided to check out afew ads
and discovered some very reasonable resort property. We wound up buying
a n acre in a development overlooking Whangamata Harbor. The price was
about US$70,000 and the property had all improvements including underground
utilities and sewers. The homes that were already built in the development
were impressive. We were told by the broker that the banks there lend about
70% on undeveloped improved property, so we went to a loan officer
who was eager to help us. |
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We
liked the location of the lot because it was in a popular tourist area
(Coromandel Peninsula} which is after Bay of Islands perhaps the favorite
beach weekend resort within a few hours of Auckland, the only really big
city in NZ. We saw more Brits than Americans in NZ and were amazed at how
long their flights {London-Los Angeles-Auckland} were compared to
our 12 hour LA-Auckland trip.
I would like
to mention a few things that anyone interested in looking at property in
NZ should be aware of. If you buy anything in a foreign country with the
idea of selling it at a profit keep in mind that you are speculating that
the currency fluctuation will not be a negative. The NZ Dollar is rather
strong now in comparison with historical levels. NZ has a lot of rain even
in the summer months. Many people say that the North Island is a better
bet for this (not so wet} but if you look at the rainfall for Christchurch
{largest city on the South Island}, you'll see that it's only half as wet
as Auckland. There are high mountains on both islands and a rain shadow
can be very pleasant during a serious storm series. There is no escrow
for buying or selling property there. Each party has to have an attorney.
Ours charged about US700 for his services, but keep in mind that they act
on your behalf as opposed to a neutral escrow officer. I would bring
any documents necessary for obtaining financing with me {proof of income-bank
acct. numbers etc.} so that all this won't have to be faxed later. |
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| I also found
it cheaper to transfer currency through AFEX., but they can only transfer
from here to there. Of course all the caveats about buying real estatre
that one reads about here pretty much apply there too. We turned around
the above mentioned property at a good profit within a year, but that is
not a promise that our next property will do as well. |
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