Notes On New Zealand
Real Estate
By Peter Shinnerl
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| 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. 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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If you are not able
to take the time to look for property there, we are returning to NZ in
November and might be able to help you find resort type property, because
we will be looking for more. Please mail us at:
pmshinnerl@cox.net
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