One Housing Rung at a Time
Statistics New Zealand state that the median weekly total income for households in 2013 was $1,358 (based upon 1.458 million households).
As such we can determine that mortgage repayments need to be below $407.40 per week in order to be classified as affordable.
So what does $407.40 per week get you? Westpac’s calculator suggests that with today’s rate you could buy a house worth $350,000.
Realestate.co.nz has in excess of 12,000 properties with at least one bedroom under $300,000 currently available in New Zealand. Increase the threshold to $400,000 and there are 18,795.
There are 1,312 properties with at least one bedroom under $400,000 available in Auckland; 578 in Christchurch; 1,129 in Wellington; 582 in Wellington.
I freely admit there are not that many when you look across the country, however there are properties there and available which are deemed to be affordable.
The above properties are not likely to be in the highly sought after locations, they may require a longer drive to work, perhaps they aren’t brand new with double glazing and modern insulation. They may only have two bedrooms.
However, getting on the property ladder will enable people to build equity in their house, later sell that house, purchase one the next rung up.
It’s called the property ladder because more often than not you start at the bottom and climb, one rung at a time up.
Source Thomas Davies Stuff.co.nz
Filed under: REAL ESTATE