Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Will you build or will you buy? It all comes down to what you want – but as I found out last year, getting what you want is not always straightforward.

I bought a house late last year and went through the whole exercise. We looked at building but any decent sections were not for sale at current market prices. Intensification means subdivision and the cost of subdivision consent fees and development was prohibitive. A builder explained that the building option now was only for the rich.
We looked at a few builders' spec houses but extra costs like paths, landscaping and curtains were more expensive than we had expected. New residential developments are slow to move at the moment and as we have a 12 year old we preferred a developed area where she would be able to walk to school and socialise with her friends.
We decided to look at older houses.

House or bach?
Property titles throughout the Bay refer to the house as ‘house not a bach'. So many of the old houses were little fibrolite baches with clumsy extensions even in the good areas. Chilly bin special deals were totally scary. Solid boring brick homes seemed to be the world of old couples who were wanting up to $50,000 more than the properties were worth. They were demanding the money back from their investment.
We wanted three bedrooms plus office and bought a six year old, three bedroom house at a price that I believed would allow me to add an extra room for an office. Of course we added another bedroom for the same money to improve the value of the house. We now have the house that we wanted but there few very important lessons in the exercise.
The house was six years old and we are the third owners. There was nothing wrong with the house but it did show evidence of people who had built and bought without doing their homework, not just on the house but also on the lifestyle they had expected. We managed to get the materials, including the last half house bricks in the country. The addition itself was more than the $2000 per m2 and we are on target with the landscaping, stormwater drains, repainting and expect to have the work completed within a year. Even small renovations required proper engineering drawings for council consents. I had to do the paper work for the code of compliance, filing the plans and collecting memorandums of agreement from all of the subcontractors. Renovation is not a DIY industry anymore. You can forget about ‘do ups' and a project for the next ten years.

Young home advice
My recommendation at the moment would to look first at houses under five years old. They still won't be up to current specifications but they are unlikely to need any major work and will give you a couple of years to be able to settle down. Limit your personal involvement to maintaining paint or landscaping. Anything else is a minefield for a home project. It was sad to find the number of houses up for sale by owners who had only been in their house for two to three years. These owners had bought houses and were unprepared for the lifestyle that came with the purchase.

Property ladder rubbish
The property ladder reason is rubbish. A house is a one rung ladder and is not an investment. It is worth the value of one house today and is still only one house in thirty years' time.
The second house in your portfolio might make you some money. Make sure you have done your homework on the question of renting or buying first. When that is clear in your mind after serious research that has been shared with any significant other, only then start evaluating the second question, your options of building or buying.
Don't just plan to live in a house.
The house has to be where you are willing to live. If your decision is wrong and you have to sell up too soon it is very likely that the house will go and you will still be paying off the bank.