[nickydwuk]

Has anyone bought a property in NZ whilst still in England? How easy or difficult is it? Apart from the obvious issue of buying without seeing first. How accurate are the real estate agents descriptions etc...?

[marcia]

Personally I'd say no way!

We looked at loads of houses on the internet before we came out, we then went in person to look at some of them here, and found that no way would we want to live there, for example one was right at the side of a camp site!! Another was lovely, the house beautiful, good amount of land - but it was at the side of a busy road, and when you were out in the garden all you could hear were the wagons thundering past.

I would say wait till you get here, you really do need to go and look at the area closely. After all its a major purchase and i for one wouldn't want to part with a huge amount of money till I'd seen what I was getting in person.;)

[james the mechanic]

Hi Nicky,
Unless you know the area well and are buying a new build dont even think about it.
Real estate agents work for the vendor, thus their discriptions won't do you any favours.
james

[Jo Jo]

I did (but I did see the house when I was over in NZ so wasn't buying without seeing).

I looked at lots of houses when I was in NZ and found that the estate agents' descriptions were really scanty in comparison with what I'm used to in the UK - they just didn't provide much information. For example, of the dozens of details I picked up, not one mentioned the room dimensions. Of course, that may have just been the area I was looking in, and it could be different elsewhere. But having said that, I got details from about 5 different estate agents, and most of them are big chains in NZ. If I had just seen the estate agent's details for the house I've now bought, I'd never have bought it. As it was, we were in the area so thought we'd take a look, and were completely blown away by how nice it was. In the estate agent's details it looked like a shed! And a tiny one at that - there was no clue in the details as to how spacious the house is.

In terms of the actual sale it was really easy, especially in comparison with buying in England. I had a solicitor and IFA in NZ. The solicitor was the local solicitor and I think he recommended the IFA. We dealt with everything via email, but I did give Power of Attorney to my future father-in-law in NZ, which meant he could sign the final papers for us. I do think we could have done it without having that, though - it would have just meant we needed an extra couple of weeks for having papers sent to the UK to be signed and then sending them back to NZ.

All in all, the process itself was really, really easy.

PM me if you want any more info.

[sizzlingbadger]

We've just looked at place that looked lovely from the details and described as spacious. Well the lounge turned out to be an old bedroom that you wouldn't have much chance of getting a single bed in let alone a sofa :D The living space was literally the kitchen and dining area and they only had a couple of chairs around the wood burner ! ! Definitely not family friendly.

I wouldn't buy from just agents details. Far to vague especially after some of the places we've seen. You can't also get the right feeling from just pictures.

Google Earth can show you the area and around the house if you know the address, we've found it great for looking at land boundaries.

But foot work, research and seeing it in person is by far the best way :nice1

[Tia Maria]

I'm sure somebody else bought from from the UK but I can't find the post.

The estate agents descriptions are poor and misleading, the photos are even more of a con - wide angles to make rooms look bigger, tints to make skies look bluer, grass greener and floorboards newer and close ups to miss out the fact that nextdoor's house is falling down.

You would only want to buy from afar if you had somone here, who you trusted, to go and view the property. Some people have bought land from afar and some have bought off plan - but still both have risks involved. You could use a building inspector but once again you would have to have confidence in them to spot all the problems, plus they are unlikely to comment on what the neighbours are like or if the garden is private etc.

Also I personally found NZ housing so different that it was good to see a few to get use to the 'NZ style' and the 'NZ concept of privacy' (ie having somone's house in your back garden.)

I know of a few people round my area who have bought while visiting, then rented it out while returning to the UK to prepare for their move to NZ in the following year. This has been quite a wise investment as property prices on the North Shore, Auckland, have risen quite a lot.

Cheers

Tia