[liamnrach]

Helloooooohttp://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy0203.gif

We are thinking of buying a section of land in the Hamiltion area (Cambridge, Te Awamutu etc) before we go to NZ and as a means of getting onto the property ladder - prices only seem to be going up!http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/sad0118.gif

We are wondering what the availability is in the area (primarily to build our own house on eventually - 3bed 2bath), the cost/size and what areas people would recommend? We know this is down to personal choice, but any advice would be great. We have 'googled' it but with limited successhttp://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/surprised/yikes.gif

Anyone currently going through the process?

Liam n Rach

[Lupin]

If you really want my honest advice, it would be that unless you have enough money to take the gamble, then don't buy without seeing the section and the area. Sorry if that's not the sort of advice you were after :)

[liamnrach]

If you really want my honest advice, it would be that unless you have enough money to take the gamble, then don't buy without seeing the section and the area. Sorry if that's not the sort of advice you were after :)

Thanks for the honest advice Lupin77. We intend to view/look etc on our visit to NZ....we are quite fortunate to have the money, thus we feel the risk is one worth taking....

But, it may well go Pete Tonghttp://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/silly/crazy.gif

What's life without the odd risk eh??!!http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/scared0012.gif

Liam n Rach

[Sam B]

We have been looking at lots of land around Cambridge, mainly stuff out of town, up in the hills and with native bush. The Cambridge property Guide comes out every week (I love it) and it always has tonnes of sections available in it - all sorts, large, small, flat, elavated. There's no shortage of land for sale, that's for sure. If you come over for a recce, you'd probably find something you like.

Prices vary, depending on location, views, amount of land. Cheapest I've seen was $180,000 I think, but the stuff we've been looking at was around $450,000.

[liamnrach]

We have been looking at lots of land around Cambridge, mainly stuff out of town, up in the hills and with native bush. The Cambridge property Guide comes out every week (I love it) and it always has tonnes of sections available in it - all sorts, large, small, flat, elavated. There's no shortage of land for sale, that's for sure. If you come over for a recce, you'd probably find something you like.

Prices vary, depending on location, views, amount of land. Cheapest I've seen was $180,000 I think, but the stuff we've been looking at was around $450,000.


Cheers Sam

Do you know if the Cambridge Property Guide is available on-line at all? We are looking at spending $200000 on the section, so it looks as if we are at the bottom end of the scale!!http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/nature/tree.gif

I just love these smileys!!http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/silly/raspberry.gif

Thanks for the info:nice1

Liam n Rach

[Sam B]

No it's not available on line, it's one of those free papers that they love to shove in your mailbox each week. I fished it out of the recycling and had a look, there was a section in Cambridge for $145,000 available this week, I think that was the cheapest I could find. I don't know how you can get hold of the Property Guide without being here. When you come on your recce, you'll easily get one and can probably do the whole thing (buy a section that is) in a couple of weeks, as it is quite straightforward buying property and land here.

[sizzlingbadger]

I would be very, very wary of buying a section unseen. We were looking down this way and thought we'd found an ideal piece of land, turns out that it turns to bog during the winter :( Only found this out by asking around local people.

As with a house you really need to see what you're buying. If you do come on a reccy trip it will be relatively easy to buy something but be careful. If it doesn't have power/water/sewage to the gate and no title on it then it could take anywhere up to a year to get it sorted. My in laws have just had a year of waiting for their land to get title on it, mainly because the vendor was a pain in the butt and very slow at getting things done. Paid off though as it's worth double what they paid :clap

[Danny & Julie]

My advise is don't buy any land until you've seen it & then you have loads of checks to make. We've bought 2 acres about 20 mins outside of Hamilton which we are really happy with.
But it took us months to find the right piece, it really depends wether you want to live in town. If so it's much easier regarding planning regs, you can build upto the boundry line and depending on the land covenant build what you want. There were some sections for sale a few months ago in Rototuna and people camped out over night to buy them:roll
If you want a lifestyle block then things are a little different, every council has different planning regs regarding the boundry line which has a huge impact on what & were on the land you can build. We found a lovely piece of land and the real estate agent gaves us loads of info & we took our builder out there only to find that the real estate agent had lied big time & we couldn't build the house we wanted and where we wanted.
Luckily we were still at the 'just looking stage' but we weren't impressed. The land we've bought has no coventants & had title (if it doesn't have title this can takes months to get) plus we can build 5 meters from the boundry if we want too.
In Hamilton you can easily spend $200,000 on a small section but for the same money you can get an acre or so out of town. If you are coming on a reccy trip check out some land & builders. Have a look on trade me for an idea of prices, most real estate agents list on trade me.
Hope this helps:)

[StevieD]

There are so many sections available, you would be foolish to buy without looking first though.

As they old saying goes, let the buyer beware, because it isn't just as simple as buying land, there are all sorts of traps and hidden things to consider.

Good luck though, it is a lovely area around here, nicely placed to get to lots of places.

Sam B is the official Cambridge ambassador, I still think Kim39 is the Te Awamutu one, not sure who is doing the Hamilton role :laugh, plenty of people living there now but not sure if they want to take the role on ;)

Steve

[incredible hulse]

We have been looking at lots of land around Cambridge, mainly stuff out of town, up in the hills and with native bush. The Cambridge property Guide comes out every week (I love it) and it always has tonnes of sections available in it - all sorts, large, small, flat, elavated. There's no shortage of land for sale, that's for sure. If you come over for a recce, you'd probably find something you like.

Prices vary, depending on location, views, amount of land. Cheapest I've seen was $180,000 I think, but the stuff we've been looking at was around $450,000. Sam - what size land would 450k get you ? We've been looking for land for a while but with build costs around the 1500 p/sqm mark we're struggling to get the figures to balance around Welly. We were looking for cheaper parts of the country and had the Waikato marked as a possible, but judging by those figures that my also be pipedream

[kanatakiwi]

you could get an idea by going to this site:
http://www.realestate.co.nz/residential/map
choose waikato for the district and all regions for the region, choose section for type of property, and then put in your price range. I just did that to check and got quite a selection under $200,000 in the whole waikato region.
Gloria