[free]

hi all,

i am gathering information about moving to new zealand, which i am planning on doing within the next two or so years.
i am currently renting an apartment in the UK, having moved over here from germany for a job about half a year ago.

i know that many people take advantage of the nice currency transfer rate by selling their UK house and buying one in NZ with that money.

however i am wondering...if someone is still paying off the mortgage for their house in the UK and sells it... don't they have to use most of this money to pay off the rest of the mortgage before coming to NZ, which would mean that they have barely any of the selling profit left to buy something in NZ?
(depending on how long ago they bought it of course... but usually you're still rather young and did not have 20 years of paying off behind you)

can anyone explain that to me?
thank you very much for any answer that helps clearing this up for me!

best wishes,
-patrick-

[veronica]

yep you do have to pay off the mortgage, they would be after you otherwise, but the way house prices have been increasing in the uk most people do end up with some profit. Its wrong to assume that most people come over here with loads of money, some of the lucky ones do but theres a lot who come from rented accommodation who only have their normal savings behind them.

with property prices being so high theres a lot of young people in the UK who can't afford to buy their first home

[gil]

It depends on a few interconnected things Patrick:
How long you've had the house
The type of mortgage you have (repayment, interest only, endowment etc)
The size of deposit you put down at first
How much your property has increased in value
Where the pro[erty is
All those variable make the answer very different for different people.

Gil

[free]

yea that's what i thought too... you simply wont have much of a profit after selling.

while browsing through other threats here i found out that most of those already emigrated are renting first while selling their UK house.
however the other option, to rent it out and paying the new NZ rent from that monthly profit seems like a very good idea in my specific situation.

so i will look more into that now and first of all find out what kind of a mortgage i can actually get. then find a property here that can be rented out...

man... just a few minutes in this forum, and already a plan. :cheers
thanks for all your answers so far! im sure i'll come back and ask a lot more in the future. ;)

-p-

[Trigirl]

i may have read that worng but are you planning on buying a house in the uk just so you can rent it out and move to NZ? because that sounds a bit mad to me - why not just use the money to buy a house in NZ? that way you've got no currency risk and you don't have to pay a property manager to look after it for you?

[Angelonthemove]

renting here is more expensive than the UK for what you get for your money. You would be better getting a mortgage here and buying something. We have been unable to sell our house in cyprus and have been offered a 100% mortgage with residency here. They work out how much you can afford to rent or your salaries and lend you the money. They do not penalise you with higher interest here either beacuse you do not have a deposit..

[gil]

From today's NZ Herald online http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420149
It's hard to find somewhere a) nice and b) available as the best rentals get snapped up immediately, and I mean, IMMEDIATELY! We went to see one at 11.30 a.m., rang the agent at 12.30 to say it was too small and she said "Oh, it's gone!" Lots of people we know have had similar experiences, even the estate agents' daily listings are half gone unless you get them at 8 o'clock in the morning!!
I agree with Trigirl, why not buy here rather than UK?

Gil

[Avalon]

Gil-

You should find that the situation gets better next month. In january - you are up agains students looking for uni accomodation. Can you deal with a temporary place till then?

I know thats probably not that helpful - but we also had problems because we arrived at this time of year.

[Trigirl]

we had the same problems in december. but we found somewhere eventually (after seeing some nice places that just weren't right and a few places i wouldn't have kept a dog in!)

today though we've really taken the plunge and put an offer in to buy somewhere!

[gil]

Gil-

You should find that the situation gets better next month. In january - you are up agains students looking for uni accomodation. Can you deal with a temporary place till then?

I know thats probably not that helpful - but we also had problems because we arrived at this time of year.

Sorry for being unclear, this was before we found ours; we are fine here now and have a year's rental, phew! You're right thoguh, the time of year is instrumental in this.

Gil

[pinkpiggy]

today though we've really taken the plunge and put an offer in to buy somewhere!
That's great news, Trigirl. Keep us posted on progress.

[free]

the question why not buy something in Nz already, instead in the UK...
as far as i understand these things here in the UK (where i have been living only for the last 6 months), you cant get any money lent to you, until you have a certain time of credit history, right?
and so i assume it will be similar in NZ. i don't think i can apply for a mortgage there right after i arrived or even before that... or am i wrong there?

any advise willbe welcome...
-p-

[Trigirl]

banking in general is much easier for new migrants in NZ than it is in the UK. we opened an account no trouble before we even arrived and got debit cards and access to online banking on the day we got off the plane.

once you've got a job offer in writing you can then get a credit card and a mortgage. i haven't even started work yet (i start next week) and the bank offered to lend us almost 4.5 times my salary.

so once you've got a job - yes you can apply for a mortgage straight away - they don't seem to have the same credit rating/credit history hang ups here that they have in the UK.

[Angelonthemove]

Hi Trigirl

Congratulation on putting an offer in on home, just read your blog too. Do you definately need PR to get a mortgage?? Just wanted to clarify that if anyone knows any different from what mybank told me.

[Trigirl]

thank you! i'm not sure about whether you need PR - they do ask you as part of the application whether you have PR though. sorry I can't be more help.

[migratory birds]

If you're up against students looking for rentals in Jan...when is the best time to arrive in NZ if looking at when the rental market is most wide open?

[willowshouse]

If you're up against students looking for rentals in Jan...when is the best time to arrive in NZ if looking at when the rental market is most wide open?

Students look for rentals in January because the student year starts in February. December is usually the worst time to let a property (because of Christmas obviously) so as a tenant you should find it easy BUT landlords will try to avoid this month for letting for that reason, so maybe there won't be too much available. All other months are pretty similar really .. bear in mind that when the weather is good it is easier to let a property which probably doesn't have heating ;) so if I was a landlord I'd try and keep my tenancy agreements starting and ending in October but that's just my opinion. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Dawn

[Avalon]

Sorry for being unclear, this was before we found ours; we are fine here now and have a year's rental, phew! You're right thoguh, the time of year is instrumental in this.

Gil
No - you were being perfectly clear - I was just having a "moment" and being dense :laugh