In my opinion, buying a property in New Zealand is incredibly simple compared to the majority of other countries out there. However, it is still quite a complex process as with anything else when someone is just starting out. It is therefore worth seeking out as much information as you possibly can before jumping in! On this page I want to give you a brief guide on how to buy a house in NZ. I won’t cover everything in depth, but you will get a good overview on what needs to be done.
Before you go about buying a house you are going to need to have finance in place. The majority of people WILL NOT deal with you if you don’t have finance. This is because they will think you are nothing more than a waste of time. Now, there are a couple of ways in which you can get the finance that you need. If you already own a property and are looking to sell up then perhaps an option that you have is to go to your bank and obtain a mortgage (unless you no longer have a mortgage and can pay in cash once the property is sold). If you are a new homeowner then you can apply for grants or ‘help’ towards the purchase price. For this you can look into both ‘Welcome Home Loan’ and the KiwiSaver Schemes. There is plenty of information out there on how you can do this.
The next step is finding the right property. As you probably know, there are a couple of ways to go about this. Firstly, I would suggest getting in touch with one or two estate agents in the area that you wish to purchase from. The great thing about New Zealand is that a buyer will not need to pay for this service. The seller pays in the form of a commission. However, you don’t want the estate agent to do all of the work for you. If you are buying a home then you will need to put in the effort (research-wise). I suggest regularly browsing real estate websites and seeing what properties are out there. The great thing about the internet is that you can really narrow down the searches on these sites and find the perfect home for your needs.
Once you have found the home that you think you want, I suggest you get a building inspector in. They will look over the property for you to ensure that absolutely everything is fine with it. The job of the building inspector is to ensure that there are no problems with plumbing, electrical fittings or even the structure of the house. If there are then you may want to steer well clear of the place.
The final stage of the process in how to buy a house in NZ is to make an offer on the property. If the person has an estate agent then you will generally make it through the agent. If you are dealing with a private seller then ask directly. The offer you make is completely up to you. You can undercut the asking price but you need to be aware that it could be rejected and you could lose out on the property.
Once your offer has been accepted you should call in a lawyer. They will help draw up a contract with the seller of the property. This will dictate the conditions of the sale. This is the price and the time frame of the sale. Once these conditions have been met the contract is binding. At this point you will need to pay 10% of the purchase price as a deposit. You will then wait for the settlement date. Solicitors will be involved at this point to look over the terms of the contract and to be sure that the person who is selling the property actually has the right to sell it. The sale will then be complete. The money will change hands and you can move into your new property. Congrats!
