First-home buyers who ditched Auckland for a small South Island town are now paying less in mortgage repayments than they were in rent after buying a home in Balclutha for about $400,000.
Alice and Jamie Southey, both 39, had never set foot on the South Island when they decided to take the plunge and move there.
The couple and their two children Kayla, 16, and Zayne, 11, had been mulling over the idea of moving out of Auckland for several years, but last Christmas they decided something had to change.
“You get to a point where you go ‘bugger it, let’s just do it’,” Alice said.
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“We were getting a bit older and we needed to jump at something. We didn’t know where at that point, but we knew something had to give and if we wanted to own our own home we had to do something.”
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She told OneRoof it had been a whirlwind experience and the family was now happily settled in their first home, which was less than half of what they would have paid for the same house in their old suburb of Glen Eden.
The weekly rent on their Glen Eden home was $700, which she said made it hard to save up for a deposit, especially when houses in their suburb were selling for upwards of $800,000.
“We had always lived in Auckland. It was getting too busy, it was far too expensive.
“We looked at the pricing (in Auckland) and things and honestly it wasn’t even an option. The repayments were absolute killers and when you are on such a high rent it’s really hard to save for a deposit, which I think a lot of people would say.”
They looked all over New Zealand, but were drawn to the South Island due to the type of properties that kept coming up in their price range in online searches.
The family knew the house was "the one" when they stepped inside. Photo / Supplied
Alice’s role in recruitment for a nanny agency meant she could work from home, but her husband had to find a new job.
The truck driver had previously worked for KiwiRail and learnt of a job vacancy for a train driver in Dunedin.
In March they visited the South Island for the first time to check the area out.
“We just drove miles and miles and miles just having a look through different towns, where everything is because obviously we were completely new to it and we came into Balclutha and something just felt right.”
Balclutha was one of the areas on their search list because of its affordability. The self-described introverts were also happy to live somewhere quieter, noting that their old suburb was probably three times bigger than all of Balclutha.
They also stopped in at schools and spoke to the principals to check it would be the right fit for their 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son and this helped cement their decision.
A few weeks after their first visit, they returned to Balclutha for one day to attend four open homes.
“We just fell in love with this one. You just walk in and you know when you know. I said to Jamie, ‘This is it, we have to’.”
The three-bedroom stand-alone home on a 600sqm section was more spacious than their Auckland rental and had fewer neighbours, she said.
Harcourts Balclutha salesperson Mel Kenny presented the family with the perfect personalised doormat. Photo / Supplied
“We were living in a place with a shared driveway and now we’ve got our own driveway, it’s just these little things that make it so wonderful.”
The move-in ready house cost about $400,000, but they had also looked at other affordable properties in the high $300,000s.
They worked with SBS Bank and qualified for the First Home Loan meaning they only needed a smaller 5% deposit, which they made up through accessing her KiwiSaver, savings and some help from her parents.
While they only moved in two weeks ago, Alice said they already felt settled and had absolutely no regrets.
The 45-minute round trip in Auckland for school drop-offs in the neighbouring suburb now took just two minutes and she had two major supermarkets just a three-minute drive away.
“It’s just a completely different way of life.”
While Jamie still faced an almost 50-minute commute to Dunedin, it was no farther than what he spent travelling two suburbs over in Auckland.
And because they were paying less in mortgage repayments than they had been in rent, there was now even a chance to save up for a holiday.
“When you live somewhere for such a long time, you forget that there are other wonderful places. I’d never move back, I really wouldn’t. Most people I speak to honestly say ‘oh my gosh I envy you’ because they want to get out of Auckland for the same reasons.”
To welcome them to the area, their agent Mel Kenny even presented them with the most fitting house-warming gift – a personalised door mat with the words: “We’re the Southey’s from Southey. True Story.”
Kenny has a range of properties for sale that would suit first-home buyers ranging in price from $360,000 for a classic three-bedroom brick home at 12 Cambridge Street to $479,000 for a three-bedroom home on a 1000sqm plus cul-de-sac section at 8 Telfer Street.
Those looking for the next step up could pick up a near-new four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes at 20 Oregon Place and a 214 Clyde Street inviting offers from $799,000.
Harcourts salesperson Shelley Krieger also moved from Auckland to Balclutha and said it was a great place to live.
"I love it down here because the weather is great, the people are even better and the community is awesome."
She said houses were much more affordable compared with Auckland and people could have a better quality of life without all the debt.
"Why would you have a massive mortgage when you can have a much smaller one?"
An entry-level lifestyle property on 1.7ha at 682 Old Port Road, in Warepa, is inviting offers over $599,000, while those with a bigger budget could buy an architecturally designed home on a small farm from $1.395m.
Harcourts Dunedin and Balclutha branch manager Ange Copson said there had been a noticeable increase in enquiries from out-of-town buyers looking to secure a home in Balclutha. "With plenty of job opportunities from continued growth in the local industries and with Balclutha remaining one of the most affordable places to buy property in NZ."
The opening of the Te Pou O Mata-Au Clutha District War Memorial and Community Centre last year meant there were even more for things for people to do as it held concerts and also had a boutique cinema onsite.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Balclutha
