An unattainable dream

Nicole Skews, 27 and Simon Poole, 29, rent a home in Wellington that they share with a flatmate, and on weekends, Simon’s son Sam, who is four.

The couple, who are both public servants, have dreams of a family home, with lots of space and a garden. But they’re not confident that dream is possible.

“We were driving through Karori the other day, and there’s some beautiful big houses around there,” says Nicole. “And it struck me that so many of those houses are owned by really well-off, often elderly people.”

She says there are many new families who would like homes like those grand old properties, but she thinks they are unattainable for most people in her generation, short of inheritances or getting a lot of help.

The couple aren’t actively looking for a home, because they don’t have a big enough deposit. They’re saving to pay off debt before they can start saving for a deposit to combine with their funds in KiwiSaver.

But under the new loan-to-value ratio rules, home ownership seems really unattainable, says Simon. “Even if you’re looking at cheaper houses, down around $350,000, that’s still $70k cash,” he says. “That’s a lot of money when you’re paying rent and childcare.”

He says even if the new lending rules take some of the heat out of the market, they still wouldn’t be in a position to buy in Auckland. “And all the major cities seem to be having price growth way outside inflation.”

Nicole says they’re still looking at houses, but without any real mind to buy in the near future. “We could absolutely try, but our repayments would probably not be doable, unless we got together enough for a decent deposit.”

Nicole’s mother could help out by acting as a guarantor on their mortgage, but even then, that’s still a lot of money to borrow.

That means looking vaguely in suburbs further out from central Wellington, like parts of Karori, north to Johnsonville, or some of the southern suburbs, like Owhiro Bay, that aren’t quite what Nicole describes as “Island Bay swank”.

But that brings its own set of problems – the hour-long commute to work, issues with childcare and schools for four-year-old Sam.

They’re also looking into buying land on which to build, because that seems more affordable than aspiring to home ownership right off the bat.

Nicole says it does feel too hard at times, and that for what you pay, you don’t get very much.

“If you don’t have a family, or plan to have a family soon, you can buy something small – one or two bedrooms, close-ish to the city, relatively easy to re-sell, and then use that collateral to get a family home. But that doesn’t make sense for us, because we already need room for Sam.”

Nicole doesn’t like the idea of going through the rigmarole of buying a home only to view it as an asset to be sold on and upsize from to a bigger, more suitable house. She laments the loss of the ‘family home’.

“It seems there’s a huge gap between people who grew up in these family homes with a good garden, and plenty of space, and our generation sort of has to buy an apartment and rent that out, and then buy a small house and rent that out, and then ten years later buy the big house and by then, the kids are grown up anyway.”

But for the couple, home ownership still seems worth aspiring to, despite the hurdles. For Simon, a big draw is being able to do what he wants with the house. When renting, it’s usually impossible to rip out the kitchen and replace it yourself, but at the same time, he’s never heard of a tenant managing to convince their landlord to spend $10,000 on a new kitchen.

The couple would also like to get a dog, which is almost impossible to do without owning your own property.

Nicole says there’s an element of security when you own a house – “Especially because New Zealand doesn’t have good standards for renting, and it’s the luck of the draw if you get a good landlord.”

She likes the idea of growing into a home. Ideally, she’d like to find something not-quite-perfect and add to it, doing it up, and adapting, as their family grows.