This evening I am just relaxing after a fantastic day in the sun down here in Sunny Christchurch. I cought up with a good friend of mine Brendan Burns who is running for the Labour Candidate Seat in the 2008 election for Christchurch Central. It was a cracker day and I think most of New Zealand experienced the same thing. Anyway I stumbled accross an article on 3 news online which speaks of the amount of people choosing to rent vs buying their own home. It says:
New figures have revealed a growing trend which shows more and more New Zealanders are choosing to rent their homes over buying them.
While many may be quick to point the finger at a slowing economy and the global credit crisis, it is a shift which has far deeper roots.
Andrew Schollum and Gemma Nissen are among one-third of New Zealanders who now rent their homes.
“We’re really fussy about the kind of house we want to live in,” Mr Schollum says. “And we can’t afford the type we want to live in. You know, can’t afford to buy it, but can afford to rent it.”
It has been revealed that the number of Kiwis choosing to rent property over buying has been consistently growing.
“The number of people renting has been increasing over the last five or six years,” Geoff Montogmery from the Department of Building and Housing says. “About a third of New Zealanders rent their homes and it is just a general change. We are aligning with the rest of the world where more people rend than own their homes.”
The Department of Building and Housing has been monitoring the shift and has seen close to a ten percent increase in the number of rental bonds paid over the last five years – which is good news for the property management sector.
“When the property market turns down Quinovic does very well out of it because people put their properties into the rental pool,” Stephen Dacome-Bird from Quinovic Property Management says. “When the property market picks up people start investing in property and Auinovic does very well out of it.”
However for home owners and prospective buyers the current climate is not so rosy.
Last week the Reserve Bank made the biggest cut to the official cash rate in New Zealand history in an attempt to stimulate the economy and help those with mortgages.
But despite the reprieve, the thought of the quarter-acre dream is more of a nightmare for some.
“We’d have a totally different life,” Mr Schollum says. “Like right here we can live in the centre of the city and we can do a lot of things really easily. That as well as having more disposable income means that our quality of life is much better.”
And Mr Schollum’s argument seems to be gathering momentum across the country.
To me this to some people is a justified argument as rents at the moment are cheaper than a mortgage and people have reason to not want to pay rent. But I just cant help but think going back to the line it says that because the rent is cheaper they have a better quality of life.
Is this a very short sighted thing to say, or is it just reality? Is the fact of life of what is happening causing the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. I think of it like this. If a third of us are renting our homes and this number is growing will supply for buying stop. Or is this just going to create opportunities for the investors to increase their portfolios to very large amounts.
It makes you think.