Property

Picky buyers sit tight

Returning Kiwis may need strong persuasion to spend their yen and pounds on real estate. GILL SOUTH reports.

Monday, November 01st 2004

If you are planning to sell your house in the pre-Christmas season, you should know about a hard-to-please group of buyers out there. Be warned, they will wait patiently - up to 12 months - for vendors to get really desperate before making an offer, and they are looking for bargains.

This recalcitrant bunch can be separated into three groups:

People returning from overseas with their foreign currency;

Baby boomers looking for investment properties for their retirement, who do not expect to buy until the next property cycle;

Independent thinkers who want to avoid the enormous mortgages which they think have restricted their friends' lives.

Would-be buyers who arrived within the last year with British pounds, US dollars or another foreign currency are not happy. When they got here the dollar was higher than they expected so they didn't convert their money, expecting the dollar to fall.

But, instead of going down, the NZ dollar is rising, hitting a historic high this week of US71.51 cents, and there is no end in sight.

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Unity First Home Buyer special 3.99
ICBC 4.25
SBS FirstHome Combo 4.29
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 4.39
TSB Special 4.49
ANZ Special 4.49
ASB Bank 4.49
SBS Bank Special 4.49
Unity Special 4.49
Westpac Special 4.49
Kiwibank Special 4.49
TSB Special 4.49
ANZ Special 4.49
Westpac Special 4.49
Wairarapa Building Society 4.59
ICBC 4.59
BNZ - Std 4.65
AIA - Go Home Loans 4.65
Unity Special 4.65
ASB Bank 4.65
SBS Bank Special 4.65
Nelson Building Society 4.69
SBS Bank Special 4.99
Westpac Special 4.99
ICBC 4.99
TSB Special 5.39
BNZ - Std 5.39
ANZ 5.39
AIA - Go Home Loans 5.39
ASB Bank 5.39
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.49
Kainga Ora 5.49
SBS Bank 5.59
SBS Construction lending for FHB 3.74
CFML 321 Loans 4.25
AIA - Back My Build 4.44
ICBC 5.39
Heartland Bank - Online 5.45
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 5.70
Co-operative Bank - Standard 5.70
ANZ 5.89
TSB Special 5.94
ASB Bank 5.99
Pepper Money Prime 5.99

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