Housing In New Zealand

... From a Canadian's point of view.

As many know, Carly and I spent most of the month of October working through the purchase of a house. Progress was being made, offers and negotiations concluded and we were simply knocking out the conditions one after another. Financing: no problem, title: a few surprises, but nothing major.

Then the builders report came.

A bit of a step back. New Zealand has had a very checkered past with their housing. Up to the 1950s, construction was fairly standard. Wood siding, framed up houses on a cement pad. No insulation, no central heating and you'd be lucky if the house was more then a 100sqm. BUT! it was built properly with proper materials.

Then things started to change. People started wanting other cladding, different heating options and building became bigger business.

I'm not sure exactly when things went south (most websites point to the late 80s early 90s) but new trends and materials were embraced and a streak of houses were built. A number of issues were found with them. The monolithic cladding (stucco and the like) wasn't appropriately done, the techniques weren't modified for the weather and rain (Funny how if you take a style of house popular in Arizona and migrate it to windy, wet Wellington it may not do as well) and various cost cutting measures were implemented that ended up compromising the structural integrity of the houses.

The problem with all this is that it continued in one form or another from 1990 through to the early 2000's, when a report on the issues was put out by the government and action started.

Now it's a major issue, political and in regular life with various lawsuits, remuneration schemes from local and federal government and a lot of very unhappy home owners.

here's a whole bunch of info if you're interested:

http://www.dbh.govt.nz/leaky-buildings-and-weathertightness

http://www.dbh.govt.nz/about-weathertightness-background

http://www.consumerbuild.org.nz/publish/buying/buyinghouse-weathertight.php

Now back to our story. So the house we were looking at was built somewhere in 2002 or 2003.

It had some of the tell tale signs of potential issues but overall at first glance it looked like it wasn't going to be an issue. It had traditional wood siding, no stucco or the like, though it had a few accent panels that we knew were going to be an issue, but not a large one. However, the building inspection pointed out 2 important things.

1. The weatherboarding had been left cracked and leaking for an extended period of time
2. The house was built during the period where houses were framed out of untreated timber.

So, the house had had moisture and water in the insides of the most exposed wall and the timber was in all likelihood rotting inside. Only an invasive examination (taking down the interior walls) would prove it for sure.

On top of the structural issue at hand, the wood and other products in the wall decomposing made for a significant health concern as well.

We pulled the offer, took our losses and walked away.

I can honestly say this was the first major experience in New Zealand that had me pining for Canada. In Canada, details like central heating, insulation and proper vapour barriers are not optional extras. New Zealand has had a horrible record of complacency in their house building, with the "she'll be right" attitude leading to a developed country with inside house temperatures being well below the World Health Organization's minimums of 18 degrees C.

Couple that with more modern homes (the ones that would have insulation and "relatively" modern heating) being by and large tainted with the stigma of the weather tightness issues and it becomes a no win proposition.

So what options are left? I see two:

1. Buy an older house (before 1970s) and reno to our standards. This was our original plan, but it's a popular option, so the older houses actually command a premium, more so if they are of a good size. Couple that with the lack of standardization in windows and you're looking at an expensive proposition
2. build our own to our own standards. Much more complicated, much riskier. The financing is tricky, getting the section engineered, getting the house plans drawn up to fit the section's slope (because you aren't going to find a flat section in town any more) and then of course, paying a mortgage + rent while it's being built, assuming nothing goes wrong there.

So here we sit. No house, we're out all the fees for the failed purchase and we have no plan.