As family circumstances change, the attraction for a lifestyle adjustment becomes a core motivator to change your house.
It is important to keep the financial implications on the household budget affordable.
The chase for the 'perfect' house can cloud those financial judgements.
And a calculator can help ensure you don't make decisions you later regret.
That means you will also need to quantify both the short to long term financial implications.
The new financial obligations of the second property will be driven by how you sell the existing one.
Key issues are the price of the new property, equity available from the sale of the original property, the new fixed-term length set, and the new interest rate.
Our calculator that helps you deal with the financial side of the decision has nine elements you will need to consider. And the combinations of these will all have strong financial implications, many more than you can just work out in your head.
At the core, it is all about working out how the various scenarios fit in to your budget constraints.
Honing the options down to the few that you can afford is what this calculator will do for you. You can find it here.
*This calculator was developed by Calculate.co.nz and is in our calculator toolbox as part of our partnership with them.
7 Comments
"We" started looking a swapping the ceramic hotplates for new Induction set up. Easy! Just cut the hole in the benchtop a bit bigger, swap out; swap in; get a sparky to do the necessary if need be, and there you go.
But alas. I think I'm going to have to demolish and rebuild the top story of the house, given the new benchtop ( HiAb required to lift in the new granite top; removal of glass balcony need so as not to get damaged, and of course 3 men needed to lift said bench - OSH requirement etc); sinks, tapware, disposal unit, and of course all the other new bits you touched on ( new induction suitable pots and pans, coffee machine; toaster; blender - the list goes on). And I quite liked the original ceramnic top anyway!
The problem is that unless an inner city apartment or retirement home is the downsized dwelling, the amount of money freed up is very small. So why do it.
The unitary plan is slowly affecting this though. The value of the land associated with large properties is getting higher. Which is not what the prime aim of the unitary plan was. ie. Increased house prices.
Sure, once subdivided more houses can be built. But each of these large houses squashed onto small sections sell for a huge amount of money.
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