Not getting vaccinated against COVID has pushed his homeownership dreams even further
A Whangarei man has failed to make his homeownership dreams come true despite having a deposit saved and living 10 months rent-free in his car. And with his employer expected to fire him soon because he isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19, his dream is moving even further out of reach.
The man, who declined to be named, hadn't been a typical rough sleeper. Though homeless, he was earning about $70,000 a year and had a six-figure deposit in the bank after he sold his late mother’s rural home.
What kept the man from buying a home, along with fast-rising prices, was the fear the mortgage repayments would put him on his financial limit with just a single income.
“[Buying a home] could be done by tightening the belt, but it would be just breaking even each week,” he told NZ Herald.
The man spent 10 months of 2021 living in his car, initially because he had trouble finding a rental when he sold his mum’s house. Over the past year, he had been to 40-plus open homes but was continually discouraged by fierce competition plus the fast increase in house prices.
And while he was a unique case – as a full-time-employed, homeless house hunter – the man wasn't the only buyer battling rising house prices.
The most recent OneRoof-Valocity Property report found that Northland's average property value jumped 29% in the year to November 2021 to $190,000, with 28 suburbs in the region now having houses worth $1 million or more.
The Whangarei man told NZ Herald that buying a house with a home loan debt over $350,000 would have meant he “would be just covering the basic costs of living for the next 15 years.”
Find out the real cost of buying a house in New Zealand.
“You factor in your mortgage repayments, you got to be insured, got to pay rates – and bear in mind interest rates were at a historic low,” he said. “So the housing market eroded away the savings I was making.”
The man recently moved into a rental just south of Whangārei, yet he is still far from fulfilling his dream of buying a home – more so because he refused to get vaccinated against COVID.
“I'm not anti-vax, I just don't like the technology – it's unproven from my opinion,” he said, adding that he’s also willing to lose his job over his belief.
With the deadline to be double vaccinated at his workplace set for next week, the man is resigned to losing his job. And no job means no chance of a home loan approval, especially now banks are looking much more closely at applicants’ finances, NZ Herald reported.
