By VICKI WATERHOUSE
Phil Comeskey worries about his kids missing out on the good things in life because of soaring interest rates.
His solution? Take out seven mortgages.
Mr Comeskey and partner Dayna Hayley are building a $320,000 house in Brookfield and are battling rising interest rates every step of the way.
"The kids
are ultimately going to miss out. You only buy a house so your kids have something to fall back on if you get knocked over," he said. "I've just got to work harder, don't I? The hours get longer."
With two daughters aged 5 1/2 and 2 1/2, Mr Comeskey said the whole reason they were building a house was for the children's futures.
As interest rates continue to rise on the back of a heated economy, the couple have decided to take out seven separate mortgages as they complete different stages of their home.
They figured out it was ultimately cheaper to do it this way. For each progress payment they make, they lock in a fixed interest rate so their mortgage was not at a floating rate the whole time they were building.
Ms Hayley said they were advised to do this by a friend who said it would save them money.
"We were on a very tight budget and made it clear [to the bank] that we wanted to fix every payment to try and reduce the interest," she said.
When they first decided to build a home it was just prior to the Kiwi dollar's upward climb. Mr Comeskey said they did not expect what followed.
"Contracts are pretty hard to get out of. It's not like a little thing ... it's always going up."
He said the fixed rates, which would last five years, take a bit of the weight off but the worry of the future did not disappear.
The floating rate was at 10.05 per cent when they locked in their first fixed rate at 8.6 per cent.
Since then the fixed rate has increased steadily but Ms Hayley was thankful they had even managed to build a house.
"Many of our friends are also desperately trying to find a way to get into their own homes and it seems the interest rates keep pushing that goal further away from them.
"It is scary to think that between making the commitment to build and the day you get in [the house] that it could effect your weekly budget so dramatically."
The house was their first home and Mr Comeskey said the Government should stop things getting out of hand. "They're the ones collecting all our bloody taxes so they should fix it."
