Home sweet home

Tresna Cuttle loves the minimal upkeep of her Mt Eden townhouse.

The personal trainer bought the semidetached three-level townhouse, one of a group of 19, in Mt Eden in September last year. She was looking for inner-city living, somewhere that was low-maintenance, and she had saved a 20 per cent deposit. "Minimal upkeep was what won my heart," says Tresna.

"This was the first place I saw, the time was right. I was ready to be paying my own mortgage-not rent towards someone elses!

"I still get to live my social lifestyle, shop, eat out, go away-all while paying my mortgage. I've been in love with the suburb since I stepped foot in it.

"For now this is it ...I will definitely be here for a couple of years before looking at a house and this little gem will remain on my portfolio in years to come."

Like many metropolitan areas overseas, Auckland buyers are embracing the concept of inner city living. No longer does your first home have to be a house. Barfoot & Thompson salespeople say more first home buyers are realising that apartments, townhouses and units give them more bang for their bucks than traditional standalone houses, allowing them to live in the city centre or fringe suburbs. Also the low- or no-maintenance lifestyle apartments offer owners mean they have more leisure time - especially if they have ditched a lengthy commute by buying close to their workplaces.

Barfoot & Thompson's survey of 1019 Auckland first home buyers found that8per cent are apartment owners who had bought their properties since 2010, up from 4 per cent the previous decade and just 1 per cent in the 90s.

The shift to buying apartments comes at the expense of standalone houses (75 per cent in the years 2010- 2015, down from 79 per cent during 2000-2009). Unit (8 per cent) and townhouse sales (9 per cent) have been relatively consistent.

REINZ data shows that last year there were 2805 apartment sales in the greater Auckland Area, with an average price of $482,757.

Ian Gray, Barfoot & Thompson Mt Eden branch manager, has seen the trend emerging in his area over recent years. "Units in Mt Eden used to be the domain of downsizing empty nesters. Over the last couple of years, we've seen a sharp increase in first home buyers choosing them over the larger property they might be able to afford in a less central suburb."

He says that while prices of standalone homes in central suburban areas are often well in excess of entry level budgets, smaller properties offer the best of both worlds in terms of budget and lifestyle.

A good example is a one bedroom unit that recently sold in Grange Road, Mt Eden in December for $415,000. This compares to the average price of Mt Eden properties in January at over $1.2 million (Barfoot & Thompson statistics).

BARFOOT&THOMPSON TOP TIPS:

• Talk to someone who specialises in the apartment and townhouse market
• Ask your bank about the different lending criteria for different property types
• Be familiar with how a unit title works
• Body corp fees will include shared costs of maintenance of the common areas and building insurance
• Understand body corp rules. For example some body corps will not allow pets, not even a goldfish • It is important to get legal advice for any property purchase but especially so with leasehold property because there are other things people need to be aware of. You don't own the ground that the property is built on so you have to pay a lease back to the owner of the ground

YOUR CHECKLIST:

• Leasehold vs freehold
• Body corporate structure and fees
• Storage and car parking
• How water use is metered across the complex

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