To Build or To Buy: Ah There's The Rub

Another option we have considered is building a new home altogether. Grandma burnt her house down you see, which created the opportunity (potentially) to buy her property and build a new house on it. We'd have to sell our house first, however, as we'd need all the cash we could scrape together to buy the section and undertake a build project.

The timing wasn't quite right for us, as we were nine months out from coming off our fixed mortgage. We'd fixed for three years and originally suspected at the end of that we'd want to sell to move in to zone to get our daughter in to a desirable school. She's just turned five. Unfortunately, most of the primary schools around us are Decile 1 (which means they serve, predominantly, children from families in the lowest 10% socio-economically). 

School Zoning Contributes to Property Boom Bust Cycle
Just an aside about this school zoning thing - it must be one factor that fuels New Zealand's property boom bust cycle. When you don't have kids, you don't have to think about the desirability of the local schools you're in zone for. You buy in an area for other reasons. Once people have a child or two, and as those children near school age (5 yrs) there's a flurry to sell in areas with less desirable schooling and a shift to housing in areas zoned for better schools. Certainly, it's a home marketing factor. Having to sell and move to manoeuvre children closer to desirable schools, doesn't just happen once however. A second move may be required to gain access to the desired Intermediate (middle school for 11-12 yr olds) and High School.

Another negative outcome of the zoning policy is that it probably contributes to ethnic and socio-economic alienation, segregation (i.e. ghettos).  This occurs as the demographics in an area change. Increasingly, over the next 30-40 years there will be more and more Maori, Pacific Island and Asian people making up Auckland's population. If socio-economic disparity by ethnicity is not addressed and reduced in New Zealand - this increasing ethnic diversity of school populations will result in 'white-flight' as socio-economically advantaged xenophobic or racist Pakeha move their children out of schools serving a growing proportion of ethnic minority groups. To be fair to those Pakeha parents who do not believe they are racist, they may simply not be happy with their child being one of a minority ethnic group at school.

Wouldn't it be good if you didn't have to sell and move to gain access to great schooling?

Anyway, I digress... back to the question of whether to build? It was exciting dreaming of our 'Grand Design' and dreaming about living in a beautiful house with everything right where you'd want it to be: to have a walk-in pantry and a kitchen bench that extends out on to the deck so meat could be cooked outside, and a separate toilet or two, positioned well away from the bedroom or any areas within ear-shot of the kitchen, dining or lounge room areas; to have a wet-area bathroom with exterior entrance so you can enter from the beach or boat and wash off without traipsing sand through the house... it was a nice dream.