Home-buyer

PHOTO: Homebuyer Eva Billing says this was going to be her last attempt to buy a home for a while. Photo credit: Supplied.

A home-buyer is attributing a letter she penned to the property owner as the reason why her offer was accepted over two others, including one that was higher.

Her advice comes as rising house prices have made it difficult to get onto the property ladder despite recent changes under the Government housing announcement.

The nationwide median selling price reached $820,000 in May, up 32.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Having looked at houses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Taranaki-based Eva Billing says she was just about ready to give up.  With a pre-approved budget limit of $500,000, Billing, a previous homeowner with two young children, was buying on her own for the first time.

Having seen an original (1960s) 3-bedroom, freestanding house in Inglewood, around 18km from New Plymouth listed for ‘offers over $535,000’, Billing decided to make a last ditch effort to buy.

“I’d lost out on so many houses because of investors [etc], I was at the point where ‘this is my last attempt’ and if this was unsuccessful, I was going to just sit back and wait,” Billing said.

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