The 1999 doco that shows how affordable Auckland home ownership once was

PHOTO: Location Location Location. NZ ON SCREEN

Let’s travel back in time to 1999, when Location Location Location was a Mike Hosking-fronted documentary about Auckland property – and a three-bedroom house there cost $159,000.

Great news New Zealand – the best time to buy a house was 20 years ago. A recent report found that if you bought property in 2000, you’ll have experienced the best growth percentage-wise over a seven-year period. Congratulations, especially as some of us could barely be trusted to buy a pair of Glassons low-rise wide-leg trousers in the year 2000, let alone make the biggest financial commitment of our lives. It’s a shame – those pants would have yielded a fantastic year-on-year return.

Finding out you should have done something two decades ago is always fun, but what was the housing market really like at the turn of the millennium? It might have been the “best” time to buy, but how easy was it to grab a slice of the property pie?

ALL OF US IN 2000. OR MAYBE IT’S MICHAEL BOULGARIS FROM LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

An ancient television gem gives us some clues. Location Location Location was a 1999 Documentary NZ series that followed a group of Aucklanders as they bought and sold property, and introduced us to “million dollar man” sales agent Michael Boulgaris. The two-part series evolved into a popular half-hour show that ran on TV1 until 2010, with Boulgaris taking a starring role, long before Kirstie and Phil rocked up to claim the show title as their own.

Broadcaster and housing oracle Mike Hosking introduces both episodes of Location Location Location, because in 1999 we enjoyed a tasty entree before our documentary main. Hosking begins by telling us that owning a home is a sign of success. It’s part of our collective psyche, he says.

MIKE HOSKING, STARING INTO OUR COLLECTIVE PSYCHE.

“Seventy-five percent of us own the home we live in,” Hosking says, before comparing us with poor old Switzerland, where only 30% of those chocolate-loving losers own their own homes. Home ownership is seen as a luxury there, Mike says – yet another reminder that Europe will never be as cool and progressive as we are.