House Shopping Around the World

I used to work in real estate, and I have always loved houses. I also love to travel. This post combines the two, if only via the internet.

Wellington’s booming house prices continually make the news, as do Auckland’s house prices. At the moment, the average sale price for a house in Wellington is NZ$615,000 for a 3-4 bedroom home—very high by international standards we are told. I thought it might be interesting to see what sort of house this budget would buy in some other parts of the world.

Karori Townhouse

First, a Wellington home—my baseline. Most houses here are marketed without price:  "auction", "tender", or “by negotiation” is what’s usually in the price box, so it is hard to guess what a property will sell for. One house currently on the market with an actual price indicator (“offers above NZ$595,000”) is a modern two-storey, 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom townhouse with a single garage in the city suburb of Karori. It offers a floor area of 127m2 and a tiny land area of 142m2 in a new development.  If this front photo is anything to go by, it can be described as "box-like". By going to further-out suburbs, it is possible to find older, 3-bedroom houses with a bit of garden space in this price range. (For comparison sake, at the moment, NZ$595,000 = US$402,000, €354,000, £307,500 and C$547,000).

Wellington is a coastal city (and NZ’s capital) with a population of a little over 400,000. Where practicable, I’ve tried to echo that, and other similar traits, to some extent, in my global property search.  Next stop? Portland, Oregon, USA.

I lived in Oregon for two years, many years ago, and I loved it there. Portland is a city of 648,000 and is situated on the Columbia River, but it is not far from the coast and it is officially a major shipping port. It is famous for coffee, craft beer, parks, and an environmentally-aware attitude. It is surrounded by wine country, dairy farms, forestry, and orchards, and nearby Mt Hood attracts skiers, hikers, mountaineers, and photographers. Good place to live.

Portland house

A lovely-looking house in a nice suburb in Portland has an asking price of US$399,500 (NZ$592,000). This 246m2 single-storey house on just under half an acre of landscaped woodland has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and an internal-access double garage. The interior is modern and spacious with high, light-coloured timber ceilings. They don’t mention double glazing or central heating, but this is a modern American home so one can safely assume both.

Multi-cultural Vancouver, Canada, population 632,000, is also a coastal city and, like Wellington, is famous for sky-high real estate prices. Also like Wellington, it is coastal, environmentally-focused, artsy, and full of beautiful parks.

I found no listings for free-standing houses in Vancouver in this price range at all, only condominiums (sort of what in NZ we call “unit title”, or “units”). For C$549,000 (NZ$618,000) you can buy a 97m2 2-bedroom, 2-bath corner ground-floor unit in North Vancouver with a monthly fee of C$400, no dogs allowed. As with an American home, one can assume double glazing and central heating. But no bargains!

Taking a hop, skip and a great, big jump over to the UK, the city of Bristol is coastal like Wellington, and has a population of 440,000. It has a thriving arts and creative technology scene, was the first British city to be named “European Green Capital”, and it too has lovely parks and open spaces.

My internet browse in Bristol found an attractive and modernized 3-bedroom 1-bath semi-detached 2-storey home with a conservatory, single garage, and a large back garden. It is double-glazed, has a gas fire, and has a pleasant rural outlook. The house and section size were not noted on the internet listing. This is priced at £325,000 (NZ$629,000), a smidgen over our budget but asking prices are often a bit higher than what a seller will actually accept.

Valencia villa

I’ve only been to Spain once, but I immediately fell in love with this vibrant, sunny country. Valencia is a popular and beautiful coastal city, with a population about twice the size of Wellington, so I did a little outreach from there into the countryside. Within a 30-minute drive of central Valencia, I found a charming, modern two-storey Spanish villa of 265m2 with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a pretty swimming pool with an asking price of (NZ$606,000). At 400m2, the section is small but nicely landscaped and easily managed, and the property appears to be surrounded by similar nice houses.

Trans-Tasman rivalry being what it is, I can’t leave Australia out of the mix. While Melbourne and Brisbane beckon many Kiwis, both cities are really large. So for my comparison I’ve jumped to smaller Newcastle, a bit north of Sydney on Australia’s east coast, with a population of 550,000. Newcastle has the largest coal-exporting harbour in the world, but it is also known for great surf beaches, a lovely climate, good food, and proximity to not only the beaches but also to the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie.

The Newcastle housing market in this price range seems to be dominated by 2-bedroom apartments, but I found a nice, modern, 2-storey, 2-bedroom + study, 2-bathroom 115m2 townhouse with a single garage and a pretty private courtyard for A$550,000 (NZ$591,000) in a complex of 8 ground-floor units. It’s pretty similar to the Wellington offering, although—I thought-- more attractive. 

Maroochydore house

For better value for money, a quick browse up on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane yields a number of modern 3- and 4-bedroom homes on small to mid-sized sections. This one in Maroochydore, for example, is a single-story, modern and rather pretty home with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a double carport on an 807m2 section. The price is “buyer enquiry over $570,000” (NZ$613,000).

Thailand is a popular holiday destination for a lot of folks, and the island of Koh Samui (population 65,000) has many Western residents as well as holiday makers. No wonder. Money goes quite a long way in Thailand. For 12,000,000 Thai baht (NZ$538,000) you can buy a brand new single storey 3-bedroom, 4-bathroom (all bedrooms have ensuites, plus there’s a guest bathroom off the living area) 200m2 house on a 300m2 section with a private infinity pool, just 300 metres from popular Chawang Beach in a new development. It has sea views. It is—in a word—gorgeous! I believe foreigners can only buy property lease-hold there.

Bali villa pool

Bali is another tourist hotspot. Most properties there are leasehold. For around 6 billion Indonesian Rupiah (that’s NZ$607,000) you can get a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom (but tiny tourist-sized kitchen!) villa with private pool, 5 minutes’ walk from the beach at Sanur. Or a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom property with a small private pool and large, modern kitchen on a 300m2 section in Seminyak. Or a 2-storey, 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom 300m2 “villa” with private pool and sea view in Jimbaran near the airport—modern, white, elegant, and curvy—available freehold. (Actually, that last one is listed at 7 billion—don’t you feel rich?--but with numbers like these, and we’re only dreaming anyway, what’s an extra billion or so?)

So there you have it—a quick hop around the world looking at real estate. I think that little house in Karori in Wellington looks very basic for over half a million dollars. I think the Portland house comes out as my favourite to actually live in, for the money. Both Bristol and Valencia would be great bases for exploring Europe, if one could work a lifestyle out of either city, and both of those houses are nice. The Sunshine Coast of Australia wouldn't be a bad place to park, and many Kiwis do. Vancouver is just crazy expensive—yah, nah—though it is one of my favourite cities to visit (feels a bit like “home”—Southeast Alaska). And Koh Samui and Bali? Ah, they’re gorgeous of course, but I’d rather just go there on holiday… I’m not a full-time tropics girl myself…