Housing

So, we've been thinking about housing once we get to New Zealand. To buy or to build? There are some really nice energy-efficient house designs on the EEH site - not only are they gorgeous houses in themselves, but they are meant to be much easier and cheaper to keep warm in winter. I know Christchurch should be sunnier than Ireland in summer, but it does get cold in winter, and most New Zealand houses are very poorly insulated. Not to mention that they don't seem to believe in central heating...

If we could get a house built, it would be to our specs and it would be well insulated. That sounds fantastic to me. The only real drawback is the price of land. If we're looking at NZ$300k just for a patch of land in a nice area, there won't be any money to build the actual house.

Of course, there is cheaper land. Ordinary housing-estate land in ordinary areas. Are we being greedy by hoping for more? I honestly don't know. I know there should be a good big deposit once my house is sold and Skry's house is sold; I just don't know how far it will stretch when we get there.

Oh well, no point in worrying too much about it now. We still haven't even got the stuff together for our ITAs! I'm going to have to give Skry a nudge in that direction this weekend, because he has a lot more documentation to pull together than I do. I'll have to keep him in order, as well as myself!