Dreams come true for Tauranga first-home buyers

Posted on February 21, 2012 by m0caw3b

First-home buyers have re-entered the new build market in recent months just as Tauranga City Council figures indicate a pick-up in new dwelling consents, Generation Homes Tauranga Director David Mansel says.

During the building boom in 2003-2005, it was nearly impossible for young people to buy a new home as their first home because high interest rates made things too expensive for them.

Now interest rates are low and house prices have eased somewhat, so it is achievable for people to build their dream home as their first house. This is particularly good news for young people and those who have struggled in the past to build a new home.

“We firmly believe in the Kiwi right for people to own their own home. It’s a real buzz to hand over the keys of a customer’s very first home,” David says.

Tauranga City Council figures showed November’s 77 new dwelling consents and October’s 73 are more than double the figures for October and November in 2010.

These two months alone had the same number of consents as the preceding three months.
It has been a long time since the local building industry has been so active.

New dwelling consents of this number have not been recorded since September 2008, when an unusual 121 consents were issued, and before that, in July 2007 with 79 new dwelling consents.

Home affordability data also shows the market is more favourable for people now that it was a few years ago. (see  http://www.roost.co.nz/roost-home-loan-affordability-report/home-loan-affordability-improves-as-median-house-price-slips-1st-home-buyers-keen/)

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Revitalising a central New Plymouth site

Posted on February 21, 2012 by m0caw3b

The first soil has been turned at the site of an exclusive new Generation Homes residential subdivision which will revitalise a neglected block in central New Plymouth.

Generation Homes local partner David Barker says it’s the first sizeable subdivision in central New Plymouth for a decade and creating the community will inject millions of dollars into the Taranaki economy.

The new subdivision at the end of Morley Street, next to the Aquatic Centre and coastal walkway, will be developed over the coming months.

It will transform the vacant land from an empty eyesore to a vibrant neighbourhood, David says.

Generation Homes has been operating in Taranaki for 17 months now and there’s a show home at 131 Wills Road, Bell Block.

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Using Kiwisaver funds to make your dream come true

Posted on November 30, 2011 by davea

Generation Homes Chief Executive says first-home buyers can achieve their dream home by taking advantage of Generation Homes’ 5% deposit scheme and securing a house and land package by using their Kiwisaver contributions.

Many people may be saving hard for their first home and don’t realise they already qualify for a mortgage with our 5% deposit programme. 

Couples who have had Kiwisaver accounts operating for a while may have already reached the necessary level of savings when employee and employer contributions are taken into account.

Kiwisaver rules allow savings to be withdrawn to help pay for a first home. Plus, people may qualify for a Government grant of up to $5000 each.

Often people don’t know the Kiwi dream home can become a reality right now if they use their Kiwisaver savings.

For example, with a deposit of $17,950, people in Tauranga can become homeowners as the house and land packages at Milford Estate in Papamoa begin at $359,000.

In Gisborne, for as little as $15,000, Generation Homes can help people with the transition from renting or living at home to moving in to their dream home as the house and land packages at Sponge Bay begin at $299,000.

Generation Homes is able to offer this programme with mortgage provider New Zealand Home Loans because of our unique fixed price and guaranteed delivery date.

And for those who don’t quite have the deposit now, New Zealand Home Loans can help with a special savings plan to ensure the deposit is achievable sooner rather than later.

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Releasing land equity

Posted on November 10, 2011 by davea

Subdividing a property is a simple way to cash up some of the equity sitting in land to help bolster retirement income.

Many retirees are land rich, but cash poor, Generation Homes Rodney Director Paul Barker says. People have large sections and much of their equity tied up in their land because their land values are so high. Also they face the challenge of increased living expenses and decades of good health in retirement.

For retirees or empty nesters who wish to free up some extra income, subdividing is a solution which Generation Homes can help with.

There are several potential opportunities for people who choose to subdivide – cash for the sale of the section to an investor, cash for subdividing and building and then selling a new home, or rental property income from either renting out the new home or renting out the older house and moving into the adjacent new house.

For instance, a retired Orewa couple living in the area zoned for high density may be able to subdivide off a section as small as 275m2. The subdivision will cost approximately $70,000 and after building a Generation Home for a fixed price they could potentially take $100,000 equity from the sale of the subdivided house.

People could be concerned about how subdivision would affect the value of their resulting property. With the right landscaping, Generation Homes don’t believe this to be an issue.

The achievement is a smaller, more manageable site and freeing up of equity.

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Your Dream Bach

Posted on October 28, 2011 by davea

The Kiwi bach dream can become reality

Finding an ideal bach can occupy Kiwi dreams just as much as buying your first home.

Generation Homes has many house and land packages available in holiday locations across  the North Island, so there is a Generation bach out there to suit everyone.

A new Generation show home in Wharewaka, Taupo, has been designed with families and holidaymakers in mind and it may fit the dream criteria exactly.

The show home in Barbary Close reached record numbers of visitors in its first month of  opening and Generation Homes Taupo Director Lyndon Marshall says the high level of interest is indicative of a “change in the air” for the Taupo property market.

With summer around the corner, Lyndon is confident these high visitor levels are only the beginning as holidaymakers attend the show home as they contemplate buying a bach in the area.

Dream baches can also be located near the sand and sea with house and land packages in Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty, on the Kapiti Coast, in the Rodney district, in Taranaki, Rotorua, Gisborne and in Northland.

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It’s all in the family

Posted on September 14, 2011 by davea

Generation Homes Franklin/Papakura is a true family affair.

Directors Rod and Jess Lalich set up the business two years ago and many of their customers are families looking for the superior lifestyle options offered in Franklin/Papakura.

Rod and Jess were introduced to Generation Homes by their own families.
While at university, Jess needed a place to live at the same time as her parents, Dave and Julie Smylie, were looking for an investment property. Consequently, Jess lived in a Generation Home in Hamilton they purchased in 2002.

Now Dave and Julie own nine Generation Homes spread between Hamilton, Rotorua, Karaka and the new show home in Patumahoe Village Estate.

“Our business as Generation Homes joint venture partners in this area is all due to my parents’ influence – they started the Generation Homes connection. But the links also extend through Rod’s side of the family,” Jess says.

“Rod’sparents, David and Donna Lalich, have owned two Generation Homes in Hamilton and his grandmother, Shirley Lalich, has a Generation Home in Morrinsville.

“Plus, the first personal relationship Rod and I had with Generation Homes was as a customer when we bought an investment property in Hamilton,” Jess says.
The customer satisfaction experienced by their families is something Jess and Rod are committed to sharing with all their clients.

There is no such thing as cost overruns and time delays. Generation Homes has a fixed price for every house built and a guaranteed completion date.

The new Patumahoe show home has opened at 2 Searle Drive.

Rod, who is an architectural designer, has adapted a Generation Homes standard house plan called Esprit for the sloping site by designing a split-level home.

The four-bedroom home has two bathrooms with an open plan living area including the kitchen, family room, dining room and a computer nook, plus a bonus three-car garage.
Patumahoe Village Estate has large sites averaging 750 sqm with plenty of room for the trampoline, a swing set and a game of backyard touch.  It is in rural surroundings with the Patumahoe cafes, shops, school and sports clubs in easy walking distance.

Generation Homes has 21 sections in Searle Drive, Vivien Place and Woodhouse Road available with house and land packages starting from $420,000.

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Faster Turnaround Times for Building Consents

Posted on August 30, 2011 by davea

A new private-public partnership in Hamilton will bring faster turnaround times for home building consents and a reduction in building inspections while still ensuring a top-notch product.

A partnership between the Hamilton City Council and Generation Homes will lead to building consents being issued within 48 hours and the number of required building inspections reduced considerably.

The first building development from the elite partnership between Generation Homes and the council is the Edgeview subdivision in Dixon Road in the Hamilton suburb of Glenview.
The initiative is described as a “win-win” for everyone.

Generation Homes Waikato Director Alana Savage says the partnership shifts the emphasis on compliance away from the local authority to the developer, who must meet certain partnership criteria.

Some of these include having a recognised history of excellence in the construction industry, being a member of a recognised organisation that expects superior construction standards of its members, (this includes quality control measures and complaints processes), having sufficient insurances for public liability and professional indemnity, and using local-authority approved sub-contractors.

Alana Savage says Generation Homes has been approved for the Gold Card level of partnership, the top level currently on offer.

“The Gold Card means that not only are we able and committed to processing building consents in 48 hours and are authorised to manage the inspection regime, we also offer a range of recognised sustainability options,” she says.

This could mean solar power, extra insulation, low-flow shower heads and rain gardens, as examples. “The partner company has to have an agreed level of options available to the customer and we are working with the council on finalising that range of options,” Savage says.

Phil Saunders, the building control manager for the Hamilton City Council, says that “without being too clichéd, the partnership is a win-win for all parties”.

“Only top-quality companies achieve Gold Card status,” he says. “The process is streamlined for the developers and home-owners while as a local authority we have the surety that our customers  … and homeowners are our customers … are going to get a top-notch service and product, and that we are going to get improved compliance with the building code.

“Our timeframes will come back, plus we are still getting the best possible quality assurance,” says Phil Saunders.

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Celebrating 100 dream homes in Rotorua

Posted on August 16, 2011 by davea

When the Takahashi family recently moved into their new home in Hamon Park, Rotorua, it was a special occasion for them as well as a celebration of the 100th house for Generation Homes in Rotorua.

Generation Homes Director Paul Marshall says, “I love the final day when we give people the keys to their house and see their faces. We start with a big pile of dirt and our customers end up with a lovely home with landscaped gardens.”

The handover to the Takahashis was especially significant for Paul as it marked such a milestone for the company, which built its first home in Rotorua in 2007.

“We were given the keys to the house exactly 14 weeks to the day that the building was approved,” Yuko Takahashi says.

“It was so exciting. It is the house of our dreams – exactly what we wanted.”

Yuko and her husband, Zenji, have lived in Rotorua for 20 years and are the proprietors of the Yamato Japanese Restaurant in Pukuatua Street in the central city. Their son, Yuki, and daughter, Airi, attend Rotorua Boys’ High School and Rotorua Girls’ High School.

Once the Takahashis bought their section in Hamon Park, Pukehangi, last year, Yuko says she visited many show homes and talked to a variety of builders.

“Paul was the best. He was very kind, he listened to us, he responded quickly to our queries, and we got what we wanted – our dream home,” Yuko says.

The four-bedroom, single-story, brick and tile home is based on Generation’s ‘Helena’ standard plan, but Paul worked with the Takahashis to vary the design to suit their needs and the requirements of their chosen site.

“We asked Paul to create a Japanese-style bathroom and entrance to our house,” Yuko explains.

“In the Japanese culture, shoes are not worn inside the house and we have a special place to take off the shoes.” The result is a sunken entrance to the home and a shoe cupboard.

The Takahashis also wanted one of the two bathrooms to include a tiled wet room, hardwood floors in the kitchen, family and dining area, gas central heating and a separate laundry.

“We explained what we wanted and Paul made a design for us and it was fantastic,” Yuko says.

For Paul, customer service is about listening to clients and being flexible about the details.
“We bend over backwards to look after our clients.

“They have the home they wanted and dreamed of and that’s what it’s all about for me,” he says.

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Helping people’s dreams become a reality

Posted on July 19, 2011 by davea

The Generation Homes team is constantly meeting hard-working Kiwis who are finding it increasingly difficult to save the deposit necessary to buy a house.

Kiwis’ dream of home ownership is made more difficult because of the $80,000 or $100,000 needed as a deposit. Many people’s hopes and aspirations are on hold as they save.

We’ve got a plan to help people build their own home by busting through the 20% deposit barrier which is presently preventing many Kiwis from achieving their dream.

Now, people might need just a 5% deposit to build their dream house.

We hope this will make the Kiwi dream a reality for more people.

Recent media reports have emphasised that rents are rising in areas of the country where there is increasing demand for quality rental properties, home affordability is improving and interest rates are relatively low.

In this environment, home ownership is achievable and a secure investment for the future.  Generation Homes is giving people an innovative opportunity to act now.

To help make a new home affordable, Generation Homes has joined with recognised lenders to create a unique funding package to reduce prospective owners’ deposit requirements.

For example, a $398,000 complete home and land package could be purchased with a 5% deposit of $19,900. The repayments for a 6.25% 30-year mortgage are $536.87 weekly.

Generation Homes aims to help customers create long-term wealth through home ownership.

The motto at Generation Homes is to make building easy. Uniquely, Generation Homes offers a fixed price for every house it builds and a guaranteed completion time of 14 weeks.
This is an advantage which traditional lenders fail to recognise, so Generation has established its own funding package.

Read more about the Generation 5% deposit scheme here.

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Working together to improve home affordability

Posted on July 5, 2011 by davea

Usually, people blame one catalyst for home affordability to be so out of reach of the average New Zealander.

The villain of the day could be the Government’s changes to investment rules amending the use of depreciation or high council building consent fees.

The reality is there are many components impacting on home affordability and all of them need adjusting. It’s basic economics. The adjustments will keep on happening until suddenly we hit the cross over point of supply and demand.

Council consent fees have to come down. The credit boom meant councils filled their coffers. The drop-off in building consents in recent years will have hit council budgets and spending plans. It’s a case of councils needing to decrease fees as part of a joint effort to improve home affordability or reduce expectations on public service developments.

While prices for timber and steel have been stimulated by export demand, there’s still room for building product suppliers to look at efficiencies in their business to get costs down.

Builders’ margins are under pressure because people cannot borrow as much anymore so they cannot spend so liberally on a house.

Prices are falling for both greenfields and developed land as a consequence of supply and demand.

A standard house package 20-30 years ago was 100 square metres and a Skyline garage. More recently, people wanted bigger houses around 200 sqm and they signed up for larger mortgages to pay for it, even 100 per cent mortgages.

The credit crunch has stymied that practice.

Consumers have to realise and accept their part of the adjustment to make homes more affordable is to have a smaller standard house than has been the norm in recent times. Of course, that doesn’t mean we need to return to 100sqm and a garage.

The equilibrium house size might end up at 130sqm or 150sqm, but it will be a far better house than 20 years ago. The added extras in a standard home today include double glazing and full insulation. Is the consumer any worse off with a slightly smaller house and a lower debt level?

Together we’ll soon get home affordability to a reasonable level because New Zealand needs houses.

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