House hunting, city councils and scaredy cats ( also known as banks)

Before going to New Zealand I was already looking for a new house. I want a house with lots of land and some big sheds to start my animal hotel. ( not to be confused with the silly animal house movie).

Didn’t find one before so after getting back the house hunt continued. Most places that on internet look like a good match are on the other side of the country. So I went for a long weekend and checked out 7 houses.

The first one was a very old house that needed a total overhaul and the sheds where covered in asbestos. So nope. There where also over 4 big sheds and almost no land left that wasn’t covered in sheds or asbestos.

Second house, I really liked the house. Totally the way I would like it. But the location was no good. No real road to the place but only a gravel track. And the one shed there was, was still being build and way to small. But plenty of land. To bad it was all nettles.

Third house, house was okay, land was good. Great road access, one big old shed without asbestos. To bad it was already sold. Oeps.

Fourth house. House was okay, needed some work, like turning around the stairs, new bathroom and kitchen. Knocking down a wall and chimney. So just a bit of work. The sheds/barns had asbestos. A bit more out of the way but still reachable. Down side, there was already a big dog and cat pound three houses down the street.

Fifth house, already a dog hotel. But wayyy out of my budget. Went just to see what it looked like.

Sixth house, needed so much work that only the outside walls and the roof would stay on. If even that. So to big a project for me.

Seventh house, before I even went to look the real estate agent was already telling me I would never ever ever get the permits to start the animal hotel over there. So I went to look, but nope, also not working.

Then house number eight was the winner. It is closer to where I live now. Close to the beach instead of inland. Closer to big city’s so more customers. Nice new house build in 1999 so that doesn’t need a lot of work. A big barn without any asbestos, also pretty new about 20/30 years old. Lots of land that are now nice green fields of grass. Plenty of parking. So perfect.

So I am going to buy it. Price is okay and managed to get a nice chunk of cash off it. So after making a bid and getting it accepted I went to city council to discus my plans.

The civil servants that I talked to where interested. They also know that the land is not enough to build green houses on. Because that is the official use for the piece of land.

To be able to start an animal hotel I need to get the official use of the land changed. And that takes time. I have done the first step with the talk. No very strong arguments against. So now I have done step two that is a first tentative request. So not official yet, just a first time things on paper( okay internet) to the city council. That takes about 40 days. If that gets green light the next step is all the official measurements for noise pollution. And getting a architect to draw up plans, then go for step two that takes about 3 tot 6 months for city council to decide. Then applying for all the official permits, that takes another 3 to 6 months. So it is a waiting game.

Now where the real problems start. Banks refuse to give me a mortgage as long as the official use of the land is green houses. And I can’t buy the place as long as I don’t get a mortgage, I can’t change the use of the land as long as I don’t own the place. the people selling the place don’t want to wait for the 1 to 2 years that it takes for the use of the land to change. And once the use of the land has been changed it is worth a lot more money so I wouldn’t be able to buy it anymore.

So banks are scaredy cats. With my income I can get a 200.000 euro higher mortgage for a “standard” house. But because they have all these stupid rules to minimize any risk they refuse to give me a mortgage that I can easily pay.