peak of the market in 2021<\/a>, house prices are down about 17% nationwide, and more in Wellington and Auckland.<\/p>\nWhile this has been good news for buyers, and first-home buyers\u2019 share of transactions has increased, it is tough for those who bought at the peak \u2013 particularly if they now need to sell.<\/p>\n
On first-home buyer groups, there have been a number of posts in recent months from people whose circumstances have changed unexpectedly. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2021 me and my husband bought our house with a 20% deposit, for a price of $460,000,\u201d one wrote. \u201cI don\u2019t want to sell the house \u2026 can he sell it without my consent?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another asked how long it was worth holding in the hope a big drop in value would turn around and allow them to move on.<\/p>\n
Jackson said it was a problem around the world but in New Zealand, the speed and severity of the property market\u2019s fall meant families were feeling it acutely. She said the couples she cited as examples were often high earners and not reckless people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market has simply moved underneath them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said people often stayed living together because there were no alternatives that worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest points of conflict I am dealing with repeatedly is the disagreement over whether to sell. One partner wants out. They are willing to take the loss, walk away with whatever equity remains, and start fresh. The other refuses to sell in a \u2018down market\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I am seeing is that people try to hold it together, to be civil, trying to make it work for the children. And then one day they cannot deal with it anymore and they leave. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey walk out with nothing sorted, no agreement in place, no plan, because the emotional toll of staying has become unbearable. That is when things get messy and expensive. That is when lawyers get involved in the worst possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said the \u201cdays to sell\u201d measure was higher than normal. This represents how long it would take to clear the available inventory of housing at the current rate of sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s even a bit higher in that owner-occupier or mid-to-upper end segment because we know that movers are generally less active than normal. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople staying put in their own houses more often will be reducing the potential buyer pool for others who want to sell, such as those separating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson said people who wanted to be able to live together while separated needed written boundaries and rules.<\/p>\n
Those who decided to go it alone would also need a strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore women are leaving relationships because they are done carrying the load. But many have sacrificed career progression and are now trying to re-enter the housing market as a single income earner in the worst property environment in decades. And I am seeing more older couples separating.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who are deciding they do not want to spend their remaining years unhappy. The challenge is they have less financial runway to recover, particularly when their home has lost a third of its value.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said people who did well through separation were being deliberate about it and getting the right support early.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe housing market is not going to fix this for anyone and you cannot control it. But how you respond is within your control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Sumich, a real estate salesperson at Harcourts, said in about 70% of the separations<\/a> he was involved in, people wanted to buy each other out but could not. <\/p>\n\u201cThere is frustration around that as both have to start again.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it would be hard for people to stay together after deciding to split. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough it\u2019s tricky with the relationship ending and kids possibly in the mix. The first step is seeing if one can buy the other out then if not get it on the market and just move on with life. The potential money lost hits both people but dragging it out is worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They had already decided to separate, but now have one income, significant debt, and a house that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,12448,813,3592,6871,10053,225,32033,111,139,69,12937,247058,812,223,2846,33967,65508],"class_list":["post-493193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-couples","tag-edmunds","tag-fall","tag-has","tag-house","tag-market","tag-moved","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prices","tag-separating","tag-susan","tag-the","tag-them","tag-underneath","tag-watching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}