Buying guide

Bills you have to pay when owning a house

You’ve done the hard part and bought property – these are the costs you’ll need to cover now that you own

Buying property is extremely exciting, but once you’re living in your own home you’ll quickly discover that there are a few costs to cover.

To make sure you know exactly what to expect we’ve rounded up the bills you’ll have to pay when owning a house.

Mortgage repayments (obviously)

Mortgage repayments are the largest cost you’ll need to cover as a homeowner. The average weekly repayment in NZ is $606 (Stats NZ), but yours may be a little higher if you’ve just bought your home.

You can make these repayments monthly, fortnightly or in some cases weekly, and you can also usually choose the day of the month. It’s a good idea to line your repayment date up with pay day so that you always have cash in the bank to cover it.

Check out Trade Me Property’s mortgage calculator.

Home insurance

When you buy property, your lender will require you to have home and contents insurance from the first day you own it. It’s also a good idea to look into health and life insurance too – especially if you have children or dependants.

The cost of house insurance will vary depending on your home, its location, your excess, and your ‘sum insured’.

Utilities

If you rented before buying your home you’ll be used to paying utilities. But those who lived in shared flats, or with parents should be prepared for an increase in bills, including:

Power – Kiwi use an average of $197 per month (Power Compare).
Internet – expect to spend $40 to $100 depending on your provider and plan.
Water – this may or may not be a cost, depending on where you live. Some councils include this in your rates bill.

Same as your mortgage repayments, it’s a good idea to line utilities payments up with your payday so that you can always afford them.

Get your wallet out, because owning a house isn't cheap!

Rates

Rates are collected from property owners by councils to help pay for amenities and services that the council provides like roads, parks, drains, pipes and libraries. The portion of rates you pay is calculated according to the value of your property, so the exact number will be different for every homeowner (but the more your property is worth, the higher your rates bill will be).

Maintenance and repairs

In order to keep your home in tip top condition, you’ll need to maintain it regularly. That includes stuff like cleaning out drains and guttering, washing your property’s exterior, checking and fixing problems with cladding, roofing and flooring.

If you get to this stuff early, chances are you’ll be able to avoid any expensive repairs for as long as possible.

There’s no set amount that you should spend on maintenance, but as a rule of thumb you can expect it to cost around 1% of the value of your home per year (more if it’s very old, or less if it’s a new build).

Author

Ben Tutty

Ben Tutty is a regular contributor for Trade Me and he's also contributed to Stuff and the Informed Investor. He's got 10+ years experience as both a journalist and website copywriter, specialising in real estate, finance and tourism. Ben lives in Wānaka with his partner and his best mate (Finnegan the whippet).