Ian and Kerry Burger emigrated to Auckland from South Africa four years ago with their children Sean (10) and Jamie (7) and they now own their first Kiwi home in Milldale.
They have a smaller section in the development, but have maximised the space, making it work for their lifestyle.
“I got my dream single-storey, easy maintenance house and that was my goal,” Kerry says.
The couple’s dream home was initially just out of reach financially, but they persevered and kept saving. Then the mortgage market loan-to-value (LVR) ratios changed in their favour.
Their home in Stage 4D of Milldale, in Wainui, is in a peaceful, rural setting with pukekos as their neighbours. The community will evolve as the neighbourhood builds up around them.
Ian and Kerry love entertaining and their home suits that lifestyle with a large deck, and the layout of the house forming a u-shape around the outdoor space.
The couple describe their build as smooth sailing and they moved in in March. They had previously built a new home in South Africa and at that time were focused on the minutiae of choosing things like light switches and the brand of the bathroom basin.
This time, they trusted their New Home Sales Consultant Nadine Markgraaff, and relied on her to guide them through their decisions.
“It was nice for somebody to take that load off because it can become a bit overwhelming,” Ian says.
They had to stick to their budget, and that meant ruling out an existing home closer to the city.
“We had to make an informed decision and we knew we would be out of the city. It was a little bit out of our comfort zone in terms of travelling, but it’s certainly worth it,” Kerry says.
Ian mostly works from home, but when he goes to the office in the city he uses public transport which he finds convenient and takes an hour each way.
Kerry has a half-hour commute each way to her hospital job and due to shift work she travels against traffic.
Sean and Jamie are founding pupils of Milldale School, which opened in April 2023.
Ian and Kerry share more on their building experience.
IAN
We looked at existing houses, but to be honest, it probably boiled down to finances. I can’t remember exactly when, but the Reserve Bank amended loan to value ratios, which means that we unfortunately weren’t in a position to buy an existing house because we were a low deposit borrower. With a new build, you only have the 10% deposit requirement as opposed to the 20%. So, it came down to affordability. Obviously, the upside of a new build is that everything is new, so there is less maintenance, which suits us.
IAN
We walked into every single show home within Milldale because we were not familiar with any of the construction companies. We looked at the quality and it really came down to the sales agent. We had an immediate rapport with Nadine Markgraaff. We’re from South Africa and so is Nadine and we just clicked immediately.
KERRY
When we first met Nadine, she was quite honest with us about the budget and helped us to understand where we were at. Unfortunately building a home wasn’t going to happen at that time for us. She was persistent in a fabulous way and supported us. She also made a promise to be in touch, and you know, she really did stick to that. She promised to get us a land and house package whether it was that year or the next. I made a joke then and said I felt like I’ve got my mum here. Nadine made us feel at ease and obviously she’s very professional and committed, which was very nice, and we appreciated that.
IAN
Getting the house and land package finalised involved a combination of things. We’d been saving towards a deposit and we used the mobile mortgage manager Nadine referred us to. Essentially, we switched to another bank, which was a little bit more favorable in terms of the amount that we would qualify for. When we first started looking most of the banks had stopped lending to low deposit borrowers. When that threshold changed and the banks were lending again, we were already with a great bank.
Also, there were no sections available and a long waiting list. We were given a pretty accurate timeline of when sections were going to become available again.
IAN
The fixed price was quite an attractive feature for us. A mortgage manager at the bank, who does a lot of work with Generation Homes and understands exactly how they do things, was very open about how the banks like working with the company because it’s a true fixed price. A lot of other companies claim to have fixed pricing, but it’s not really.
KERRY
From an aesthetic point of view, what was included in the actual house was important. For example, the blinds were included. We’ve seen loads of houses here that sit with sheets hanging for six weeks. It sounds silly, but that’s the small stuff that you want to have when you move in.
IAN
The planning was detailed and for 95% of the time Generation kept to that schedule, which was good. We had a couple of unforeseen weather events (early in 2023) which threw a spanner in the works. The guaranteed settlement date or practical completion date was really cool. You could clearly see when drawdowns would be made on your mortgage. It really does help and gives you certainty and visibility.
KERRY
We were away for two months of the building process in South Africa and Nadine was emailing pictures, keeping us in the loop, keeping the excitement going. She made us feel like we were still part of it, even though we were gone.
IAN
We had a really good experience. We didn’t get involved in the practical, technical stuff too much. But everything leading up to the build was really good. The communications were good. I felt we could trust the process.
IAN
We were recommended a plan for the site layout and the size. Some people would be 100% happy with that, but we had clear ideas as to what we wanted to do, so we deviated from that suggestion. We liked the layout of the Generation Homes show home in Milldale (the Wainui plan) and we used that plan but made everything a little bit smaller and tailor-made it for this section. That’s the one part where we were quite involved with the process – drawing up the plans.
KERRY
The ideas were welcomed, and it was definitely good teamwork. We were never made to feel like our changes were a problem.
IAN
We built the house around our deck. We like to entertain so the house is almost u-shaped with the TV room, family room, kitchen-dining room and our bedroom circling the deck. We made that a real feature. The kitchen is a focal point and the black and emerald colour scheme we chose is quite striking. We opted for a single garage in order to have a little study as opposed to a double garage purely because I need to work from home.
KERRY
The little study is called the Harry Potter room!
What are some of your favourite features in your home?
IAN
It’s a good size kitchen and our family spends a lot of time in the kitchen, so it was important to make that as big as possible, but also to have a nice layout and colour scheme.
KERRY
We hummed and hawed about the black cupboards. Nadine made us very aware that they show fingerprints. But it was worth it. I think we had one budget splurge in the house and that was having a beautiful emerald splash back - against the black cabinetry it is quite striking.
KERRY
I think Milldale has been on our radar for a while. But coming from Northcote, which is quite a lovely community, we found ourselves doing a lot of hard searching on that side (of the Auckland harbour bridge) and eventually getting to the point where we were just branching out further and further. That process started probably more than a year ago. We thought as we drove through the area a couple of times, wouldn’t it be lovely to live in a place like this? It’s a little bit separate from the city life and the rush, so that appealed to us. We love the idea of starting a new, supportive community again and we’re looking forward to it.
It’s day three of the new school. It’s tiny, only 60 to 70 kids. It’s lovely to watch the actual building going up behind the fabricated buildings. The kids only have a five-minute walk to school.
IAN
In time there will be a lot of amenities. There’s still a lot of construction to happen over the coming years for things such as a retail centre, the school, a playground with a pump track, and the town centre. There will potentially be medical rooms or facilities. It’s still a bit of a work in progress. We’re not far away from the amenities within Orewa, Silverdale and Millwater.
IAN
Building a house becomes a little bit daunting with all of the options you have available in terms of different colors that you can go for, different finishes of tiles, blinds, carpets - absolutely everything. You need to have a clear idea of what you want to do, otherwise it becomes a little bit confusing. I would say if you were to go down a path of doing variations to a plan or to the standard finishes, you can quickly rack up substantial costs. So, depending on your budget, be clear on what you want to do, what’s important to you, and spend the money well on the areas that are going to mean the most to you. Otherwise, the budget can quickly run away from you if you spend it on items that aren’t adding value to the house itself.
KERRY
Building comes with hidden costs. Stick to your budget and if you can put a little aside, do. We had a little nest egg on the side so we could pay for stuff that we hadn’t budgeted for.
IAN
I think anyone moving into a new house will want to buy some new furniture or new cutlery, crockery, whatever it may be. It’s important to think of those things from a budgeting perspective and make sure that you’ve set aside a little.
KERRY
And avoid impulse shopping on the day you move in!
IAN
Automated saving is the easiest way to save in my view. As soon as your salary gets paid into your account, you already have automatic payments set up into separate accounts for your specific goals. That’s what we’ve been doing and it restricts you from spending money that you no longer have in the account.
IAN
We had UV film installed on the sliding doors for privacy and just to block out some of the sun. We had some work done in the garage to create storage space. The storage solution was from a company called ‘Pimp My Garage’.
