Step 6 · 2–16 weeks
Start house hunting
List your must-haves vs nice-to-haves, then research areas, price trends and trade-offs — schools, commute, flood zones, type of property. Attend open homes and keep good notes.
How to approach it
Keep a spreadsheet for each property: your checklist, the council CV, days on market, and recent comparable sales in the street. Use Trade Me Property, realestate.co.nz and OneRoof, and walk the neighbourhood at different times of day.
Watch out for
Don't fall for staging — fresh paint, soft lighting and rented furniture hide structural problems. Look past the styling at the bones: sun, drainage, insulation, age of the roof and hot-water cylinder. And before you get too attached, check the property's natural-hazard exposure on the council LIM and EQC/NZ flood-risk maps — flood, coastal-erosion and landslide zones can make insurance expensive or unavailable, and most banks won't lend against a home that can't be insured.
Cost & timeframe
Typical cost
Travel costs
Typical time
2–16 weeks
Common questions
How many homes should I see?
There's no fixed number, but most buyers view 15–30 over several months before offering. Quality of viewing beats quantity.
What's a CV and is it reliable?
The capital value (CV) is a council estimate updated every three years. It's a rough guide only — actual market value can be well above or below it.
Should I worry about insurance while house hunting?
Yes — check early, not at the last minute. A property in a flood or high-risk zone may be costly or impossible to insure, which can block your finance entirely. It's a genuine deal-breaker, so rule it out before you fall for a place.
Why insurance matters early
Don't get blindsided at settlement
Home insurance isn't a box to tick on moving day — it's a real weekly cost your bank requires on a mortgaged property, and it's why it sits in the true-cost calculator. Most first-home buyers only price it at the end and discover the number is nothing like the "average".
The premium depends on the property's risk profile: flood zones, coastal-erosion areas, soft soils and older, unrenovated builds all cost materially more to cover. In some spots insurers are pulling out entirely — and if a home can't be insured, a lender generally won't finance it, so the deal can fall over after you've spent thousands on inspections and a deposit.
That's why it pays to check insurability while you're house hunting, not days before settlement. Pull the council LIM and the EQC / council natural-hazard maps, and ask an insurer for an indicative premium on any property you're seriously considering.
This is educational context, not advice — premiums and availability change, and only an insurer can confirm cover for a specific property.