Cooking the Books podcast: How location can give you a house that fits your lifestyle

There are all sorts of things to weigh up to know if your house is the right house for you and your circumstances. Photo / 123RF

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's the newest episode of our OneRoof-partnered series, looking at how you can use location differently to get the house that works with your lifestyle. Hosted by Frances Cook.

A house is a weird blend of a massive financial decision, and a massive lifestyle decision.

So no wonder people get stressed when they're trying to find the right place for them.

There are all sorts of things to weigh up to know if this is the right house for you and your circumstances.

Do you want kids? Do you want to be close to your work, or do you want more space?

Do you dream of planting a vege garden, or can you think of nothing worse than spending the weekend mowing lawns?

If you weigh this up in the right way, the right house can both set you up financially, and increase your happiness in your day-to-day life.

If it goes wrong, it can get ugly fast.

For the latest Cooking the Books podcast, I talked to Bindi Norwell from REINZ and Ashley Church from OneRoof.

We discussed the house lifestyle factors everyone should take into consideration, how small is too small, and whether you should consider buying in a less expensive city.

For the interview, watch the video.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

If you missed the previous episodes from our house-buying special, check them out here:
Renting vs buying
Saving a house deposit on an average income
How to get your mortgage right from the start