Ponsonby first home now worth $1.5 million

Catherine Smith outside the Ponsonby house she bought in 1982. Photo / Dean Purcell

Catherine Smith was 25 when she bought her first home in 1982 - a three-bedroom bay-fronted Ponsonby villa for $55,000.

She sold the uninsulated 19th century house eight years later when she moved to Wellington for the grand price of $150,000 - about $580,000 in today's currency. "We tripled our money. I thought I'd made a fortune."

The same property is today valued at nearly $1.5 million. "Stupid me."

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Ms Smith, now an Auckland journalist who owns a house in Birkenhead with her husband, said buying her first home was relatively easy in the early 1980s. "The rule of thumb back then was that you didn't spend more than twice your annual income on a house."

She was earning a salary of $25,000 at the time in the marketing industry but as she was a single woman buying alone, her father had to co-sign the loan agreement.

Ms Smith sold her car for $5000 and borrowed another $5000 from her parents towards the deposit then got flatmates in to help cover her mortgage repayments.

The area was yet to be gentrified in 1982. There were no hipsters or celebrities treading Ponsonby's now trendy pavements. Pre-1980 properties were going for under $20,000.

"There were still the original families, old working class families and Pacific Island families plus students and artists."

And though crushing interest rates of around 17 per cent at the time ate into her disposable income, she still managed the repayments. "I was a squirrel, I budgeted really tightly. You didn't eat out three nights a week, it was a special occasion. There weren't the coffee shops so you didn't spend your money on coffee."

Ms Smith said she felt for first home buyers of today who faced taking on massive mortgages.

"I'm the last of the baby boomers. We were lucky and I don't know what our children will do."