Renting versus buying in New Zealand
New Zealand exempted dwellings from conveyance duty in 1988 and abolished the remaining stamp duty in 1999, replacing neither, so there is no transfer tax line to pay at all. Total buying costs, solicitor, LIM report, builder's report, are typically under 1% of the price, the lowest of any market in this tool.
And buying still loses. On the opening figures here, an $830,000 home against $2,400 a month in rent at 5.5%, buying does not break even inside thirty years despite free entry. That is the most useful thing this page has to say: New Zealand is the country with the cheapest possible way in and one of the worst rent-versus-buy cases, because the price-to-rent ratio is about 29 years of rent to buy one house. A country with 10% transfer tax and a ratio of 19 beats it comfortably.
Cheap entry does not rescue an expensive house. If you are testing this comparison, move the price-to-rent ratio before you touch anything else.
Getting out is not free either: agent commission is typically 3% to 4% on the first tranche of the price, so the exit costs several times what the entry did.
There is no mortgage insurance. Lenders charge a low-equity premium as a margin on the interest rate rather than as a separate policy, so raise the mortgage rate rather than looking for a missing premium, and Reserve Bank loan-to-value restrictions limit how much high-LVR lending banks may write at all. Council rates are a flat annual charge set by each council.