There's a belief that's almost a religion to some people: buy a home, hold onto it, pay off the mortgage, and you're financially sorted.

More often than not, it's not true. And if you let that belief guide you, you could miss real opportunities for building wealth, because you feel like you're ahead when you're actually not.

Janika ter Ellen knows this better than most. She's a property reporter for Stuff, covering these issues every day.

So when she finally sat down and ran the actual numbers on her own home, what she found surprised her, and not in a good way.

Turns out there are hidden costs to owning a home, and missed opportunities while you're paying off that mortgage, that change the story we've all been sold.

So if your home isn't quite the investment you thought it was, what is it? And does that change whether you should buy at all?

In this episode:

Is buying a house a good investment in New Zealand, and what happened when she ran the numbers on 11 years of home ownership
Why city and regional property markets tell completely different stories
House vs shares returns over 10 years
What she'd have been worth if she'd invested her deposit instead of buying
The hidden costs of home ownership
Renting vs buying a house
The difference between a home as an asset versus a home as an investment
Auckland house prices vs regional house prices

This episode of Making Cents is proudly supported by Odoo. Go to http://odoo.com/r/hpl now and try it for free, for 15 days.

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Production and video editing by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

Filmed by Fanaticals