inkedneonurse

Anyone know if it's possible to arrange a rental property before you get in country or will I have to bunk in a motel when I get there and sort out a house when I arrive...... It's the difference between me coming over first or coming over with the family.

cappuccino

NEVER EVER rent a property without seeing it first. Photos on the internet are often very different to reality, plus you need to know the area etc. Spend a couple of weeks in an Airbnb place/serviced apartment/holiday let and then find a long term rental.

simonsi

Do. This.

Snap Shot

Renting a motel or similar initially, even though it might seem expensive per-night will be cheaper in the long run.

Just so you are not stuck with a rented place which is not suited to your needs. Well, the photos looked ok........

I understand sometimes the photos of rented accommodation can be years out of date i.e. that's what it looked like before it got trashed/abused by various tenants.

The landlord doesn't care whether or not you like it, you just have to pay the rent as per the rental agreement.

I understand people have rented a place with only the photos as a guide and come unstuck. I also understand, although I question whether I believe it, that people have also purchased a property on this same basis. With only their friend or family member to go and give the place, 'the once over'. They may well be an 'honest witness', they are still not you.

escapedtonz

We initially secured a holiday home as our first rental property when we came over. Good way to go as there is NO contract. It was just like booking a hotel room with free cancellation.
Basically it was a fully furnished traditional 3 bedroom kiwi cottage built in the 70's with everything included in the weekly rent price - water, gas, electricity, sky tv and wifi. $725 per week which when you consider what we got wasn't a bad price at all. Luckily my new company also paid me enough in relocation to cover the costs.

We booked it off either www.bookabach.co.nz or www.holidayhomes.co.nz website after checking out the photo's and then researching the area and looking on Google street view. Booked it while still in the UK and corresponded with the owner via email. We paid a small deposit and booked it initially for a 4 week period. On arrival and after picking up the keys and checking it out we could have walked away without any further cost but although it was old it was fine for a couple of months. We made a note of any damage or marks on the wall or things that didn't work and handed the list to the owner just so they knew those things were there before we arrived. After the first week or so we just extended it another 4 weeks. Luckily the owner promised to let us know if anyone else was interested and promised us first refusal to extend.
Was much better than living in a motel although motels here are fine if that's the way you wanna go.

Just take heed of the warnings about agreeing a rental contract on a property without seeing it in the flesh. Huge risk and the rental contracts are concrete. Once you are signed up you are legally obliged to pay the rent for the fixed period - no excuses!

jmh

Just been looking at airbnb and put my mum's place on there - I would recommend having a look at that option. Seems to be popular.

inkedneonurse

Thanks for the advice but I should have said my mother in law lives over there so would get her to do the actual looking

LittleGreyCat

Still well worth having a few weeks to make sure you agree with her choice.

Renting holiday lets by the week or month is a good, safe way to go.

Bo-Jangles

Still I wouldn't trust this to someone else, particularly if your MIL is a Kiwi I would suggest that her view of what is a decent place to live might be quite different from yours.

IMHO living in crappy rented accommodation is probably is one of the biggest deal breakers you'll face and if there's one thing that will make you want to head home asap it's living in a cold, damp and smelly house. It's certainly tested the strength and commitment of many a newbie on here and you should not underestimate how much of a difference it will make in those early days of being here.

MrsFychan

I trusted MrF to get our rental, what a mistake. only heating in it was one panel heater in one of the kids bedrooms and only because that wall was part of the garage. no double glazing so you can image the streams of water coming off it. holes in the walls where the previous previous previous tenants kids had slammed the door knobs into them, holes in the bedrooms walls as well. You would think the Bond was there to rectify these sort of things ,
It could of been a really nice house if a little TLC was given to it but no. reason we bought 6mths in and prompted the biggest mistake made.

Parnell

They build houses differently in NZ


Their preference when cold is to wear more clothes


I prefer not to have a mortgage to do inside camping

chocolate cake

Yep, great advice.

Work Widow

I have learned since arriving into NZ that many of the motels around the metropolitan area in Auckland have spacious 1 or 2 bedroom self-contained apartments (having own kitchen & lounge facility) as well as the usual type of motel rooms. They are an inexpensive accommodation option, even cheaper than holiday lets. They are an option whilst you do your property searching.

Definitely agree with previous posts - DO NOT CONTRACT TO RENT, SIGHT UNSEEN.

I had found in my searches that property descriptions belie actuality. What can be described as a 2 bed apartment in fact turns out to be a downstairs flat. Also I was somewhat astonished at the sizes of some places - they were like shoeboxes.

I also was amazed how many properties do not have insulation, cooling or heating facilities. Heat pumps are the big thing to ensure is available but that can cost a lot in power unless the house is insulated.

Good luck.

BTW: I did a lot of searching using the usual real estate site and cross referenced with just to verify the information. I think though that trademe requires a NZ IP address.

Good Luck

inkedneonurse

Cool so look before you leap cheers

In that case looks like I will be coming over first and hosteling it I know nothing runs smoothly but how long on average does it take to rent once you've found a property. Would Mrs R and bratlings be good following on 2 weeks after me? Also as I won't have a car straight away what's the general feeling about public transport

Hazelnut

You can use advanced search and view all properties and all of TradeMe from the UK. What you can't do is create a TradeMe account to save properties on a list.