DomandCozzie

Hi all,
Dom and Cozzie here, newbies to the site - one an Englishman, the other a Kiwi returning home after 10 years away.
Would anyone be able to help with advice on property management agencies in the UK through which we could rent out our London property? There are plenty of agencies out there, but we wonder if anyone has experience of any that are good or bad - how the process can work renting out a home from New Zealand, how expensive (or cheap - ha!) it can be etc etc.
We're also about to start looking for companies to help us ship stuff out to NZ - does anyone have any suggestions?
Many thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Dom and Cozzie

glenandrach

Hi Dom and cozzie, we moved to NZ approx 3m ago to CHCH. it is such a wonderful, friendly place but sooooo expensive. As you live in London maybe the shock won't be too bad, i would say comparable with rent, however goods and food and clothes are very expensive e.g. i was looking for a kettle and toaster approx $150 each -they do have sales every other day it seems so that helps. A good waterproof e.g. the likes of North Face etc is approx $4-500 no joking. buy b4 you come. We used John Mason from Liverpool for our shipping and i couldn't recommend them enough, the were great. They turned up and packed everything for you (don't bother doing it yourself as the customs tend to open up customer packed boxes more than remover packed). Just have a good sort out before they arrive. Even though they are Liverpool based they move from all over the country. We didn't have one broken item. Cars are expensive too, i have bought a 2004 plate car for $8000 (£5000) but they do last longer here apparently, there is certainly lots of old motors about.
hope your move goes smoothly anyway you won't regret it

Kotare

As mentioned no one pays sticker price. Briscoes often has 50% off + sales eg got a Breville blender 'normal' price $100 for $25 last week. Russell Hobbes 4 slice toaster and kettle for $180...

Cryoslider

Hiya,
We are using Anglo Pacific to ship a Car that we just bought and PSS are packing our belongings up on Jan 31st.... both companies are similar on service and fairly similar on price, we spent a long time chatting to both of them and comparing quotes. We decided to split the shipping as Anglo pacific seemed more specialised with cars and also they helped us with the whole VAT avoidance when we bought the car. We will be renting our house out too in the uk, will be using a local agent we know quite well, in fact they are over next week so we can discuss getting it ready for the market. They will fully manage it so not too concerned about being the other side of the world if issues come up.

kirstyp

Hi Dom and Cozzie,

Top tip for shipping companies is to check out the FIDI website for a list of FAIM certified international removal companies that serve your area to make sure whoever you're using is fully qualified and independently vetted for international moving.

There are lots more tips about choosing reputable removals companies and your different options over on our vendor forum for International Removals advice. Hope it helps!