reecefam

Hi,
Just secured a job offer in Albany, so need some ideas of GOOD places to live, (and not to live), within 30 minutes car trip please!
We have two girls of School age as well, so good local Schools will be very important as well.
Ideally looking for a 4 bed. house, so we can have family to stay!
We are moving over in November and will be looking for a rental for the first year, so suggestions or links to good rental agents would be brilliant as well!

Been advised, Browns Bay/Mairangi Bay/Birkenhead/Northcote Point/Birkdale/Milford/Torbay are all good places to move to but always interested in hearing if there are any other suggestions, that i might have over looked.
Thanks a lot.
Martin

Charlie Paynter

Hello again Martin,

Ironically, I use to live in Birkenhead and worked in Albany village. Traffic was no problem as you go against the flow. All of the places you mentioned are good, and I would advise to go the bays for Rangi College catchment, also you are right on top of the sea.

Failing that, you may wish to consider Greenhithe, although when we were there 6 years ago, not a great reputation for schools.

House prices in the bays are relatively expensive - probably will have to look from the $600k mark. Try the usual agents inclusing the Professionals, Brafoot & Thompson and Hooker - all on the search engines (you can search NZ via a local search engine like Google NZ).

Not sure what you do for a living, but working in Albany is not everyones cup of tea, as it is 'out in the sticks'. Because it was close to Auckland city, we had trouble finding staff who would prefer the city.

Michael

reecefam

Thanks Michael...i am in the retail world, so staff are important!
We would like somewhere near the sea, if that helps naming places to live.
We thought the further north we lived the better, as i presume it gets cheaper, the further away from Auckland you get?
What town would we need to live, to get into that college Michael?

Charlie Paynter

Martin,
The best bet - if your budget allows you to - is the east Coast Bays, although check out rangitoto.school.nz for the catchment areas.

You could go further north, like Silverdale or Whangaporoa, and it does get cheaper, which might suit you as you don't have to come into Auckland City.
Michael

AnnieNell

We live towards the end of the Whangaparaoa peninsula & enjoy life here. We are very near to Shakespear regional park & Army Bay, also loads of other beaches along the peninsula. House prices are reasonable $500k will get you a 4 bed house. Gulf Harbour is a 'new' area & some parts are a bit "Toytown" looking but their are more traditional kiwi houses too. Gulf Harbour school has a good reputation. The local senior school is Wentworth College & is fee-paying.
We planned to live in the Bays area originally but found the houses were built on top of each other with no garden. So that's why we headed this way.
Albany is easy to get to from here & will be even quicker once the Penlink is built.
Hope this helps.

waynepfry

Orewa is a good option - you get a lot more house for your money than most areas on the Shore, it's got a good beach and is a 30mins commute to Albany. The best places to live on the Shore within 30 mins are definately Takapuna or Milford. Excellent schools Primary through to secondary), great beach, cafes, shops, close to Albany and the City and have a resort-type feel. They're not to everyone's budget though. We've got three children (5,11 and 16) and they all go to different schools in Takapuna. We're very pleased with how they're doing and they all enjoy school. As it's close to the sea they have boating lessons and in my humble opinion they're very bit as good as schools in England. I'd avoid Albany itself as it's getting very built up, the schools don't have as good a reputation as most areas on the North Shore and the houses all seem to look similar.

Browns Bay, Long Bay and Torbay also worth a look - very close to Albany and godd access to the beach and good schools - also less $ for houses than Takapuna/Milford

lapsed kiwi

Definitely Hibiscus Coast - why would you want to live in anonymous Auckland suburbia like Glenfield, Birkenhead etc if you are working on the city's edge? If you want to be near the sea (and I don't count the inland harbour here) then the best value for money option and chance of a decent-sized section (garden) is Orewa/Red Beach/Whangaparaoa). 30 min from Albany gets you anywhere from Waiwera in the north to the end of the peninsula. I live on the NW edge of Orewa and it takes me 12 min to the Oteha Valley off-ramp at rush hour, so add another 2-5 minutes depending on where in Albany you'll be working
Good luck - and from those of us living out here who commute past Albany then join the traffic jams heading south - we're all envious!

reecefam

Thank you...great replies that have helped me. I will start looking for rental agents!

lardyl

for Orewa and environs also add Margray Realty 0800 202020 who do some of the furnished holiday homes. Open2view is not as good as www.realenz.co.nz for rentals around here (the Hi-biscus Coast/Rodney that is).
When are you coming?
If it is early enough in the year when you arrive then furnished rental might be fairly cheap and in plentiful supply - I could scan in the rental ads from the Rodney Times if you like....it covers most of the area north of the East Coast Bays and as far north as Wellsford....If you fancy then PM me. LL
To get an idea, we pay $350/wk in Red Beach unfurnished and have 3 beds, garage, rumpus/office and a reasonable garden about 5 min walk from a great beach and less to the park although ours is a rear unit (semi-detached).
Not sure how good the secondary schools are here - many people sign their kids up for the Kingsway School - a christian school that runs from primary right through to secondary, in fact our last landlords brought their kids up from Browns Bay to school there.