sofistek

Looks like I'll be heading to Wellington soon. Are there areas I should avoid when looking for a home? I remember someone on this forum saying the Upper and Lower Hutt should be avoided. I'd probably be looking up to 40Km, or so, from Wellington.

Hints on good areas also appreciated.

Ta.

jandjuk

parts of the upper and lower hutt shold be avoided.... but there are some (very) nice areas too.

silverstream in upper hutt is a nice middle class area $300K to $500K and above for a good family house), and eastbourne is very popular (more like $350K up to 1 million odd there).

I think there's plenty of other areas that are nice as well. tends to be dictated by school zones - hutt valley high school in the south of of lower hutt, and silverstream boys in the south of upper hutt.

parts of porirua city are dodgy I think, but then there is also some very nice areas.

depends how much money you have for property, and what kind of area you want to live in. whether you mind commuting - want an ocean beach, harbour bay, views, rural, native bush, city centre etc etc etc

theguitardoctor

Yup,

Though I think it is perception a lot of the time. Porirua is fine if you stay away from the Eastern suburbs which tend to be poorer and as such the housing is very cheap. The old ideas of Porirua being backward etc are starting to fade away...the area is a lot better than it used to be and a lot of business is centred there. Upper and Lower Hutt are both fine too in my opinion, (I liked Hutt City) but it depends what you are looking for as J said. Do you want shopping facilities right on your doorstep or do you want the beach?

I didn't like it South of the city as there was nothing there, but then I didn't fancy the idea of staying in Wellington permanently either .... everywhere else we visited on the North Island made it look a poor second. It was great for the first month, then we began to realise there was very little there.

Rich.

sofistek

Thanks for that, Rich. Porirua is certainly an area that we'd consider; I stayed there for a few days last year and it seems to have most of what you need. And there were some nice areas around it, particularly to the north and west.

What did you mean by "there was very little there" in Wellington?

sofistek

Thanks J. I'm not so concerned about schools, thouh my 16 year old would need good access to further education, probably. We've seen some nice houses in Silverstream, at least on paper. I was hoping for a good house in the 300K region, though we could go higher.

theguitardoctor

Hi Sof,

I just found that Wellington became very bland very quickly. I hated the changeable weather and the wind ... so you could never tell what season it really was. Sitting on the beach in sun (when you could) lathered in sun screen resulted in a sandblasting which glued itself to your body, so that lost it's appeal quickly. The surf was pretty crappy too, though if they ever get the flase reef at Lyall Bay I think it will improve. Further up the coast was better. I also found that there wasn't a lot in the city...there's loads of cafe's and a few shops, but not a lot else once you've seen the sights. I preferred a lot of other areas to Wellington thats all.

Rich

anya4oz

I know just what you mean about there being 'nothing there'. A friend who returned to NZ from the UK found it very difficult to settle in Wellington. It's a lovely place for a few weeks holiday, but it's very very laid back... not for everyone.

If I had my pick of Wellington places to live: Seatoun (Seatoun Heights Rd, Beerehaven? Rd). The best views of the harbor ever. Prices were quite affordable there for us Brits a couple years ago, but it's probably changed now. Eastbourne is also nice, but a longish drive from the CBD.

My friend now lives in Karori - lovely house perched on the side of a sheer cliff, stunning views, and walking distance to the cable car that goes into CBD. I think the house would cost the equiv of about £150K now, for 4-5 beds.

Anya.

jandjuk

i think you folks are describing 90% of NZ!

wellinton is generally thought of by NZers as one of the more 'happening' places in NZ - mostly because it is compact - unlike most other places.

not really sure what you'd find anywhere else in nz that you couldn't find in or near wellington.

sofistek

A couple of areas that looked interesting are Whitby and Titahi Bay. Does anyone have any thoughts on them? I seem to remember that Johnsonville also looked like it could be good.

theguitardoctor

Hi Sof,

Whitby is fine if you like no convenience whatsoever...the most they have there is a New World Metro (tiny Tesco Metro / Spar) sized supermarket. There is a man made lake, but it's pretty non-descript. The place disturbed me as there was so little character.....it looked like a retirement community with one bar, one supermarket and one video store. It's supposedly a nice area, but I disliked the "feel" of it.

Titahi Bay is nice (though most people will curl their nose up as it's just North of Porirua)....It's convenient to North City shopping centre and the cinema / Bowland etc, and is not too bad in my opinion. Most homes can see some of the harbour (not really a harbour, more a lake area fromed by the Hutt River, so the water's always pretty calm. If I had a choice, I'd go with Titahi Bay over Whitby IMHO, but that's just my taste. If I could have lived anywhere it would have been Raumati / Param Bch areas, but they are more like 50K from Wellington, and it takes about an hour to commute each way to Wellington. There's traffic at the Porirua roundabout every rush hour, which tails back quite a way (this causes the delay). The train still takes an hour due to the stops, so there's no fast way around this. We were looking at Plimmerton as a compromise, but there's not much there either. However, Plimmerton is closer to Porirua / Param (Coastlands shopping mall) than Whitby.

I liked Johnsonville - it would be a good compromise - it's not right by the beach, but you can access this easily...it's close to Wellington and it has a nice "town" area / feel to it. I really liked Johnsonville, and would have happily resided there. It has easy acess to SH1 / 2 (when you learn the slip roads) and the city.


Good luck, Rich.

lesleys

We lived in Wellington a good few years ago and EAstbourne was always our favourite place nearby.

Personally (due to geophysical background and paranoia) I would avoid low lying areas by the sea or along cliffs, eg like Lamton (?) quay/street, the airport etc because when the next big earthquake happens these places are the most vulnerable. The steep drop from the Terrace to Lamton Quay is a fairly recent fault-line. A colleague used to send his children to school near the airport and always questioned this choice as it is the classic sort of area cop a tsunami!

Just try and find somwhere sheltered from the wind.


:scared: :scared:

sofistek

Thanks, Rich (and lesleys for the later post). It seems like there are enough good areas to give me a good selection, but amenities will be important. If there is good grocery shopping, a cinema and reasonably close to more extensive shopping, we'd be happy.

And if it's not right on a fault line, even better!

Cheers,
Tony

theguitardoctor

Hi Sof,

Unfortunately, a lot of Wellington is along a faultline - you just have to accept it as a risk...I think you'd need to move to somewhere like Porirua or further North to really get away from it. Johnsonville again is a good comprmise as there's nothing in the way of high structures, and its fairly flat. You can easily shop at Wollworths or Countdown and reach Pak n Save at Petone for the cheaper prices if needed. There's cinemas in Hutt and the city that are easy to get to. If I worked in the city, Johnsonville is probably where I'd look to reside....we stayed there for our last week and I found it easy to get most things that I needed day to day. It's a small place, but clean and the houses are neatly kept.

However, its not for everyone ... I found Seatoun really boring and bland, but others loved it.....best bet is to try it and see if you like it.

Rich.

sofistek

I appreciate the advice, Rich, despite it not working out for you. I hope you're enjoying your break in the US.

Tony

theguitardoctor

Hi Tony,

Thanks - I would have liked it to work out to....I guess it wasn't meant to be....oh well, such is life. Pittsburgh is excellent ... it's good to catch up with my Brother obviously, but I'm enjoying the area...and stuff is so cheap !!!!

Rich.