Black Sheep

Hi!

Some questions about things New Zealand that I haven't found complete answers to yet - can anyone enlighten me please??

1). What is a 'lifestyle property'?

2). Bed and duvet sizes - do these correspond to British or American sizes?

3). Do public tennis courts exist in NZ? In Christchurch?

4). What's the going rate for babysitters?

5). How is it that so many lower-priced (i.e. NZ$100-200K) homes have expensive-looking oven range-hoods?!

6). Are there bicycle lanes in NZ/ChCh?

7). Many houses are advertised as being constructed of 'permanent materials'..... ummm.... what are the other houses constructed of?

8). Are chickens/lambs/beef/pigs raised without antibiotics and/or growth hormones?

9). Is air pollution really not a problem in ChCh? If not, why do recent home-for-sale ads still constantly refer to pollution, as in 'this house is above the smog problem'?

10). Some thread I saw somewhere once referred in passing to the difficulty/pain/ or some-such of selling one's house in NZ? Any idea what they might have been talking about??

TO BE CONT'D.........

TA

Watt Dabney

Hi,

I will have a go at answering a few of your questions. Being a newbie in Chch I cannot answer all of them and some of my answers are educated guesses which someone with more experience may correct.

1) A lifestyle property ( i think) is a property that has over a certain amount of acerage.

2) Beds, had this conversation yesterday at a bed shop!
UK single= NZ single
UK double=NZ double
UK kingsize=NZ Queen
UK Superking= NZ king

7) I think permanent = brick don't think wood classes as permanent. (this is a guess)

9) I asked this question to a local when we arrived he said it wasn't that bad only central Chch and only a few days in winter it is noticibly bad. The Chch council has banned wood burners in central areas to try and sort it out.

10) the pain of selling a house i think refers to the high commission charged by agents. Still trying to understand the housing market, some houses sell really quick and some take ages and to my inexperienced eye there does not seem to be a great difference between two such properties to explain why.


Paula

arthurm

1. property in the country - usually 10acre but varies.
3. yes
6. chch yes but not on all roads. many kids bike to school.
7. wood.
8. anti-bios common.

muppetking

Babysitters.........anything from 6 to 12 dollars per hour . There are 2 agencies that we know of.
Not permanent means wooden!
Air pollution IS a problem. Sit up on the Port Hills any cold evening (plenty of those!) and you will see the smog caused by the thousands of logburners that people use. Cheap and effective but terribly polluting. The Council are in a pickle because changing 150 years of habit/necessity will NOT be cheap!
The small market means property will never make you a fortune.There has been a 4 year slump in prices and according to an Agent we spoke to recently it doesn't look like changing. :lecture:

Don

Re: babysitters - how about kindergarten - how much would you pay for a day (ie 8-5)/ week?

Thanks - Don

muppetking

For a public Kindy it's usually a dollar a day or contribution, and very good they are too. If you go private it will bi in the region of 50 dollars per day, give or take a little. They don't really offer that much more but if you have the money!

arthurm

$38 per day or $165 per week for Paddingtons - a private nursery franchise that operates throughout chch - bit dearer than average. Kids are well looked after and fed.

Kindy - kids get into around the age of 3 and half. Donations are voluntary but only a bottomfeeder wouldn't pay (there are some ). We pay a donation of $45 for a ten week term, three afternoons a week from 1pm to 3.30pm.

Aisling

Lifestyle as in a larger block of land, usually on the perimetre of a city and usually an acre or more. A very small farmlet type of thing where you have some room for keeping a horse, or maybe some animals. Think of that old tv programme - I think it was called the "Good Life".

2).Answered above.

3). Do public tennis courts exist in NZ? In Christchurch?

- Yes, in nearly every city in NZ.

4). What's the going rate for babysitters?
- depends where you live. The rates given in the other posts are fairly representative but many babysitters are happy to accept a fixed sum, say $20, for an evening.

5). How is it that so many lower-priced (i.e. NZ$100-200K) homes have expensive-looking oven range-hoods?!

- just the way we do things here :-)

6). Are there bicycle lanes in NZ/ChCh?

- some cities have bike lanes, some don't - and many just don't need them because cycling is so common that traffic is used to sharing lanes. Cycling is not so common in Auckland and is rather dangerous there but there are parts of Auckland that have cycle lanes. Children in other areas often bike to school.

7). Many houses are advertised as being constructed of 'permanent materials'..... ummm.... what are the other houses constructed of?

- permanent materials means brick or stone, sometimes plastered.

8). Are chickens/lambs/beef/pigs raised without antibiotics and/or growth hormones?

- antibiotics are frequently used and generally labelled, growth hormones are not permitted. Organic food is readily available in most areas and is certified.

9). Is air pollution really not a problem in ChCh? If not, why do recent home-for-sale ads still constantly refer to pollution, as in 'this house is above the smog problem'?

- Christchurch has a pollution problem in winter when the smog created by open fires gets trapped by the colder inversion layer of air and cannot escape. It is better than it was but still has a way to go before there is no smog.

10). Some thread I saw somewhere once referred in passing to the difficulty/pain/ or some-such of selling one's house in NZ? Any idea what they might have been talking about??

- nope, no idea at all. I have bought and sold a number of houses with no difficulty.

Hope this helps.

Aisling

Black Sheep

Yup! Helps alot! Thanks everyone for your replies....

More questions:

11. What is a 'sleepout'? Is it really somewhere that people do actually sleep 'out'??

12. a) How does one go about searching for a house to buy (I gather estate agents in NZ only work for the seller, unlike USA, so I'm imagining the house search process could be very time-consuming as one would presumably have to search every estate agent's listings regularly and/or regularly drive around areas one is interested in)?

12. b) And can one easily get hold of recent house sale prices? Do estate agents readily give out this information - as in a computerized listing of recent sales and the sales prices - as they do here?

13. A LOT of houses I've seen for sale in NZ are being sold by auction - how does one figure out what the market value of the house is before auction date? (don't mortgage companies require a market value appraisal?) I just HATE the idea of having to bid at auction for a house I like, has anyone been through the process successfully who can say a few words about how it works/feels?

14. My youngest will be 2 in March. What options are there for 2 year-olds in terms of playgroups, pre-school, etc...?

Thank you!!
TA

Watt Dabney

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The American
Yup! Helps alot! Thanks everyone for your replies....

More questions:

11. What is a 'sleepout'? Is it really somewhere that people do actually sleep 'out'??


A sleepout is basically a spare room in the garden which can be used by guests or as a hobby room or anything that takes your fancy.



12. a) How does one go about searching for a house to buy (I gather estate agents in NZ only work for the seller, unlike USA, so I'm imagining the house search process could be very time-consuming as one would presumably have to search every estate agent's listings regularly and/or regularly drive around areas one is interested in)?

The agents who helped us find our house showed a lot of houses to us including making arrangements for us to view houses listed with other agents. You can pick up weekly copies of Harcourts Blue Book and the Realtor, which contains multi agent listings at estate agents offices and supermarkets.

Can't help with your other questions though

Paula

sashimi

Quote:

A LOT of houses I've seen for sale in NZ are being sold by auction - how does one figure out what the market value of the house is before auction date?

I've been wondering about this myself. On the Open2View site most houses don't have a price, but are "auction" "pbn" "poa" etc. Which is not very helpful if one wants to try and get an idea of what one can get for one's money. Realestatenz has many more prices actually quoted.

About the auction prices: recently somebody mentioned a url where the prices houses where sold at at auction where published - in nz - I can't find it anymore. So if anybody knows please post it again.

sashimi

Aisling

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The American
Yup! Helps alot! Thanks everyone for your replies....

More questions:

11. What is a 'sleepout'? Is it really somewhere that people do actually sleep 'out'??

- Yes, it is. A sleepout is a room which is sometimes adjoing a house but more commonly seperate from a house, which is used as a bedroom/bunkhouse type of area. Sometimes a free-standing garage is converted to a sleepout for extra bedroom space.

12. a) How does one go about searching for a house to buy (I gather estate agents in NZ only work for the seller, unlike USA, so I'm imagining the house search process could be very time-consuming as one would presumably have to search every estate agent's listings regularly and/or regularly drive around areas one is interested in)?

- Hmm... how to explain this ;-) Real estate agents accept listings from vendors so their primary responsibility is to the person selling a house HOWEVER they will also act on a buyers behalf. Yes, checking what each agent has for sale is a good idea as is driving around the areas you are interested in. In looking for a house to buy reading the real estate sections of the local newspapers is a good idea. I also recommend that when you sort out the type of house you would like to buy and the amount you are prepared to spend, then contact one or two (no more) real estate agents and give them your list of requirements. Don't forget to mention requirements for schooling. The reason I say don't approach more than two real estate firms with your requirements is that they tend to work in a fairly close-knit community and will work harder to find something to suit you if they don't think that lots of others are doing the same.
Only the seller pays fees to a real estate agent - their services don't cost a purchaser anything. Also note that if the agent(s) you approach don't have anything that suits you they will often check what other agents have for sale.

12. b) And can one easily get hold of recent house sale prices? Do estate agents readily give out this information - as in a computerized listing of recent sales and the sales prices - as they do here?

- Most will do so on request.

13. A LOT of houses I've seen for sale in NZ are being sold by auction - how does one figure out what the market value of the house is before auction date? (don't mortgage companies require a market value appraisal?) I just HATE the idea of having to bid at auction for a house I like, has anyone been through the process successfully who can say a few words about how it works/feels?

- auction is a risky business if you don't know the market you are buying in. Mortgage companies require a registered valuation and you will have to have finance in place before the auction as an auction is effectively a cash sale. I'm not sure if this still holds true but it used to be that houses sold at auction did not need to carry the same kind of warranties as houses sold through a sale and purchase agreement. If a house fails to sell at auction, through the bids not having reached the reserve price, then the highest bidder gets the opportunity to negotiate a price.
You really need to talk to a real estate agent about the pros and cons of buying at auction - seems to me that it is more favourable to the sellers rather than the purchasers.

14. My youngest will be 2 in March. What options are there for 2 year-olds in terms of playgroups, pre-school, etc...?

Sorry - can't help with that one :-)