BLINZ

Awaiting approval of our visa and all set to market house in the UK at end of March. Have a 14 year old who has been educated privately in the UK and we want to continue this in NZ. Have settled on Kristin School Albany, Auckland. Will rent initially but want to buy a piece of land to build our home and will be aiming to build a passive house (super energy efficient).
Any advice on best areas to look at would be welcome. Is good building land easy to come by or as rare as in the UK?
Somewhat alarmed by comments that Auckland is boring and nothing to do for my teenager who is into football (soccer) and skiing. We didn't really look at any other areas of NZ to settle. We assume that moving to a suburb within the biggest city would provide all and more than we need - good schools, opportunity to build a contemporary design energy efficient house, good shopping, good restaurants, good sports facilities etc.
Not concerned about commuting to business areas as will be designing and supervising house build and then looking at establishing a business once settled in a couple of years time. Also don't want to get bogged down running a business and working all hours as in the UK. This is the main reason we are hoping to go to NZ, to improve quality of life. Also we want to explore the whole of NZ before settling down to earn money again.

trafford

Hi. I am a Kiwi living in Cheshire for the past 15 years (but I have returned frequently to see family) and we are looking to return within a year. I too have done a lot of research into the North Shore - I lived there briefly from 1993-1994 but lived the rest of my time in central Auckland. I have signed up on trademe for email updates to find suitable properties/land. There is also an excellent NZ book that goes through every Auckland suburb in detail (I am not sure if I can post the name in the forum - it is called where to live in Auckland) and they post worldwide. I know you have decided the school for your child, but as far as education goes, the NZ education system doesn't work quite the same way as here. I used to be a secondary teacher in NZ and the best state (and Catholic Integrated) schools are often as good as private schools (Metro magazine writes an article ranking schools once per year). My children are in independent schools here also, but when we move we will probably just choose to live in a good school zone. Zoning is very strict in NZ. Perhaps consider it as an option if you are struggling to find the right area to live in close to Kristin? Sorry I can't give more information. Hopefully someone else will know more. Good luck with your search.

BLINZ

Many thanks for your reply. Looks as if the currency situation may screw up all our plans anyway! Very depressing.

trafford

We are in the same boat as far as currency. In fact I was posting about this issue on another thread in the forum. We have decided to rent for a couple of years when we get there and leave the money over here. They say its always a good idea to rent for a while anyway. At least it gives us time to find out about suburbs etc. I am not expecting the currency to go too much lower, so I think (and hope) it can only go one way!

BEVS

Morning both from New Zealand.

Can't help with the school thing at all as I've only a cat and me two ducks.

Just wanted to say hi and welcome to this weeny NZ forum.

Feel for anyone thinking to come out to NZ just now what with prices and the wretched exchange rate.

Can only hope that this will improve somehow over the next couple of years.

GoingIn2011

Auckland has plenty of the facilities you describe, and would cater well for teenagers. My slightly younger kids are really into sports and the North Shore caters very well for them. When people say its boring I think they mean it's not London or Paris. Well, hello?

AFAIK there is plenty of land for sale around Albany for house building.