xpatadventure

Hi Everyone.

After serious thought and research, we decided that it's best for us to move to Christchurch versus Auckland. We were granted our residency visa a few months ago and plan to head there by the end of the year. It's our dream to build ourself a home and we were looking for an affordable land around CC area. Someplace that has a good school for our girls but not too far from city center since my husband might get work in town.

We were looking in Oxford and Rangiora but didn't find anything below our budget of 100K. Any comment would be appreciated.

Also, my husband is not sure whether he can get a job in the area. He is a construction manager and is currently working in the Middle East. We both understand that the salary range in NZ will not be as high as here. He has sent his CV to numerous headhunters in the area, but hasn't gotten any response. Can anyone give us an idea what's the pay scale and how hard it is to find work there considering he's not the local guy?

Thank you so much.

chippy64

http://www.realestate.co.nz/1589920

NZ$89000, 601 m2

or
http://www.realestate.co.nz/1509767 http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/re...-295845711.htm

NZ95,000 792sqm

Best I can find

However, it might be an idea to get a feel for the place first - rent a place in either of these locations to make sure it's the right place for you. It would be awful to buy your land and then discover you don't like the area/schools etc.

Persephone

Good advice from Chippy
Rent for a while until you're sure a certain area is what you want and need. Obviously good to have some potential areas in mind before arriving and have an idea what you want and what you are willing to compromise on eg a smaller garden, no. of bedrooms etc as you may not be able to get what you want for that price.
You probably realise this but you'll also need to look into which area the section is in with regards to earthquake damage and residential zoning ie red/orange/white/green especially if you're considering looking within Chch itself.
Applying for new house insurance can be an issue as well since the quakes. Some companies will only insure existing clients.

There's a lot more to think about when buying a house or land down here now

shirl

Waimak area have just changed the rules for foundations in this area. It is adding about $5,000 on to your build cost since the earthquakes!