simonsi

BIG change in 6mths, when we got our current rental last August it had been empty for a few months, we were the only ones who seemed interested in it. It has just gone on the market as we move into our own place soon (), first to view has had it but there was already a queue building and the rent had been put up by 8%!

Kiwiprincess

This time of year is always a bit nutso though. The same articles come out in Auckland and Wellington. Mainly because there's very little difference between what returning students will/can pay for rental property and what a lot of professionals will pay. Therefore they are competing for the same market, essentially. I'm in Wellington but the same thing happens here.

Over the last few years when I have been in situations where I am either looking for a houseshare arrangement or needing to get in a housemate it's not been uncommon to have loads of people turn up or 'compete'. I went to a place and there were maybe 20 people there at the same time. Craziness.

davros1984

Everyone - just a general thank you for all of the input that has been given. This board is so helpful and what has been said in this thread has really given us good ideas of where to look and what to expect. Maybe I'll get to meet some of you when we've made the big move.

Kiwiprincess, I think you're spot on, it really does depend on where Laura will work but we've been given indication that it will most likely be at Auckland City hospital. I suppose if it ended up being the North Shore I can start a new discussion on where is good to live there.

Aucklander - thank you for your private message, I'll get back to you asap. We really like the look of and lifestyle of Mission Bay.

David.

simonsi

Oh yes, everyone will agree, no controversy there

urbanproject

My partner and I live in St Mary's Bay so city fringe. Nothing to complain about, everything is reasonably close to walk to - supermarket, work (5-10 minutes), bars and restaurants, even Victoria Park.

Definitely agree that you'll find it slightly more difficult to find a place with a car park but it is possible (our place does). You can also rent spaces from undergound parking lots close to apartment buildings, like the Farmer's car park on Hobson St...a few of those are rented out to tenants living in buildings around. They usually go from $40 to $50 a week.

We rent from an independent agent who has a portfolio of properties in the city, I can pass their details onto you if you like, and they advertise quite frequently on Trademe. He's an awesome guy and it's so much better to deal with these types of people than hopeless agents who just keep on fobbing you off or not returning your calls We live in a one bed right now and were looking to move to a 2 bed just before Christmas, but these are proving extremely popular in the city so decided to leave things as they are for now and start looking again after the rugby World Cup.

I guess the big draw card for us living around here is that we save a whole lot of $$ on petrol/car parking for work (I refuse to pay $10-13 a day to park in some places in town) and public transport.

Good luck with your search

Jen

davros1984

So... flights are booked (arrive June 1st), visa's are sorted and Laura has been offered a job at the North Shore Hospital. We have some temporary accommodation sorted down in Remuera.

So we'll be looking to live on the North Shore, I'll probably start a new thread asking for advice there unless anyone sees this and can comment!

Ideally we'd like to be somewhere near-ish to the beach and so that Laura can walk to the hospital. I will be looking for IT work, I'm guessing it will be either in Auckland city itself or somewhere like Rodney.

Advice/input apprecited!

Thanks,
David.