Hazelnut

If you read my post you'd see I allocated FIVE to ten years to do the whole move over, gain experience and move back out again. I think that, if you want to do something, you need to be prepared to live somewhere you don't want to in order to eventually end up where you want to be with the experience you need. I know my first year, at least, will probably be in a drafty and cold house that's going to be a fraction the size of the one I live in now with a teeny tiny patch of grass for a whirligig rather than the current ten acres. I'll have to live in a city at first which I really don't like the idea of. However, the experience and knowledge I gain is going to be vital to longer term plans of moving outside the city environment and having a smallholding again. That's the price you have to pay for living in or near a major city.

I have never yet found anywhere on the globe where you can live in the country's major employment and business center AND have a large home within commute distance unless you're a millionaire. That's just life. If you want economic growth and development you have to accept that as a consequence, I often read posts on here and think that some NZ residents haven't quite caught up with that concept yet.

Where I live in the UK just now is also expensive compared to even ten years ago. More people means less housing available to each one and, therefore, prices go up. It's a fact of life associated with economic growth. NZ states it wasn't as badly affected by the recession as many EU countries and the price of that is the higher population and raised property prices.

I've lived (camped out) in a mouldy, tumbling down, almost derelict house with no heating and just one cold tap in the corner of a room. It was the only way we could get on the property ladder. MrH and I also rented a room in a shared house for years while we saved the deposit. My parents could buy a house for the equivalent of a years joint pay in the early 1970s. These days the same house would cost them 8 times their joint salary. There's no point moaning about it, we just got on with it.

I sold a house 22yrs ago to try and escape negative equity for around 2x my annual salary. It's now worth around 12x my annual salary. I think that's great for the people who bought it off me and helped me escape the situation. If I spent my time bitching and griping about that how could I enjoy what I have now?

LukeandJo

Certainly a vibrant and multi cultural place.
Always something new going on at the weekend.
Good job opportunities.

But yeah, housing is expensive and pricing alot of people out.
Then theres the actual quality of the housing - questionable.

Traffic is bad as well, all it takes is one accident and its gridlock.

If your young, free and single then renting in the CBD is probably the sweet spot.

bearskin

Agree with that summing up.

However, traffic was worse where we moved from - Bristol. I've seen the closure of one right turning lane in central Bristol result in queues of traffic back to the motorway. And neighbouring Bath was arguably worse than even that.

Damson

Bath, due to the eternal roadworks is an absolute nightmare; easily as bad as London at certain times of day.
Lovely post hazelnut and makes a lot of sense. Things aren't always perfect to start with and you just have to remember that whilst making plans for the next stage.