Geelong Gent

[1] What are the more decent areas to live in christchurch?

Budget $1.4m to $1.8m
- Land size required about 500 to 700 sqm
- Leafy quiet streets, close to CBD and girls schools
- Min 3 bed, 2 bath. but really prefer to build from scratch.
What buying costs should I be aware of ie stamp duty

Initial rental budget $700 to $1200 per week?
Again min 3 bed, 2 bath with parking for 2 vehicles & boat dependant on answers to questions [3]

[2] What are the better girls schools? Have been given St Margarets as possible school too view

[3] Are there any marinas? ie lytten?
Been over 20 years since I visited the south island.

[4] How far is it in driving time from Queenstown

[5] Has anyone brought across motor vehicles and boats from Oz? If so what was the experience and costs/processes associated?

Thanks in advance

shirl

With that amount of money there is only one place to be living and that is the hills darling!!

Well seriously where do I start. There are lots of lovely places, Sumner, Redcliffs, Mount Pleasant, Fendalton, the list is endless. Lyttleton is a harbour town, not sure about a Marina anywhere.

Not sure on the girls school, don't have kids at school here.

Driving time to Queenstown 6 hours in a fast car or 7 in a slow one. Or why not fly from chch about an hour or so.

You should be able to get a mega rental at those prices.

Good luck in your search.

P2L

Fendalton or Cashmere would be the obvious place to start

http://www.realestate.co.nz/resident...price=99000000

http://www.realestate.co.nz/resident...price=99000000

Geelong Gent

Thank you for replying and the useful links.

Geelong Gent

Thank you for replying, I will use these areas and those provided by the other poster.

I know the budget may seem above average and although I don't want to upset people or make people feel its blagging - I really just would appreciate on the ground knowledge (I trust EA as far as the rim of my glasses).

Reason for question about drive time is I have a big dislike for air travel - takes me a while to pscyhe myself up if you know what I mean.

thanks again

love30stm

Well with that budget you wont find it a struggle in New Zealand

Lucky bugger

shirl

No problem I understand where you are coming from. There is another girls school called Rangi Ruru and they do board if you wish them to.

http://www.rangiruru.school.nz/

This along with St Andrews and St Margarets are probably your best best. I asked my daughter who works for a school which in her opinion was the best school for educating young ladies and her reply was Rangi Ruru. Hope that helps somewhat.

Geelong Gent

Thanks for that Shirl. My wife was sent away to boarding school at a young age (13) and has definitely discounted boarding as an option.

Our daughter has mild autism so school selection also greatly depends on school size (in big schools she would get lost as a number) and class room sizes - her current class is 18. I also like the idea of being able to walk or use public transport to get them to and from school rather than the car - just another life experience to teach them.

Thanks again for the links will look into them.

cypherpunk

There used to be a marina of sorts at Lyttlelton but it was destroyed in a storm in 2000. There were attractive plans for a new one but the council is still farting around with it and nothing will be done for a few more years by the looks. Right now there's only a shonky boat ramp that people keep writing to the paper to complain about.

Geelong Gent

Whats wrong with the boat ramp? is it crowded? lack of parking for trailer units?

If there reasonable fishing grounds nearby? - We love fresh fish, and its a great family time out.

cypherpunk

As I recall there were a lot of complaints about congestion, and that it looked like a bomb site, and if there is much of a southerly blowing there's too much swell to get your boat out of the water. It has apparently been cleaned up by the council (only took them 7 years) but the problem with the swell will remain as there's still no breakwater.

Don't know much about the fishing except that Akaroa and thereabouts has a good reputation. It's a bit of a drive from Christchurch with a boat though. There is great river fishing in Canterbury of course.

Black Sheep

Besides those schools mentioned, there's also Christchurch Girl's High School - this is a 'state' school so you have to live in zone for your daughter to attend (there are a handful from out of zone who manage to get in, you could check their webiste for more information about that). I'ts certainly the most sought after state high school for girls.

There's also a well-regarded Catholic school, the name of which escapes me at the moment I'm afraid.

I believe St Margarets follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum. I've heard good things about this school, and when I phoned a while back to get more information about it, the person I spoke to was most helpful and friendly and informative, which impressed me (note: I'm not often impressed with anything/anyone to do with schools here in Chch, so that's saying something).

Rangi Ruru is perceived here to be THE best girl's high school (presumably academically).

A word of caution - people in Christchurch can have very different ideas to yours about what 'good school' means ! You need to investigate each school firsthand and very thoroughly if you want a good outcome for your daughter. Apparently a fair bit of snobbishness is not uncommon at some of these 'better' schools, I've heard a few stories about parents having to pull their daughters out of them as they felt out of place/unwelcome there, so it's worth trying to get as much information about this specific potential problem as possible.

You will have no problem at all with finding a house within walking distance of any of these schools with your budget. Fendalton, Merivale and Mona Vale are all considered 'top suburbs' .

Black Sheep

By the way, buying costs are minimal here.

As for finding land in the CBD - well, in the past year I've seen a couple of very good-looking land purchase opportunities for someone with your kind of budget, BUT... very rare those were, which was why I noticed them. 500 sm might come up, but anything larger than that? Not often. Unfortunately, when land does come up for sale, it's usually only after either a) someone has subdivided a section off of one the 'better' properties - which over time has really reduced the number of decent homes with reasonable-sized sections in the city (when you subdivide a 1000 sm section with a large house on it, you're left with a large character family house on a tiny section, and then usually an awful 'cookie'-cutter' blah townhouse in completely different and clashing style right behind it - SO ugly and no privacy) which is not a good thing for any city that wants to attract persons of higher income/wealth, especially those from overseas accustomed to a better standard of living, who are the much-needed types that can create new jobs and such or who would be assets to the community - top executives or doctors for instance; or b) even worse, have razed one of the lovely old character homes on a larger section just to make a few bucks by subdividing the land into as many little sections as possible. Christchurch was known as 'the English city' because of it's many fine British-inspired buildings/homes, which really gave it it's special character. The city council unfortunately has been ASTONISHINGLY lax in allowing developers who have no sense of historic importance or 'the greater good' to have their way (many buildings here that in other cities in the world would have been automatically 'listed' have no protection at all, and despite much protest from Chch citizenry about this situation has not improved at all in the 5 years I've been here. I see in the newspaper just this week that yet another fine historic building that amazingly has no protection order on it is in danger of being knocked down for the usual profit-making reasons. )

Geelong Gent

I understand what you are saying.

My preference is for victorian or edwardian but with modern ICF construction.

Here in Malvern, Melbourne std sections are between 500 - 800 sqm - that is deemed to be substantial in size - some are frightfully small ie 180 to 250 sqm and those are going for A$800k+. These sizes are not however the result of modern subdivision. They relate back to the 1800's (cart and horse).
Think 7 metre road frontages.

Friends of ours just bought a georgian house for A$6.8m and its only on 580 sqm.

TeamEmbo

There's nothing wrong with the boat ramp at Lyttelton! Plenty of parking, really wide ramp, good walkway/pontoon and toilets. Last time we went it was $2 (pay at barrier machine). It's not St Tropez but it seemed clean and tidy and heaps of parking. Lots of little bays to explore and drop anchor in and easy to get round to Taylors Mistake. Fishings good. Watch Quail Island! Low tide comes fast and very low!