gerard_navickas

I will be moving to Christchurch in 6 to 8 weeks hopefully. Can anyone recommend a decent area to move my family to? The kids are 14 and 11 (2 boys) and we're looking for a more modern house/apartment/town house to rent. I know the rents on properties are higher than they normally would be so any recommendations would be brilliant, thanks

Persephone

Hello and welcome to BE,
Good luck with the move!

As for good areas, it depends on what you want. Rural or city? Price range etc. We chose our house based on proximity for work for both of us, neither of us
like commuting so we ended up with a compromise which worked for us.

Let us know a bit more and we can recommend areas, also do a search on here as it's a question that comes up often.

Towns outside Chch like Rolleston nearly seduced us with their bigger gardens and houses but we realised we wanted to be within the city!
Our house is in a 8yo subdivision off Hei Hei, we like it there, close to shops but the edge of Chch is at the end of our street so we have rural as well.Other areas we'd consider: Avonhead, Halswell, St Albans, Merivale. Fendalton might be a bit pricey.Most areas west of the centre basically, though don't discount places like Parklands or Sumner. It will be easier to judge what you want when you're here

gerard_navickas

thanks for such a quick response...we haven't really decided on rural or not we're just thinking price range really. We don't really want to be paying any more than 400 NZD per week maximum and a 2 or 3 bedroom property is what we would be looking for close enough to schools and shops. Am I right in assuming that property closer to the city is more expensive? Are routes into the CBD really congested of a morning? Is the construction work mainly on the CBD or equally shared with residential building projects? I have an awful lot of questions to ask on here

TheCockneyKiwi

Gerard

We arrived on Monday (2 kids. 4 and 2) and I have to say that you will really struggle to find anything decent at that range. I would say that $500 would be the minimum and even then you will struggle.

If you like "out of town" modern developments, there are plenty of these. These tend to be on the outskirts (Halswell) or in commutable areas in places like Rangiora or Pegasus.

So far, we really like:

Sumner (also called Pomner!)
Beckenham
St Martins
Cashmere

What I would say, is that there are probably more areas that you would live in rather than 100% wouldn't . Brighton and the surrounding suburbs so far seems to be the only ones for us. These remind me of Southend / Blackpool and other UK seaside towns.

Good Luck!

davros1984

It's interesting how we all hope to find what you say above. I hope you do, its never as easy as people think, but if you work at it, I think you can achieve it wherever you are in the world (unless the system is plain ridiculous).

We are going back for similar reasons:
a) Quality of Life (its completely subjective).
Here in NZ, I work more that I did in the UK, I have less holiday, I find there's less to do in my time off and the cost of living is quite a bit higher.
b) Cost of Housing - its extortionate where we are. Kent, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Westcountry all appear very cheap in comparison. The flat 20% deposit rule that came in on Oct 1st 2013 didn't help young families/first time buyers either.

Our concerns with moving back are:
a) Multiculturalism/Immigration - I am worried it will be quite a shock to the system (we want to feel as though we are back in our own land again). So we want to live somewhere that has a very traditional English feel to it.
b) The Rain
c) Population as a whole - again, will try to pick less busy areas, i.e. avoid the South East.

I know you're leaving, but out of interest, what would you say are nice areas/villages/towns in the Derbyshire Dales?

Stormer999

Try Hayfield the cheaper semi's start at about £270k Nice little village but busy in summer. ($NZ 535k)

BEVS

Can you give some links for these rentals please ?

Hidden gems and all that are worth their weight in gold.

Stormer999

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...ouses&index=30

Lovely little village been camping/walking there many times

Stormer999

Don't you go getting home sick again....

Stormer999

Hayfield has a pretty little cricket green....good pubs.....good chippy....easy access to Kinder Scout and good open country walking. Shame about all the Hoo Ray Henry's shooting grouse...but you can ignore them!

davros1984

Thanks Stormer.

Sorry to hijack this thread, I will try to keep any further posts on this thread to a minimum unless directly relevant to the topic.

I have been looking at Ashbourne, Bakewell, Buxton and areas within 3 miles of those places. I am seeing some amazing houses in the 200-250K region (some under 200K GBP) and I am staggered at what you get. Ashbourne and Bakewell look like lovely areas. Would anyone concur?

Here are some houses:
1) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...?premiumA=true
2) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...-39077050.html
3) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...?premiumA=true
4) http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...-37675174.html

Stormer999

First thoughts.....
No1 new build small rooms
No 2 Attic conversion noise from next door concerns
No 3 Nice ... but needs "cosmetic" work my choice...renovate and sell.
No 4 Ex council house Area?

Pom_Chch

Hi Davros,

Not enough land for me and no mountains to go skiing on me doorstep But if land isn't a high priority then all of them would be good apart from number three, which would need a lot of work and seeing as the price is higher to start with I'm not sure I would go for it. But as Stormer said if you have the money do it up and sell it on.

Seems promising for your move back

davros1984

I think that's being picky! Most of those houses are of superior build quality to the vast majority of open homes I have been to in NZ. In our current house, the whole house shakes when the washing machine is on. I didn't think rooms in 1 were small, agree with you on no.2. I'd choose out of 1, 3 and 4. Ex-council house area doesn't bother me, especially after living here in Beach Haven. I like those style of houses as well (no.4)

Pom-Chch - Thanks. But plenty of big hills about (maybe not mountains for skiing), i.e. Peak District within a few miles! You can see one from one of the views. As for land, where I am now, the land you get with most of those properties is a lot more land than I'd get for similar prices here (and at least another half of the money again).

Pom_Chch

Yes, that view is very nice!

Eek, Auckland sounds expensive. I guess Cantabs is more suited to my farmer tendencies being from Somerset! Seems to be the norm down here especially outside of Chch - decent chunk of land. What with hopefully getting a dog and growing lots of produce it will be good to have a decent garden (plus room for the outside bar ).

How are properties (in general, not just the links) for storage where you are looking Davros? With us having a lot of stuff - bikes, kayaks, BBQ, scuba gear, sports gear etc and a place to put the car we would need a decent amount of storage in the form of a garage (nervous about sheds due to security.)