hunterwe

We (me, other half and our 3 year old daughter) have booked our flights and will arrive in Christchurch beginning of May 2017. We will obviously need to have some kind of short term accommodation whilst we find a long term rental. I guess we would be looking at 2 or 3 weeks.

What did everyone else do in this situation - any suggestions, tips or advice would be fabulous!!

Thanks Guys x

Pigdog

We stayed the first couple of nights at a Back Packers. We had arranged a rental when we were in the UK.

Have a look on

realestate.co.nz
trademe.co.nz

Good luck

hunterwe

Hi Pigdog...Thanks for your reply. You arranged a long term rental (well by long term I mean 6-12 months) without actually being in New Zealand??? I just assumed you would need to be there, I know when we rented in Australia we had to view the property first, they said it was the regulations but I guess it could have just been their agency policy.

Which agent did you use? x

Snap Shot

Rendezvous on Rattray is a self catering B&B on Rattray Street, Riccarton, Christchurch.

We stayed there five years ago and it was good.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/nz/ratt...ighlight_room=

It's not a good idea to rent somewhere sight unseen.

We stayed at the above place whilst house hunting. First Avenue Lettings was our letting agent for the place we rented in Linwood which is in the East of Christchurch.

hunterwe

Fantastic thanks snap shot x

Snap Shot

You're welcome.

The east of Christchurch suffered the most and the worst of the earthquake damage. A lot of people would turn their nose up at the East anyway just because it's, ahem, the more affordable part of Christchurch.

These days the competition for rental properties is pretty cut-throat I'm told. For example, a dozen or so people turning up to view the same rental property at the same time.

Of course, this has sent rents sky rocketing.

The (shocking) standard of NZ housing has to be seen to be believed. Please do yourselves one enormous favour and don't rent sight unseen. Even if you know someone who can give it the, 'once over' and is an, 'honest witness' they are still not YOU.

We lasted three and a half months in Christchurch before we bailed out to a small town on the North Island of NZ on account of my husband's job offer.

wakwak

Hi
Try Airbnb too, and bookabach, we have found somewhere for a month or so through here, furnished house, plenty of room and takes dogs
I daren't rent without seeing as we have the kids schools to consider, we don't want to find somewhere and then when we get there it not be where we want to be and have to up-sticks yet again
Good luck

Tom H

We booked into the Northlands motel on Main North Road for a week when we arrived in 2011. Back then it was $49 a night and really helped the day our jetlag kicked in

We managed to get a property within 3 days of arrival and that was when there were minimal properties available.

Not sure what it'll be like next year.

Pigdog

Our first rental was in Waikato, so the company would be no use to you but we signed a contract for 12 months and they agreed to take our dogs too.

I do agree with Snap Shot, you shouldn't rent unless you have seen the place, we learnt that lesson when we moved from the North to South Island.

wakwak

How many dogs do you have and did you have trouble finding a landlord who would take them?

hunterwe

Did you guys not like Christchurch? Did you travel with kids?

Pigdog

We bought two dogs over. Some Landlords said "no" even though the dogs are house trained.
The three rentals we lived in said "yes". Agreement was that if we were not at home, the dogs were left in the garage, we had to have the carpets professionally cleaned and the house sprayed when we left.

If you see a place advertised that states "no pets", its still worth asking. Some landlords will ask for a pet bond as extra insurance.

hunterwe

Thanks for the advice on not renting before seeing - you are very right, especially if the standards in NZ are not always great. x

wakwak

Yeah that's what we've been told too, just ask, bring references, offer a bond/insurance and cleaning> i've done a kind of cover letter/profile of us and the dogs and offered all that so fingers crossed we will find somewhere

We will register with a couple of agencies too

chc4me

The rental market in Christchurch has changed in the last 8-12 months. We are in the process of building a house so we sold our previous home and have been renting since Christmas. We have two small dogs and really had a hard time finding a place; ended up moving into a 1960 single story, weatherboard place with terrible heating. Wife absolutely hated it and we moved out 6 months later to a reasonably new (less than 5 years old) place in Wigram, close to where we are building. In the space of six months, the rental market went from "You have pets... No thanks" to "Oh yes - please come and see the place!" And the rental price was very similar. I'd say rental prices have actually come down from 12 months ago.

Around us, I've seen quite a number of For Rent signs appear so there appears to be more availability now.

If you need help or advice in Christchurch, let me know.