Flatcap

Hi Everyone,

Ive been doing lotsa thinking this week (the Hubby's away and the daughter has Finally started school !). I'm looking into new business ideas, which focus on helping new immigrants find good quality short-term accomodation once they arrive.

I know from our own experience that we couldn't ship our furniture until we had our work permits, but were straight on the phone to Crown to put our stuff on the water within minutes of getting them. We'd been quoted a transit time of 8-10 weeks, so planned to give it a six week head start, and rent a furnished apartment for the first week after we arrived to give us time to find an un-furnished house to rent.

'Good planning' I hear you say..... well we thought so too. We found a great house on the North Shore, bought blow-ups beds, three plates, three cups, etc (get the picture ) and sat there smugly, waiting for the container to arrive.

We waited... and we waited...and we waited
Outside it rained, and it rained, and it rained
We tried keeping a brave face, but fought every night over the one chair that we'd begrudgingly bought to tide us over.

As we sat in our cold empty house with the wind howling and the rain lashing down outside, little did we know that our container had missed two connections on way. It eventually arrived 13 weeks after leaving Liverpool Seven weeks on blow-up beds is not something I'll be in a hurry to repeat, I can tell you.

Having reflected upon everything since we've been all nice and comfy again, I'd like to ask everyone how they did it and whether they found it difficult finding decent furnished accomodation from the UK . Also, as hindsight is such a wonderful thing -if you did it all again, would you rent unfurnished and hire furniture until your stuff arrived (if it were reasonably priced), or prefer to look for short-term furnished/holiday accomodation?

All comments gratefully received to make the first few weeks of their new lives in NZ so much easier for all those lovely new Kiwis who follow on behind us
(sorry, that was a verra long post, might just have to go and have a glass of something cold and white now.... )

shirl

It is so hard to find decent furnished accommodation. We are going into a furnished place due to work commitments with OH job being 2 hours away in Timaru from Rangiora where we live in our own home. We were lucky in that we had rellies to stay with here before we found somewhere. Let me tell you the house we just rented was the pitts. Filthy dirty, shower that dribbled out. Musty damp smell and no so good beds either. Dread to think what was in those mattresses I am going to stay with my sister next week as we cannot get into the NICE RENTAL for another week. We were lucky that someone with a lovely home decided to rent it all out so they can go travelling for 12 months so I guess unless you can find nice clean accommodation to your own standard of cleanliness then maybe motel rooms would be the best way to go. We were quoted $75 per night for a motel room with kitchen facilities 2 bedrooms and lounge with sky so that is not bad for long term but we preferred to try for house as it is long term for us and not just a couple months/weeks while furniture arrives. Hope that is of some help. Anyone want our house while we are away Only joking we are home at weekends!

Stoof

we arrived here in winter, which i think was a bonus really for finding short term fully furnished accomm... we got 10 weeks in a holiday home at a good price, included all the bills etc, and we were able to get internet and phone connected without any probs... not such an easy task though if you arrive peak hol times....

zoglet

I know we were surprised how hard it was to find short term (6 month) fully furnished rentals here in NZ. The rental market seems made up of either holiday homes, exec apartments or pretty horrible houses.

Having moved to the Kapiti coast we eventually found a place that was the best of all worlds and are happy here (so much so we have now stayed beyond our 6 month intention). We were also fortunate that the 3 days after we moved in, our stuff from the UK was delivered (but not furniture).

I don't think we would do anything different because we didn't really have a choice. When you move to a new country there are just too many unknown factors. IMHO your home is important as it is your retreat from the new world- the more comfortable you feel in it, the better your NZ introduction is likely to be, cos there going to be times when you need a comfortable retreat.

Arriving in winter is definitely a bonus- but beware of cold houses!

Hope this helps!

Flatcap

Hi Shirl, Stoof and Zoglet,
Sounds like you three were the lucky ones finding something decent!
I s'pose arriving in winter does has it's advantages -there's a lot more choice and the rates are so much cheaper.

I'm still keen to find out though whether (given the usual lack of decent furnished places available), how many new emigrees would consider renting somewhere un-furnished in their ideal location, then hiring in the basics ure (including furniture, linen, towels, crockery etc) to tide them over till their own stuff arrives. Also, how much they think would be reasonable to pay.

Looking round, most companies charge nearly $500 a week for the essentials , which I think's extortionate. I'd be looking to rent out packs for a month at that price.

Would there be any takers out there for this idea, or would you still go for holiday accomodation?

shirl

My daughter has a box of what she calls " immigrants stuff" full of china, cups, and such like that she loans people if she knows they are new to the country and waiting on stuff. I think it would be a good idea to have a warehouse full of preloved good furniture to hire out at a really reasonable rate. I am sure there would be some grateful people around if there was a place like that.

whitesand

I don't really see what the problem is with renting when you get here. It's not that difficult. Kiwis do it all the time! With a little planning and knowledge of the area you wish to live in you can easily find a rental yourself. Most rentals which are arranged from overseas tend to be much mores expensive than what you'd pay if you had waited until you sorted things out for yourself. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for accommodation for a few weeks. Get into some holidays parks where there are furnished rooms and good facilities and you'll also begin to get to meet the locals. Too many Brits over-plan before they get here or rush into things without knowing the areas and then regret their decisions. Also, you've come on a journey to the other side of the world - so living without a few of your possessions for a couple of weeks won't kill you!

Flatcap

No but having somewhere that feels like home, rather than a motel or holiday park does help you feel settled alot quicker. Emigrating is a huge life change - especially for families with children, so forward planning to find somewhere decent to live before flying out is a priority for most, if not for you.

My thread wasn't actually about finding rental accomodation for people, it was asking whether, given the choice - folk would prefer to rent un-furnished and hire furniture in until their stuff arrived, or find a place that's already furnished. I didn't imply that I'd be doing the finding for them.

Could it be that you've been here so long, that you've forgotten the trauma of the first few weeks after arrival.

mudblood21

I am facing the trauma now, flatcap. I don't know what will be best and I am all ears!

zoglet

If you can go unfurnished, you will definitely have more choice.


As for renting furniture, its a good idea although I am pretty sure there is a company that does this already.

Not sure I would do it myself as I don't like the idea of yet more deposits and paper work- but that is just me. No doubt for some people, it will present the ideal solution.

Flatcap

Hi Mudblood,

You'll be currently experiencing what I'm talking about then
What a dilemma eh!
What to do for the best it fair does your head in trying to think everything through doesn't it.

Where's your family heading for???

whitesand

Flatcap, where's the trauma in moving around? Frustrating, irritating at times, but definitely no trauma for us as we've moved around several countries over the years.

You say you were sitting in your 'cold empty house' until your furniture arrived. Why? You presumably rented an unfurnished place, but it would have had carpets, curtains and fitted kitchen with cooker, and heating perhaps. Therefore, you had the basics to work with. You could have gone down to the Warehouse (a mile from Castor Bay) and bought a plastic table and chairs for the garden, which you could have used as a dining table, computer table and the chairs for side tables. You could also have bought cardboard boxes and used them for side tables. All this costing only a few dollars. You could have gone to the Op Shops and bought, for a few cents, china cups, plates and cutlery and some bedside lamps for a few dollars. Even a flower vase which you could have used for fresh flowers to decorate the house and make it more like home.

Perhaps even bought cheap foam matresses which could have been used again later. You could also have bought electric radiators which you would need to buy eventually anyway, if the house wasn't heated.

All the above are not expensive and there are loads of cheap dollar shops around the North Shore and most places in NZ.

There was no need to live in a cold, empty house. Oh, and I forgot to mention the Garage Sales every Saturday where you can buy almost anything cheaply.

As I said, no trauma, only a sense of adventure looking at what is available out there.

mudblood21

Auckland (she said, still awaiting written confirmation of the verbal job offer!)- so Auckland, probably!

we found a nice little furnished flat in bookabach - not that much more expensive than an unfurnished house so we will probably just stay there for two or three weeks while we look for a long term unfurnished rental.

we may do the orange box thing for a week or two, and then hopefully the container will show up !

thanks!

Flatcap

We obviously live in a different worlds Whitesand.

When you think your furniture is only going to be another couple of weeks behind you, you don't really want to waste yet more money on crappy plastic furniture, that you'll never use again, and garage sales are also something you only cotton onto after you've been here a few weeks (whether you choose go to them or not).

I'm sure there's plenty of families out there who also wouldn't be happy living in a house with cardboard tables and junk shop lamps - short term or not.
It's a good thing then that we're all different eh?

whitesand

'Crappy plastic furniture' - how patronising. You really should read what is actually written and not what you want to see.. Those garden sets are probably in most folks gardens over here. Where did I say to use cardboard boxes for tables? The Op Shops do have some good lamps and if yhou were that inconvenieced in your cold empty house, then they might have been of use.

You see, that's the thing that I have learned by moving somewhere like NZ. It's not the UK, and folks are quite innovative over here and can adapt to circumstances. Perhaps you need to recognise this. And, when you ask for suggestions from others you should be big enough to take their replies, otherwise don't ask!