capri

Hi there,
My husband and I are planning to emigrate to Auckland in the coming months. I am just waiting for my partner residency visa to come through. We are excited but at the same time totally anxious. We haven't found a home yet and intend to rent when we get to Auckland. I would really appreciate all advice and tips from folks like you who have been there and done it!

Firstly, we want to ship some personal effects off but since we don't have a home address yet, can anyone recommend good and reasonably-priced storage companies who can offer us short-term storage space? I read somewhere that there are companies in NZ who charge $$$ by the hour if you go to the facility to take out some of your items. We definitely don't want these. We want places where they are flexible and offer after-office hours/weekend opening times.

Secondly, any recommendations on good and safe neighbourhoods near Auckland city to rent? We don't have children and just want a 1-bedroom rental place till we settle in and scout for a permanent home. We plan to look for work in the city so somewhere near the city or easily accessible by public transport would be ideal.

Appreciate any offer of tips and advice.

Nerine

There are plenty of secure self-storage parks dotted around the place, I can think of at least two in Wairau park.

They are usually open quite early and close at around 8pm. You pay a $50 deposit, get given a pin number which opens the gate and deactivates the alarm on the unit, slap your own padlock on your door and away you go. It's possible to rent something for as little as $125 a month, you may even find it useful to keep it on for a while afterwards.

capri

Thanks Nerine for your reply.

Do you know if these 2 companies in Wairau park would accept our boxes on our behalf and store for us first as at this point in time, we still don't know when exactly we would arrive in Auckland?

Or do you have the company names? I will get in touch with them and ask.

Thanks!

TIE

Hi capri

Cant help you on the storage other than to say that our removals company charged us about NZ$220 a month to store all of our stuff in Auckland (a 20ft container worth)

I terms of places to look at renting a small appartment close to the city I would offer the following thoughts:

1. Devonport
Its just over the water from the city centre by ferry (10 mins journey every half-hour). Its a lovely old naval town, nice shops & pubs/restaurants in Devonport itself. You can get to & from the city (CBD) without using a car - useful if you want to see the Auckland Viaduct/harbour nightlife (ferry's run till midnight) (1am on weekends) (& no worries about parking/taxis/dial-a-driver etc). Renting isnt too pricy although property prices are. (odd???) Some friends of ours rented a nice appt in Devonport when they arrived but bought elsewhere because of prices. Its got a very good feel and is a good place to start your Auckland experience. We started there & ended up buying but that was a while ago b4 the prices went crazy. Its also pretty secure/safe.

Devonport can have probs with driving in & out at peak traffic times tho...

2. Auckland CBD/Viaduct
There are LOTS of appartments which have been built in the Auckland CBD (Central Business District) over the past 5 years many of which are reportedly battling to find tennants so you may be able to reach a good deal if you bargain hard (and don’t be shy about haggling – there may be some landlords/estate agents who could try to start at the top of the price range if they hear a non-NZ accent!! Surely NOT!!!). Try the Waterfront and Viaduct areas as these are close the better nightlife. You are of course then slap bang in the city centre so traffic for visiting suburbs etc could be an issue

3. Parnell to Newmarket
Panell is quite 'chic' & a favourite with the people from the advertising world (if you get my drift!). Plenty of chi-chi restaurants & bars but I would imagine places to rent could be pricey. Transport could be a challenge if you want to get around town as its not close to the main motorways. There is a Link Bus which runs every 15 mins or so in a long loop between Newmarket/Parnell/ the CBD and part of Ponsonby)

Newmarket has lots of shops and is a white-collar business centre.

4. Ponsonby
Used to be the restaurant/nightlife mecca about 10 years ago before the Viaduct rose from the sludge. Nice if a little faded and better for transport (routes on/to motorways & other parts of town) than Parnell


Given what you are looking for I wouldn’t start too far away from the centre, although you may want to make a point of looking at life on the “outskirts” e.g. Albany to the north, Beachlands to the further east, Titirangi & the Waitakere hills to the west.

For some more info on the above suburbs go to www.auckland-suburb-guide.co.nz it has a list of all the suburbs in Auckland (200 or so) including the ones mentioned and links to the Wiki descriptions on them.

There are a couple of books you can look at which give guidance on suburbs. The Insuburbia Migrants Guide to Auckland Suburbs is largely based on maps which show the good & bad parts of town, which areas are popular with people from various income levels, occupations, good/bad suburbs, transport etc. Where to Live in Auckland gives descriptions & profiles of about 50 neighbourhoods, & guidance on property prices.

A couple of things to remember – you may well end up living fairly close to wherever you start off just because it will be easier to look around the parts of Auckland closest to where you are. For a small city of 1.2m people it is very spread out and the fact that it’s spread across various land isthmuses (hope I have the right no of th's and ss's there!) with lots of waterline, the shortest distance between two points may not be a straight line by any means!!!

When I first moved over, I was very pleased to be in a nice part of town – every time I looked out at the view of the Sky Tower or harbour I was reminded that yes, I was in Auckland, and didn’t it look great…

There aren’t a lot of apartments in Auckland as a proportion of total housing (blame the quarter-acre paradise dream!) and these tend to be concentrated in the centres like the CBD & Newmarket. Appartments are called Units in kiwispeak. Be aware that a lot of the ones in the city are TINY and aimed at the Asian language- & university-student market, & seem built to “cram ‘em in”. Others aim for the "top-end professionals" with prices to match - although many of the latter choose to live out of the CBD in nice houses, so there are more appts than tennants. Again, Haggle!!

I would suggest being very careful before buying an appartment in Auckland until you have researched the points I've made above....price crash is predicted for this part of the housing market....

When looking at places longer term, you should give PLENTY of consideration to the drive to work. Small city – BIG traffic problems as there aren’t enough motorway/dual carriageways for the traffic and they all funnel into a single point (spaghetti junction). Auckland is looking at congestion charging a la London but this will probably take a few years for any agreement to be reached.

In terms of transport when you arrive, be aware that public transport is very limited and aimed at peak hour journey to work/university travel. Exceptions being the Link Bus & Devonport Ferry which run pretty much continuously. Car hire (or the purchase of a runabout) could become a priority pretty soon. See other posts in this forum re Turners car Auctions/ Ellerslie racecourse markets.

I would advise taking your time before buying & get to know more about Auckland and its areas.

Good luck

Nerine

Try these:

http://www.wairaustorage.co.nz/

http://www.nationalministorage.co.nz/

http://www.storageking.co.nz/

We used the first one and had no hassles whatsoever, not sure if they'll accept things on your behalf but it's worth asking - they're very nice there.

capri

Thanks Tie and Nerine for your replies! Really appreciate it.

Nerine, I will go look up those companies.

Tie, I didn't know abt the public transport. Useful info.

We definitely want to start by living close to the centre, and yep, have read abt the soaring house prices. We are giving ourselves several months to settle in, get a job, etc.... and definitely won't be buying a house so soon. There's so much to think about and to do once we get there.

Thanks again for your thoughts.