Spats

Hi,

Myself and my partner are moving to Wellington in Feb. 2007 to pursue are careers in Fitness and Youth work respectively

At this stage we have gathered alot of information from the usual sources but were wondering if any of you kind folk could lend us some advice on the following:

Suburbs - we want to live fairly central, what areas, suburbs are recommended? (or to be avoided!)

Renting - did you find it fairly easy to get rental accommodation when you first arrived? Are local newspapers the best sources ?

Im sure Ill be asking lots more but for now, thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any replies!!

Spats. :

Liz & Co

Although we are not planning to stay in Wellington, I will be there for about 3 months from the middle of September, until my husband arrives - I'll let you know!

Liz & Co

StevieB

Hi Spats, welcome.

There are a lot of people on this forum who are moving to or have moved to Wellington, it seems to be the place to go - not like Hamilton where I will be one of the population of 12 apparently!

People of a like situation to you will be answering your query v. soon, in particular look out for Dannyf., bit of a legend on this site and quite informative in his more lucid moments!! His BH Donna also is a mine of info. If they don't know it, they know who does! They're going to Wellington.

In the mean time here's a couple of sites I've used for property. Hope they help and good luck.

http://www.open2view.com

http://www.propertystuff.co.nz/ffdc...Form=1&region=2
select your area & underneath the properties you'll find a suburb profile button , just to give you a rough idea of the areas you may be interested in.

newkiwi

Wellington is not that big, so you can get nice places quite central....around thorndon is great, but can be expensive
newtown, island bay, te aro, around cuba street.....there are lots of nice areas. the apartments right int he cbd may not have parking though, so that can be an issue.

The questionalble suburbs are all further out, towards the hutt.

the local paper is the best source for info on finding flats, but you can get some idea on realenz.co.nz
we found a place in one day....it was a saturday so quite easy, it does depend on the time of the year though, feb is probably one of the harder times because you are competing with students returning to uni.

hope your move goes smoothly......

danny.f

Hi Spats and welcome,

We're hoping to be out in November so will have more info then but to date cottageinthesky has given us a lot of help, she is a real estate agent in Wellington, you could send her a PM. Also Sophie_Wellington is due out to Welly next month and has put together loads of info you can download from her thread "Info sharing & a couple of questions". Re areas we went out in October and really liked the look of Lyall Bay, Roseneath, Oriental Bay also we have heard good reports about Vogeltown, Houghton Bay,Kilbirnie, Berhampore and Melrose. We found Newtown a bit run down nearer the city (but only passed through so could have got the wrong impression). If you go onto wellingtonmap.co.nz you can print of a map of the centre with the names of the suburbs to get an idea where they are in relation to the city centre.
Good luck,
Donna

ps StevieB - when is Danny lucid - musthave missed that moment

theguitardoctor

Hi there,

I lived in CBD at first, dropped on at $1200 a month fully furnished inc Sky and rates, plus evrything on doorstep. Parking was about $7 a day, but may be more now. I lived on Boulcott St right across from a multi storey, so that was easy for getting to the car, (note, they shut the multi storeys for the weekend, or they did that one, so we had to wait for a guy on contract parking to open the shutter for us....nice guy thankfully), but the cost soon mounted, so I moved to Lyall Bay for a few months back in 03/04, and paid $1200 a month unfurnished, but more space, which is about the going rate (or was). Further out in Paekakariki, Pukerua Bay, & Para / Para beach is cheaper / more for your money, but it's 45 mins into Welly central, though better for exploring North. Thorndon was very expensive when I was there as it's right on top of the city. Hataitai, Kilbirnie, Lyall Bay, Island Bay, Bay ends of Newtown, Miramar (good spot to buy a car on Sundays as they all line up nex to the harbour with prices and tel no's) Seatoun (pricey and a bit bland for my taste), Melrose etc are all good for the airport though. Either way in rush hour from these you are looking at going through the tunnel or around Oriental bay / around Island bay and in through Thorndon, which is very busy at rush hour, so you don't make that much time over Pukerua etc.

Johnsonville was a nice compromise...had a few stores like warehouse etc, as was Khandallah and Tawa (shopping mall/retail outlet, but v.small compared to UK's) as these were easier to get to CBD from.

Wainuiomata and the suburbs out that way (Petone...easier, Eastbourne...harder etc) are all a pain in the butt to get from....they look close to Welly, but are quite a drive in as you have to go all around the coastline of the harbour, so it can take an hour, all the time you can see the CBD, so it feels like you are never getting closer !!

The only place to really avoid is Porirua....the Hutt city area is fine. Porirua has a large Mongrel Mob contingency, so you may feel intimidated, although if you keep your business out of their business, you won't go far wrong. Imagine Hells Angels without the bikes and you'll get the jist. Porirua is good for shopping.

The New Zealand Herald (check out on the web) is the best bet for rentals, though walking in to some of the real estate places will yield a few results, and as a bonus, they'll drive you to each for a viewing.

All the places mentioned North of the city are easy to get to on train as they have direct lines.....

Good luck, hope to be back there next year myself.....Rich

rugbymatt

Watch the Hurricanes play. One of the greatest rugby teams in the world, if thats what your into. no other advice I'm afraid. sorry

beaches

Agree with a lot of the above. Johnsonville and surrounding areas, out to Tawa are pretty good places. Still quite 'reasonable' house prices (compared to lots of the other suburbs) and excellent public transport. Look at Paparangi, Newlands, Churton Park, Glenville and Grenada Village (not Grenada North)

If you're going to look at the Hutt Valley, look more in the Lower Hutt area, as Upper Hutt can be a bit questionable in places. Petone is very up and coming at the moment.

Please, please don't go to Wanuiomata. It's the town that time forgot!! Very cheap houses over there, but very easy to see why!

Whitby is nice, not too far out and right near a lovely beach. I don't know what the town facilities are like there though.

Some of the towns in the Wairarapa are lovely, (Masterton, Carterton) with big houses for great prices, but it's a 50-60 minute train ride into the city, so if you're coming here to get away from communting, these won't be your bag.

Winnie

Hi Spats and welcome
I think Rich has pretty uch given you al the info you need but thought I'd add my personal experiences.
We moved here just before the new year with 2 weeks booked into a motel. It wasn't a good time to look for rentals as most places were shut down for the xmas holidays! However, we found some rentals in the local paper, but you have to be quick to catch the best ones, they go really quick. I think they're advertised on a wednesday. Fortunately we found an estate agents that helped us. We settled for a house in Tawa as it was central to our needs, I had a job in Porirua and my OH was looking in the city for work. Tawa's a great community, there's a great little shopping centre for all your essential needs including a butchers, greengrocers, supermarket, hairdressers, beauty salon and library. Its a 10 minute drive to Porirua City which is handy for bigger shops and supermarkets, and about 15/20 minutes drive to the city. There's also a train station in which a journey takes 15 minutes (and the trains are reliable!). We also found it easy to drive to the beaches from here. The only downside to Tawa is that some of the houses can get cold and damp in the winter, but we were fortunate enough to find one which wasn't.
We've now decided to buy and are going further up the coast to Paraparaumu as the price of houses are cheaper and the weather better........it tends to be a couple of degrees warmer and doesn't get the wind like in Welly. My OH will have to drive for about an hour to get to work, but he was used to that in the UK, and the views are magnificant, unlike the M62!
I hope this helps. Good luck on your move.

Boopy

The only place to really avoid is Porirua....the Hutt city area is fine. Porirua has a large Mongrel Mob contingency, so you may feel intimidated, although if you keep your business out of their business, you won't go far wrong. Imagine Hells Angels without the bikes and you'll get the jist. Porirua is good for shopping.


There's good and bad places everywhere, the worst places in Porirua are nowhere near as bad as the horrible places in our cities back in UK. We live in Porirua city - it covers a very large area. We love it here, since moving out of CBD, apart from work, I've never felt the need to go into Wellington. Never seen any mongrel mob, if I have they don't look any different to anyone else. Nice shopping area, got just about everything you want. Everybody helpful and friendly. If you look at statistics from crime (burglaries, car thefts) it is lot higher in Wellington than in Porirua.

Spats

Many Thanks Liz - all the best for your short stay in a great city!

cottageinthesky

"Go the 'Canes" is the Wellington version Can't wait for the start of Super 14 - Wellington is having a very up-and-down time in the Air NZ Cup!! Do you get to see the Cup games on Sky in the UK?

cottageinthesky

It's a good idea to rent before you buy and the choice of suburb will most probably be dictated by your budget - will PM you. However, you have made the most important choice - to come to Wellington - I haven't seen anywhere else in North or South Island where I would rather live!

theguitardoctor

There's good and bad places everywhere, the worst places in Porirua are nowhere near as bad as the horrible places in our cities back in UK. We live in Porirua city - it covers a very large area. We love it here, since moving out of CBD, apart from work, I've never felt the need to go into Wellington. Never seen any mongrel mob, if I have they don't look any different to anyone else. Nice shopping area, got just about everything you want. Everybody helpful and friendly. If you look at statistics from crime (burglaries, car thefts) it is lot higher in Wellington than in Porirua.[/QUOTE]

Agreed.......my point was that they won't bother you if you don't bother them. All I meant was that there is a large population of the MM in Porirua. They only really come out in force wearing colours when there's a gathering of some sorts. They don't go out to cause trouble, much the same as the Angels, but as they have a monopoly on the place (i.e no Black Power members in Porirua), then you will find trouble is at a minimum. Most of the members are family men etc, as are the Angels, and absolutely fine to be around unless you start falling out with them. It's only when rival gangs start trying to take over that there's any kind of elevation in unrest. I personally loved Porirua for shopping, as it has a good shopping centre and retail park, and the MM wouldn't prevent me from living there, but for some people this kind of thing stops them settling, so it was more of an informatary point rather than scaremongering...apologies if it came across that way.

Spats

Am more of a Waratahs man myself after my time in Sydney, but certainly up to opening my mind!!