darbydoo

Thanks for that, crazy price!. Perhaps it's not for us then

If anyone can recommend a good area for a young couple that's close to the city, but still affordable, that would be great. Does such a place exist?

Bo-Jangles

I don't know what jobs you do darbydoo but you said you would be working in the CBD 'most likely'. People all seem to imagine that they will be working in the CBD but most of the jobs are not in the centre and are spread around all over the place. I personally don't know anyone in my circle that actually has a job there and it is quite easy for us to avoid going 'into town' at all!!

I would seek out some areas you like the look of and see if there's potential for working closer to home - or perhaps look at living right in the city in apartment if that sort of thing floats your boat. If I were younger I think I would quite like to do that and not have the worry of house and garden to keep.

davros1984

Unfortunately, based on my experience (3 years in Auckland 2011-2014), such a place does not exist. Hence we had little choice but to leave. If you're willing to live around about an hour or so out of the city, you start to have options, but did you move to the other side of the world to have an hour-plus commute? Probably not..

If you can go elsewhere in NZ, that's a far better option for a young couple if you're trying to get on the first rung in the ladder.

The Weezer

Hi darbydoo, there are *possibly* a few options, but first I must ask you some questions, if you don't mind. What would you consider close to the city? Within a half hour's drive?

Also, what is affordable to you? Are you looking to rent a house or an apartment? I get the impression many of the apartments in the CBD, especially the newer ones, are tiny.

Shoebox apartments 'good' for Auckland | Stuff.co.nz

Are you looking to be within walking distance of restaurants, shops, and bars? Or would you be content to drive to these?

There is a rail line that runs roughly north-south, and west from the CBD. There are some less expensive suburbs near the rail stops. If you don't have children then you won't have to worry about school districts.

Last year you would've been able to buy a do up 3 bed house with a decent sized section for under 400K in the less desirable suburbs relatively near central Auckland, but I just looked on TradeMe and there are just a few of these left. There are also many more houses up for auction, as compared to just a few months ago. You know the prices are rising when the majority of houses go to auction. No matter what you decide, I would be hesitant about renting or buying anything described as a unit, unless it's in a upmarket suburb.

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darbydoo

Hey.

We are looking to rent. A small house ideally, but would also consider an apartment. 2 bedrooms would be good so that family can stay when they visit. It's just the two of us.

I've been looking online quite a bit over the weekend, and west auckland is looking quite nice for us - waitakere region (brother lives in te atatu south too, which is a plus).

Our budget is around $500 a week, and there seems to be quite a lot on trademe at the moment for that price, so looking quite good. it is of course difficult to judge the distance to the city with all the unknown town names. also hard to know whether an area is nice or not!

Yeah within half an hour I would say is reasonable. Would like to be within walking distance to some kind of nightlife but it's not essential. We just don't want a stupidly long commute to work each day.

my husband has a job with NZ bus (based near the viaduct), and just found out that both of us have free bus travel as a perk, yippee!! I will be looking for work in marketing when i arrive, which I assume is based in city, but really don't mind if it's not!

Obviously traffic will play a huge part, so is it just the rush hour that's bad or is it constant? what kind of times are best to avoid? husband wil be working shifts so could possibly avoid that, and I would like to find a flexible employer who allows a similar working practices (again if such a thing exists lol).

thanks for the advice!

darbydoo

PS our budget can be a bit more when we are settled and are more aware of our monthly outgoings etc - we are just being conservative to start with.

The Weezer

Have you asked your brother about which areas aren't too bad? I could be wrong, but I've had the impression Te Atatu has some rough areas, as does nearby Henderson. Have you been to visit?

Have a look at Google maps, and get driving directions from the places you think might be possibilities, to the viaduct. It'll give you a rough idea of driving times. I'm more familiar with the North-South axis so I can only give limited advice on this.

You can get an idea about how to get to and fro on public transport by using the trip planners on this website:

https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/

In my experience, with few exceptions, the bus routes don't cover many areas particularly well making it difficult to get from one place to another in a reasonable time. The exceptions being the North Shore south, and some southern routes serving the shopping mall at Manukau and connections north. It's possible the western routes are well served by the buses, but I would investigate this first.

darbydoo

Yeah my either doesn't know nuchc about the areas other than where he lives.

We visited him in April, but at that time he lived in the centre.

West auckland is a big development area at the moment in terms of public transport I hear, some good plans for the near future.

Thanks for the advice, I'm sure we will get a better feel for it once we are there and can look around

A Rush And A Push

Darbydoo I've been meaning to post all weekend, I reckon for $500 a week I can easily recommend a few areas that would be good and not too far from the city either (might be an apartment or a unit rather than a house though). It's just been a crazy busy weekend - I'll be back tomorrow with a longer post.

darbydoo

Ok thanks. Just noticed all the spelling errors in previous post - autocorrect fail!
What I meant to say was that my brother doesn't know much about the areas lol.

I was looking at apartments last night on trademe, there are some nice looking ones for within our budget

A Rush And A Push

Ok I have tried to do a message with links to some rental properties but my old tablet keeps crashing so I'll have to do without any links.

For $500 rental a week I think you'll be looking at a flat or unit close to the CBD or a unit or house further out.

Firstly, Auckland is big and spread out, we won't be able to tell you about every suburb but if you see a particular property just tell us where it is and we can give you our opinions.

You could live in a flat in the CBD - pros being you could walk to work and nightlife. The minuses are that CBD flats can be very small, it can be noisy, lack of green spaces etc - you're just living in a city centre.

The suburbs surrounding the CBD are all affluent and expensive to buy in. You could possibly get a flat in one of them, a few came up on my trade me search. Suburbs like Ponsonby, Freeman's bay, Herne bay, Grey Lynn, Parnell, Kingsland. Most of them are on the Link bus route which has buses every 5-10mins to town. 5-10mins drive to town in car, 10-15 mins on bus. Some decent shops, bars, cafés, restaurants, Ponsonby especially is quite popular for nightlife with 20/30 somethings.

Slightly further out , Point chevalier, Westmere, Western Springs, Remuera, Epsom, Meadowbank, Orakei, St Heliers, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, (last 3 with nice beaches) - also all nice areas, slightly longer to town. The further out you go the more you will get for your money. There are 3 bed houses in places like Lynfield, Hillsborough and Royal Oak for $500 a week. These are all perfectly ok areas but there's just not that much going on in them and you'd be looking at about a 40 min bus ride to town. The suburbs tend to get quite sprawling and not have that much going on there the further out you go. Pre-kids I preferred all those inner suburbs as there's just more going on there.

You could look at the North Shore, most of which is nice, traffic over the bridge is pretty awful, there is an express bus lane next to the motorway but buses still have to join the main motorway to get over the bridge. I would imagine even the closest North Shore suburbs would be 30 mins bus in the mornings and possibly longer. Good beaches up there though.

Once you go south or west there are some nice suburbs and some are a bit rough (te Atatu South is mainly ok I think), again you are getting quite far to commute in though obviously plenty do.

A Rush And A Push

To give you an idea

2 bed unit Mt Eden Mount Eden, 2 bedrooms, $500 pw | Trade Me Property

2 bed Grey Lynn Grey Lynn, 2 bedrooms, $500 pw | Trade Me Property

2 bed Orakei Orakei, 2 bedrooms, $500 pw | Trade Me Property

2 bed Kohi Kohimarama, 2 bedrooms, $495 pw | Trade Me Property

Whereas if you go further out you get a house (but with longer commute)
2 bed house Hillsborough Hillsborough, 2 bedrooms, $460 pw | Trade Me Property

By the way, there aren't many 2 bed houses around as the default for a freestanding house seems to be 3 bed. 2 beds are likely to be units or townhouses (I.e. Attached to other properties )

Justcol

How about the North shore ??
You can get a ferry to the CBD and its much nicer than other side of the harbour

Birkenhead, 2 bedrooms, $450 pw | Trade Me Property

Beach Haven, 3 bedrooms, $450 pw | Trade Me Property

bearskin

I would think that you could get an apartment in Albany for that money? There are a few nice looking places an easy walk over to the bars, cafes and cinema in the Westfield, and the Bus Station for transport into town (for work and evenings out). Something like The Ridge for example - Albany, 2 bedrooms, $410 pw | Trade Me Property

darbydoo

Thanks for the thorough information, it's much appreciated!

I guess we need to decide what's most important - location or size of property. Back home, we have a nice house, but quite far away from any kind of life - so perhaps it's worth us trying out the areas closer to the city to start off with and see how we get on for the first 6 months or so.

this is all getting very real!