Moses2013

Timing is essential and it seems to be extremely difficult these days. I see a lot of similarities here in Ireland and the whole attraction of moving to NZ, Canada or Ireland from the UK used to also be cheap housing. I remember visiting family in the 90's and you could buy a lakeside property for next to nothing. The big downside with the internet is that nothing goes unnoticed these days and bargains no longer exist. Another issue with NZ and Ireland is that they are slowly catching up and building better roads, so the empty beach is no longer that empty.

BEVS

Not round here , they are not. The roading is the pits.

Bo-Jangles

Slowly?

They barely maintain the existing roads and deliberate for years and years about improving the 'roads of national significance' far less upgrading any of the minor, more rural roads. Transmission Gully is rumoured to be opening 'soon'; it has been about 25 years in the making and the five previous deadlines have been missed. The so-called 'Holiday Highway' from Puhoi to Warkworth (approx 18km of road) has been on and off so many times and has been talked about since at least 2009 and finally given the go ahead in 2014 - it is rumoured to be opening in May 2022.

Population has grown by about 1m over the past ten years but roading and other infrastructure has not kept pace or improved any.

Moses2013

Well I can't comment on that anymore, I thought they were also building more dual carriageways in NZ or at least considering it. Here in the West of Ireland we only got connected to the capital in 2009 and roads seem a lot worse than NZ, or at least that is what you still hear. But that is exactly what I also liked and it meant fewer people. Unfortunately development is not always a good thing and the best example would be the lakes.
This is one of my favorite lake drives (street view) and because it's hard to get there from the larger towns, you can avoid the crowds. As soon as they would extend the dual carriageway it would be a complete different story. No motorboats, no waterparks, just peace :-)

Justcol

Living rurally I don't have any real issues with the roads. Those I use regularly (Otago, southland) are all in good nick. They are 99% single carriageway and fairly well maintained. More passing lanes and some decent warning signs when they are being re sealed would be nice. It's not nice when barreling into a corner on a motorbike, to then find the exit is covered in loose stone chips. It causes far to many squeaky bum moments for my liking. 🏍️ 😱 💩

BEVS

We do have a little bit of dual carriageway hereabouts. Problemo being that folks seem to be intent on creaming themselves on the thing with monotonous regularity. They think it is some sort of drag track. 3 killed in the past 7 days. I call it the death highway and I am not the only one.

Mostly it is single lane roads , some are better maintained than others and it also depends on the quality of the seal too . This time of year is the time for patching and reseal because of the budgeting.

Edit......and as I type the siren has gone off again. Another rta.

paddy234

Christchurch is by no means affordable. House prices have risen by hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last 2 years. Thankfully prices are now dropping so hopefully throughout the year this will be corrected

paddy234

I'd take Irish roads over British roads anyday of the week lol. Change is happening fast though unfortunately for New Zealand it isn't able to adapt and cater for a rapidly growing population. Something the likes of Ireland doesn't have to worry about too much... yet

BEVS

So what would be a more usual price down there?
Around here you are now looking at $800,000 & upwards for anything half tidy that is not a do upper or starter home.

I have pondered Oamaru way Col.

paddy234

For a half decent house it would be the same in Christchurch for at least $800,000 though a big drop is expected. We sold our North Canterbury home and moved to Perth over a year ago. With the rising cost of living, low wages and rising house prices the writing was on the wall. One thing is for Certain, since Jacinda has been in power the middle/working class have never been so worse off. Young people will never be able to buy a home In a main New Zealand city without help from their parents. This In turn will force them to leave. Who wants to live in a country where your children will most certainly have to leave In order to buy a home.

The whole New Zealand being family friendly is now a sham. It's become a land of the haves and the have nots. I seen it change in my almost 8 years of being there. We are glad we left

BEVS

Gawd. A political ranty.
Lift thine eyes to the Key years which had no major or disastrous problems to deal with unlike the past few years. If you wish to point fingers at incredibly poor social economic problem solving and lack thereof, look back. Many made hay. The selfish sat in clover bewailing hardships. Quite honestly those cruddy sorts still do. People like me. The ordinary folk We lost ground all ways

What did youbuy for.
What did you sell for.

paddy234

Would you have liked a more fake, superficial and exciting story as a reason for us leaving New Zealand, perhaps in search of sun and adventure, perhaps a story about drug running aswell just to add In some drama? Lol. On a more serious note, the severe economic, social and political problems we face in the world today are ALL political. People's lives are being uprooted due to them. When reading why people are moving around the world today it will in many Cases be politically motivated. Rants are going to be more common

I came to Christchurch 2 years after the earthquakes. House prices were disgraceful for what you got due to poor supply. Then the building boom started and the local councils were given the power and incentives to free up land for development which radically changed the the housing market in Canterbury. We were able to build a new home for $450,000, our second home of 210m2 was built for $545,000. Today that same home would cost between $850,000-$950,00 just 3 years later after we built it. Rates are also going back up. It's insane. The price of materials rising was solely driven up by the restrictions of the movement of goods and services throughout the world due to the lock-downs and border closures. The lack of land being readily available for development also has added to this problem of low supply.

We sold our 4 bedroom 2 bathroom 210m2 mid spec home in North canterbury just over a year ago for just under $700,000. We are now building in Perth, a 300m2 5 bedroom 2 bathroom high spec home with tens of thousands of extras for $570,000. That's the difference. If we waited another year we could have sold our New Zealand home for $200,000 more. That's insane don't you think? I mean it's a small city with a big town feel to it. How can that be justified?

The future will never again be bright in New Zealand until housing becomes affordable for the working/middle class

jarv5116

it depends what your use to before moving to CC.

If you move to Canterbury from Auckland or London with a property with decent bit equity then you will prob find Christchurch affordable.

That's why I says at the start of the thread look at why u want to immigrate. try doing it England or Europe before moving over other side of the world.

paddy234

True, it may be affordable for the average millionaire but Is that the standard which New Zealand wishes to aim for? What about a land for working families to grow and flourish?

Moses2013

The thing is that nowhere is really affordable anymore if on a local wage. As you say, unless you have help from parents or already own a home, it's extremely difficult (although NZ is probably on another level).
You see the same in Europe and the world is getting smaller and smaller. Where they have space, it's either the climate or political situation that makes people flee and they all move to already overpopulated areas.
Those from high cost countries who are lucky to have equity in their home at least have more choices.