[Paul]

Hi
Looking through this site and on www.open2view.com about info on these areas and houses.

My question are:-
1. With say $400,000 to spend on a house, some of which look fantastic I have to say, would I still be worried about leaky houses, poor construction, lack of insulation etc or is this something more prevalent in the bottom end of market? ie say $250k and under?

2. Any opinions on Titahi Bay? I have seen Whitby and Pauatahanui, Raumati and Waikanne all get thumbs up from "locals" and all appear to be commutable to Welly CBD.

3. What are the beaches like on this coast also?

4. Is this area warm enough for outside pool in general, as several of the properties in this area have them?

Many thanks in advance - this site is great for info gathering! :nice1

Paul

PS I know its been posted before but www.wises.co.nz has great maps of areas so you can get a feel for area as a whole aswell as driving directions to give you km distance from say downtown to your preferred area - v useful!

[Wannaway]

Hi Paul,

Can't answer all your questions, but may be able to give some insight. Leaky building syndrome knows no boundaries in terms of type or value of property. There was a story here recently of a property with serious leak problems and it was a $2m house! It seems that leaky building yndrome afflicts houses built in a certain period of time, but exactly when that was I can't say. W will not be buying for a year or so, so we have not looked into the problem a great deal. The general advice here is ask specifically, the vendor is then obliged to give you a full reply (but if you don't ask, they are not obliged to disclose voluntarily). As for insulation, well only really newer builds seem to have insulation etc that we are used to in the UK, but again don't take that for granted you will need to ask the necessary questions. I think in truth the whole house buying/selling process is still a bit cowboy here, it is definitely a "caveat emptor/buyer beware" mentality, so have your list of questions at the ready!

I have heard that Kapiti is a really nice coastline, but it could be a bit exposed to the wind being on the west coast side. I have also heard that public transport is much better in Wellington than in Auckland, probably because that is where Parliament sits!

Don't know about outdoor pools, up here in Auckland it still feels a bit too much like the UK temperature wise - read into that what you will!

Lee

[SoCal Gal]

This is a bit late, but still may be helpful. We bought a house in Otaki, at the northern part of the Kapiti Coast. The road to Wellington is very, very curvy, and locals say it is dangerous, we were advised that for every day commuting, to head north to Palmerston instead of south. The wind is intense, and it is very flat, green, rural, lots of organic roadside stands. We like it, got a good deal on a house, but in hindsight we are probably going to move closer in. An hour away from something there is not the same as an hour away in the States, if you can understand. The Tasman, I don't know how warm it ever gets there, but after a storm you can get the most amazing shells you have ever seen in your life! :cool