[dave k]

My partner & I have been in Wellington for 6 months now.
I think it's safe to say that we absolutely love the place...made lots of friends, been out every weekend to so many (usually free) events, music festivals, etc...and we've decided we'd like to stay.
We're both on 2 year visas so there's plenty of time yet. The reason I'm posting is that we'd like to buy a property. We're currently renting in Hataitai...which is great & we'd love to live here, but property is so expensive...we'd only be able to afford a 1 bedroom flat.
My partner - who is decidely more savvy about these things - thinks it would be prudent to buy in a still-growing , still fairly cheap area like J'ville...make a little cash on it then sell & buy somewhere more central.
I'm impatient, not hugely keen on the outlying areas & would probably be happy with a 1 bedroom place in the city.
Our budget is realistically 300K. Right now, some Kiwi friends are selling a place in J'ville for about that price...it's quite a big property with a reasonable section & a self-contained 1 bed flat underneath which they rent at $200 pw.
So, we'd have a home & income.

Any thoughts/advice from J'ville residents?

Thanks in advance!

...Mods - just thought...this should probly go in the real estate bit ...sorry.

[sarahw]

Sorry I'm not based in J'ville but...sounds like a good deal. Hmm difficult one - all I will say is that if you both want the city life now then I'd buy a small place in the city - the city prices have gone up considerably in the last few years & if you buy somewhere with a mind to it being attractive to sell on in a year or 2 then you should be right.

Johnsonville is nice & has plenty of shops, takeaways, etc. and a pretty good train link to the city & the motorway goes straight past so its got good transport links. By having the annex to rent out it will take the pressure off on the mortgage payments a bit for you which is always nice! :nice1 Just depends on whether you can see yourselves living there.

At the end of the day its down to where you guys really want to be - its no good buying somewhere because it looks good financially but hating every minute of living there because you want to be closer to the city. Spend a bit of time in Johnsonville - do a drive around the whole place & see if you could settle there & be happy & try out the train journey (they run late so you can still have nights out) - try out your journeys to work & see if they're OK. (Also have a look at the shops/cinema/ameneties up North a bit further - there is a good shopping centre in Porirua & a 5 screen cinema, loads of furniture & electrical shops too. Up a little further (Plimmerton, Waikanae) are some nice beaches which are always nice to go to for a stroll/picnic after work or on the weekends...

Another question is do you have residency? If you don't then you have to put down more for a mortgage as the deposit and it may be slightly harder to get a loan - contact your bank to have a discussion or a mortgage broker. We're just looking into the process of buying and read about this last night.

Good luck & I hope this has helped a little :hopeso

[dave k]

Thanks Sarah...yes, helped a lot actually.

I really didn't like J'ville much at all...just seemed like a bunch of houses & some shops & no soul - but I tend to find that with most suburban areas.
Maybe we'll wait another few months, see how the market is heading, and try & find a place in town.
Popular opinion would have it, though, that Wellington properties have gone up in price about as high as they can go and thus may not be so good from an investment p.o.v - hence the looking around for places where the next boom may hit.
It's all a mystery to me though to be honest
:yes

[Carol]

Got to be honest - if I was in your position I'd carry on renting and spend my money on doing all the sort of things you cant do when you have kids.


(We have photos in our wallets where the loot used to be!)

:laugh

[dave k]

Fair point. But we just want a house...not neccesarily the whole pad & kids package... :P