[the emery family]

hi all. Just wanted to find out how easy anyone else had found it to come by good rental accommodation in north shore/auckland? My husbands employer is putting us up for two weeks when we arrive and then we have to find something for ourselves. If we have 2 weeks will this be enough time to find somewhere?

Also, someone told us that it can be frustrating because you have to drive by properties before you can go in to view them, so apparently he got to see lots of places but only got in to look around very few? Not quite sure what he means by this?

Also we have been told that rentals are really high compared to salaries - if we can budget $550 per week i had thought that this would get us somewhere nice?

thanks for any comments!

[KerryS]

$550pw should get you a nice place - dependent on the area, and what size you want of course.

I'm not too sure what you mean by driving by and not actually viewing properties, unless your friend meant he was so put off by the external appearance that he didn't bother with the insides?

In Auckland Crockers are a good agency, as are Barfoots. I had no probs when renting from either of these. (Crockers was fab and always sorted my queries quickly.)
You can get a good idea of the type of properties available from the TradeMe website - just do a search on the suburbs you like, and see what type of places are currently up for rent.

[the emery family]

thanks, that's really helpful. Our concern i suppose is that 2 weeks might not be enough time to look and find somewhere - in london sometimes you have to give about a months notice before you can move in to a place but it doesnt' sound as though this is the case with auckland.

[Lisa T]

My OH is curently looking for a family rental place on the North Shore. He says many are really bad and very, very expensive - PM me if you want some more specific information.

We arrive on 25th October and at this moment we may be homeless!!

[K&CS]

Sorry, can't help as I'm not in Auckland - just seen your post, Lisa. Have I missed something? You're finally on your way - yay!! Great news - you've certainly waited long enough!

Kate x

[KerryS]

If a place is empty you can usually move in the next day. If there are already tenants in situ then it's probable that you would have to wait for their tenancy to expire.
I've found most places here are not actually advertised unitl the tenancy has already run out though, so it's quite easy to find a place at short notice.

[Howie]

I found looking for a place to rent in Auckland to be a big pain. We were looking in South/East Auckland and had a dog, which made things much more difficult. I found all of the Realtors to be completely unhelpful - apparently they just don't make that much money off of rentals. However, most landlords list with agencies because it is free for them to do so.

Humm.. that sounded a bit negative. Here's the good news. We were able to find a suitable 3 bedroom house with yard in Howick for about $360/week. We moved in about 2.5 weeks after we arrived in NZ. I wasn't working at the time, which really helped because there was quite a bit of leg work involved in finding a place. That place we found was only temporary, as it had been sold, but it gave us some time to figure out where we really wanted to live and find a more permanent place. A couple of months later we found another 3 bedroom house will small yard in Howick for $375. We found this place on trademe - which saved us the agency's fees. The place is a bit run down and cold in winter, but it's not that bad and in a very nice area, so we actually feel quite fortunate.

Hope that helps.