[strawberries]

Hi everyone! Greetings from the UK.

This is my first post, but I have been reading on and off for a year or so.

This is by far the best NZ forum that I have come across. Great work and thanks to those who run it and the regulars who give excellent tips/guidance.

Anyways, I have been looking to get away from the cold, wet, miserable life that is northern Britain for many years. A life that is weighed down with red tape from London and the EU, big brother control freakery, and a corrupt regime in power.....yeah, depressing times.

After much research online, it seems the best climate for us is in Northland. We've looked at literally thousands of property listings across NZ. Based on the images in the listings, we fell in love with Waipu, bream bay area. But after more research, I suspect that Waipu might be fairly remote.

Recently we came upon an interesting listing in Kamo...a nice section. We are doing more research on this, and hopefully getting a couple of people to have a look.

OK, I was wondering re a few issues.....namely:

1 - any recommendations regarding a good honest inexpensive lawyer (maybe whangarei based, or auckland possibly)?

2 - how much does it cost to build a nice/average house? One realtor in Waipu told me 1200 NZ dollars per sq metre for basic, up to 1500 NZD per sq metre for luxury. Another realtor in Russell told me a very different story ie 1500 to 3000 NZD per sq metre. Anyone know the real price?

3 - I was hoping to get a nice modern/contemporary home built, on a section with a nice view. Probably a fair bit of glass with the view in mind. Do you know of a beautiful home there that you love/admire? I'm trying to get some ideas/examples.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Have a great weekend!

It's Friday evening here. The weekend begins!

Best wishes.

PS - anyone live in Kamo/Whangarei area?

[marcia]

Hiya

Can't answer your questions but wanted to welcome you to the forum.

Also we are a nosy lot - can you give us a bit more info about you, family, have you got visa's yet, job offers etc - really we like to peoples life stories!! :D

Marcia
x

[Smiler]

I can't answer your questions either, but wanted to say welcome to the forum too. :cheers:cheers

[Diny]

1 - any recommendations regarding a good honest inexpensive lawyer

Now there's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one !!!!

Sorry, can't help you with any of your specific questions but wanted to say welcome.

Hope everything turns out well for you.

Diny

[Ana&Steve]

1 - any recommendations regarding a good honest inexpensive lawyer (maybe whangarei based, or auckland possibly)?

Are you refering to an immigration lawyer? If so, Howard Levarko is great, but he's in Wellington. On the flip side, I know he has had clients in Auckland. Here's his e-mail just in case: levarko@ihug.co.nz Good luck with your goals and dreams! :yes
Ana

[strawberries]

thanks Marcia, Smiler, Diny, Ana & Steve, for the lovely welcome! :cheers :cheers

I was just flying out the door here, when I thought I'd click and see if there were any replies....wow, 4 replies, and so fast! :clap

I'll post more about myself later when I have more time.

Thanks Ana for the contact details. I was thinking more of a lawyer for/if I buy a section in the Whangarei area. Someone who is easy to pay and does a good job.

And yes LOL Diny, I knew I was writing an oxymoron when I asked for a 'good honest inexpensive lawyer' :laugh

[StevieD]

Wwlcome to the forum!! :cheers

Where are you in't frozen drizzly north??? Have nw meets up here, got one coming up in a few weeks if you interested?? We meet near Warrington, if you do a search under NW meets on this forum you'll no doubt come across our ugly mugs :laugh Chance for a chat about immigration and anything else that takes your fancy.

Anyway, welcome again :D

Steve and Jan

[strawberries]

Thanks for the great welcome, Stevie and Jan! I have been over in Liverpool a few times supporting the reds! (Liverpool football team to those who do not know the score)

OK, let me try and cover a few responses to all folks in one effort.

I am early 40s, and at that point in life where I am just peeved off with just about everything in the UK, and still in a position to do something about my environment. I am actually in N Ireland - tho still in the UK (at least for the time being).

I worked in a senior position in the public sector for 13 years....business admin.

My main reason for wanting to look abroad is climate/lifestyle. Over in northern UK, we hibernate for 6 to 8 months of the year. Me and my cat (Fluffy) just pull the covers up and hide our nuts, for the winter. ;)

I started seriously looking in late 2002. And since then, I have spent (along with a friend) much of our free time each day, googling for a better place abroad. I can't begin to tell you how many places we fell in love with across these past few years. eg the caribbean, gozo, parts of west coast usa, cyprus, kauai, fiji, bequia, porto santo, madeira.

I went to St Lucia a couple of years ago to look at a particular property. But it wasn't to be. The property wasn't what i was after. BTW I hadn't realised that there are no long summer evenings in the caribbean. Being so close to the equator, the sun goes down in 20 to 30 mins....full light to pitch darkness in minutes. And the sun is always 12 o'clock overhead...like a laser on your skin.

I was also over in Madeira and Porto Santo a few times in the past year or two. They are off the north west coast of Africa...they belong to Portugal. The climate there is one of the best in the world. I loved Porto Santo, a little island off Madeira. I have some wonderful pics of my times there. Maybe if there is any interest I will post a few. I was close to buying a listing in Madeira. But it wasn't to be.

We had put NZ on the backburner from an early point in our searches. We had gone through all the usual suspects....USA (no ideal all round climate, unless to some respect in california, but it is too too expensive; canada is awesome, but too cold; Australia is too hot for my liking. NZ, when i looked back in 2002/2003, was much like Ireland, climate wise. The averages were a little higher but not that much.

But I started to look again at NZ at the start of this year. And I looked further north this time......and lo and behold northland was THE place to go for an ideal climate......sub tropical. I hadn't looked at it previously.

Anyways, after searching since the start of the year, and going through literally thousands of listings, on sites like trademe, open2view, allens, barfoot, professionals, etc, etc....we realised that by far our favourite spot was Waipu. It kept coming up. It was the common dominator. If we spotted a heavenly section, it was nine times out of ten in WAIPU. We loved Bream bay and the views of those islands off the coast.

But in recent months I have started to realise that Waipu is fairly remote....plus to get a plot we love (ie below 5HA), it is relatively costly. I wish I could see an awesome section at the right money (eg say 200 to 300,000). But sadly, the prices are about one hundred dearer than that. :(

BTW I have fallen for a section in Kamo in recent weeks. Awesome views.
Anyone know Kamo. Nice village or not?

[syddee]

Strawberries we are heading up that way as well and hope to be there by mid to end 2007. However the way things are going we re likely to end up there a lot sooner.

I will be going over in about 5 weeks time and spending 6 weeks over there. My son lives in Whangarei so will be staying with him and checking out the properties in the general area. If I can be of any help to you please pm me and let me know exactly what your specifications are. I might just as well look for 2 as for 1.
Dalene

By the way you could not have picked a better area for climate. I am in South Africa so a sunny climate was always going to be paramount for us. Northland has it all. A bonus is that the summers are a little more temperate than we are used to - in a word HEAVEN

[strawberries]

Syddee (or Dalene), it's great to get confirmation of what I had found from my own online research. The weather in that area of Northland looks PERFECT........or HEAVEN as you say! I don't think I could manage to cope with extreme heat, so the sub-tropical climate of Kamo/Whangarei looks wonderful.

Thank you for the very kind offer. I will send you a pm very soon. It would be great to have a contact/friend up in this same area. We coudl all exhange notes and help each other out (eg re common practices, builders, sections, realtors, etc, etc).

I spoke with a family friend last night who lives about an hour below Whangarei.....and he has very kindly offered to go and look at a section for me that I have in mind.

It's great to have someone local who knows what the going rate for prices are in the area. It means no-one can really rip you off big time.

I'll drop you a pm. All my best to you and yours.