[bagpussr]

Denise and I are moving over in May this year (subject to ITA approval) My skilled employment offer will probably be in the North Shore City or Waitakere City areas.

A place to live is obviously our priority at the moment. I think we will check into a B&B in the first instance. I am advised that it will be easy travelling via State Highway 1 and the northern motorway.

Any recommendations on good value B&Bs would be appreciated?

Any advice re suburbs of North Shore City, Waitakere City would likewise be appreciated? We will look to rent in the first instance maybe for six months until we get a feel for the area.

Looking at some of the other threads which have been useful we will probably look to buy a car soon after arrival and check out places but some forum member views would be a great start.

Regards Russ

:cheers

[westies]

Hi
We live in Titirangi West Auckland, (Waitakere City) I work in the hospital in Auckland City, commute time is approx 20 mins although usually out of peak hours. Train is a viable option for me too!
We have been here for 10 months now and brought the house in month 2, would love to be able to live towards Orewa/Whangaparoa, but the commute would be too much. So we settle for long weekends over there which works really well. The schools where we are are really good, we have had no concerns at all since arriving here, we have 2 girls ages 8 & 3, the pre school is also great. Within 30 mins you can be anywhere, so it really is ideally situated we think, husband is fortunate to work in New Lynn so doesn't have to worry about the daily commute with the traffic into the CBD.
Depending on where you work I think will play a big part into where you live, we left the UK and Adiy was commuting into London daily at least 1 hour each way, so we definately didn't want that here.
But some people don't mind the commute each to there own isn't it!
There are so many lovely places, as you will see when you get here, have you got the 'Where to live in Auckland' book we found that really useful before we got here.
Good luck to you.
Any other advice you need, feel free to ask.
Westies

[Mexican in NZ]

Any advice re suburbs of North Shore City, Waitakere City would likewise be appreciated? We will look to rent in the first instance maybe for six months until we get a feel for the area.

Regards Russ

:cheers
Hi Russ I am currently linving in Glenfield, North Shore and is fine, the only suburbs up in the North shore that you should definately avoid are:
Bayheaven and Birkdale pretty ghetto there :no
Hope this has help a bit,
Adriana

[NannyOgg]

Hi Baggpuss

I have lived here in Waiake, Torbay near Browns Bay for 5 months now and I love it!

The beaches are on your doorstep, Browns Bay has all you need, Albany Mega Centre is 10 minutes drive away if you need something special, and CBD is 25 minutes in the car and you can be out in the sticks in 5 minutes. If you don't want to be out in the sticks but also don't want to feel like your living in a city suburb this area is great. Oh yeah, and as well as myself there at least 4 other forum members in Torbay village alone - but don't let that put you off ;)

You can come to our next barbie if you like :cheers

Nanny xxx

[RayBCO]

Hi NannyOgg,

Please tell me how long it would take you to get to Henderson from Torbay, and if it is a reasonable commute taking traffic into account?

Your area sounds great...Hadnt realised that it would be commutable. Using the Google satellite maps it all seems very spread out, but it appears that is may not be on the ground...?

Any info would be great...Thanks, Ray

[Happyfeet]

Hi ya

I am going to have to disagree with avoiding Birkdale or Beachaven. They are not areas to avoid at all and are certainly not ghetto either. I live in Birkdale and have lived here for over a year and find it to be a really nice area. Admittedly Birkdale and especially Beachhaven used to have a very bad reputation which a good few years ago was most probably justified but not anymore. It is safe, very accessible to the City (35 minutes by bus) and other areas of the North Shore. Its a very green area with lots of bush and the housing is more on the affordable side if you want to buy here. So please dont avoid this area because someones says its a no go area, it really isnt. There are plenty of areas of Auckland to be avoided but this is not one of them.

Other than that other great areas which other people have mentioned are Torbay and Browns Bay. Takapuna, Devonport and Milford are great areas but are expensive to buy in, although its possible you might find a decent price for a rental but you would have to do a lot of searching. Torbay, Takapuna and Milford, I believe have the best schools as well but I would get confirmation of that from others as cant talk from experience.

Good luck

[Milliemoo]

Hi ya

Admittedly Birkdale and especially Beachhaven used to have a very bad reputation which a good few years ago was most probably justified but not anymore.

It wasn't that long ago (20 years?) that Devonport was considered a 'no go' area with heaps of trouble. Now look at it :nice1

As Devonport/Takapuna/Millford etc just get more and more expensive, people will start to realise that paying $1mil for a 3 bed 1 bath villa in need of work is not such a good deal (give it 18 months at this rate) and will start looking at other coastal areas which represent better value. You'll see a much higher % increase in properties in areas like Beachaven over the next 10/15 years than you will the likes of Devo etc. The most popular areas will always remain expensive and increase in value, because of what they have to offer, but from an investment point of view, they're not necessarily the best buy.

IMHO :D

Millimeoo

[Happyfeet]

It wasn't that long ago (20 years?) that Devonport was considered a 'no go' area with heaps of trouble. Now look at it :nice1

As Devonport/Takapuna/Millford etc just get more and more expensive, people will start to realise that paying $1mil for a 3 bed 1 bath villa in need of work is not such a good deal (give it 18 months at this rate) and will start looking at other coastal areas which represent better value. You'll see a much higher % increase in properties in areas like Beachaven over the next 10/15 years than you will the likes of Devo etc. The most popular areas will always remain expensive and increase in value, because of what they have to offer, but from an investment point of view, they're not necessarily the best buy.

IMHO :D

Millimeoo

Good point and yes that is the good thing about Birkdale/beachaven it certainly gives you better value for money in housing.

I didnt know that about Devonport though, that it was considered a no go area 20 years ago. Thats interesting.

[Milliemoo]

ruff as aparently.

Milliemoo

[Sarah & Alex]

Hi NannyOgg,

Please tell me how long it would take you to get to Henderson from Torbay, and if it is a reasonable commute taking traffic into account?

Your area sounds great...Hadnt realised that it would be commutable. Using the Google satellite maps it all seems very spread out, but it appears that is may not be on the ground...?


Mairangi Bay, Murreys Bay, Browns Bay and Torbay are all great areas to live in, on the shore...

We travel from Browns Bay to the city in rush hour and it takes about 45mins. Henderson to Torbay will take about the same time.

[Toto]

We live in Glenfield and I certainly wouldn't have any issue commuting between there and Henderson. Brown's Bay is lovely and if I'm honest we would love to have lived there however we fell in love with a house in Glenfield. If we tried to buy our house if it was situated in Browns Bay we would probably have not been able to afford it. Glenfield house prices used to be more reasonable but more and more investors are buying there so it is also suffering from fast rising house prices.

When I look in the property news, Birkdale and Beachaven do seem to have some of the more reasonably prices housing but I don't know what they are like from personal experience.

It is really hard deciding where to go - when we first got here we spent days driving round different areas, looking (from the street) at the types of houses, the amount of land came that come with them, how hilly the area is, the shops etc. I really recommend doing that as it helps you to get a feel for the place. Our biggest issue was trying to buy a house that wasn't overlooked too much - so many houses on the shore have been subdivided and don't have much garden or have a house further up the hill looking down into another houses' garden. We didn't want total isolation just a bit of privacy and we found it!

[mudlae]

Hey there! I'm Moving to Auckland in September! Which region of Auckland do you recomend to a young couple? First we want to rent a funrished house or townhouse beacuase we don't bring any furniture. We would love to have a Cat and a garden and not spend thousands of $ for it! i addition we would like to be able to go out in the evenings, dancing, clubbing, bars and so on... What are your recomandations? THX a lot