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Thread: how to rent a house for a short time?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kaiapoi NZ (from Russia)
    Posts
    5

    Default how to rent a house for a short time?

    Sorry for my bad English, I'm from Russia.

    My family (wife and two daughters 7 and 12) and I will immigrate in NZ in september by LTBV. We plan to live in small town Kaiapoi near ChCh.

    We have enough money for purchase home by cash but I think that buying home immediately after arriving is stupid.
    We planned to rent a home for a three month or same, looking around, research housing market and purchase home only after that.
    But on this way we have big problem - no one want to rent house for me. Three month is too little time. No References.
    I don't want to rent for more time, I can buy my own home and don't pay money.

    I Please to you give me some advice - what I can to do in this situation?
    Or no ways out of problem and I forced to live in shed for 500NZD per week?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,823

    Default

    Hello and welcome.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Christchurch from Scotland
    Posts
    2,226

    Default

    Holiday homes are an option. I found a place through this website which was furnished for the first month we were in New Zealand.

    http://www.holidayhomes.co.nz/

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Ōtepoti, Aotearoa
    Posts
    2,736

    Default

    добрый день! Hello!

    I cannot help you with your request - unfortunately.

    However re language: My wife grew up in the former USSR. So Russian is one of "her" languages. Thus if you need something to discuss in Russian just send a PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    918

    Default

    Welcome. To be honest you might want to give yourself a bit more than 3 months to find a house to buy. You should get the feel of the area and where you want to live. Also, whilst the whole process of buying is fairly quick here compared to other countries, it will take you at least a month once you have found your ideal house.

    As house prices are not going up at the moment, you won't loose anything by waiting, indeed it will give you a bigger window to transfer your money (always assuming it isn't in Kiwi Dollars already) so you should be able to get a better rate.

    If I were you I'd look to rent for 6 months at least.

    Another point is furniture. Unless you are very organsied, I guess there will be a gap between your arrival and any furniture you ship. But if I were you, I'd look at unfurnished rentals and hire / buy chepaly the essentials for the short term, as furnished rentals are hard to get, the quality often poor and the prices high.

    As for holiday lets, well they tend to be quite expensive often with rates as much per week as you can rent a 'normal' house per month, especially if you come over summer when the rates go up.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Ōtepoti, Aotearoa
    Posts
    2,736

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Wooly_Cow View Post
    Welcome. To be honest you might want to give yourself a bit more than 3 months to find a house to buy. You should get the feel of the area and where you want to live. ...
    If I were you I'd look to rent for 6 months at least.
    ...
    I found out it is very desirable to live one year, i.e. all seasons, in an area before making decisions like that.

    It will give you enough information where to spend the foreseeable future. This is IF you decide staying there.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    918

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    Quote Originally Posted by ralf-nz View Post
    I found out it is very desirable to live one year, i.e. all seasons, in an area before making decisions like that.

    It will give you enough information where to spend the foreseeable future. This is IF you decide staying there.
    Agreed

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    North Canterbury to UK
    Posts
    2,755

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    Welcome along Leonid

    We were pretty dead set on renting for 6 months before we bought and areas in mind that we wanted to live in, around Christchurch but as soon as we drove around them we realised they weren't for us. However no school children to consider for us

    The exchange rate was high when we got here so we shifted our money over and we bought within 3 weeks of getting here .We couldn't move in straight away as vendor at RWC 2007 so needed accommodation for 6 weeks , within 3 days had found it by using the contacts through the estate agent we'd brought the house through. Now admittedly it was a converted brick garage, glorified NZ shed, with daylight visible through the walls we survived , the rent was $200 per week.

    Once you're here , on the ground so to speak , we feel it's a lot easier to get stuff like this sorted out. So I'd go with Mamme's suggestion and rent a holiday home for 4 weeks.

    You've already joined the best forum around, there's loads of folks around Chch who have very good advice to pass on

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    918

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    With all due respect to benandclare, I think they were very lucky both in terms of finding a place to buy so quickly and having a good exchange rate.

    I feel there are just too many serious risks and pitfalls for expat house buyers in New Zealand for the average person to get a good view on inside the first 3 months especially given all the other issues around migration.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Auckland from Sheffield
    Posts
    411

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Wooly_Cow View Post
    With all due respect to benandclare, I think they were very lucky both in terms of finding a place to buy so quickly and having a good exchange rate.

    I feel there are just too many serious risks and pitfalls for expat house buyers in New Zealand for the average person to get a good view on inside the first 3 months especially given all the other issues around migration.
    Spot on advice. You would be very fortunate to pick up the ideal spot within a few weeks. It is definitely worth assessing areas and particularly houses before jumping in, in particular, how ideal are they are in the winter months!

    If you aim for a rental of 6 months, I don't think you would have a problem finding anywhere. Typically you should find most landlords would agree to a 6 month term then reverting to a 'periodic' terms which can be cancelled with 3 weeks notice (or 6 from the landlord). Obviously don't let them know that you're looking straightaway

    Also probably not best either to find a rental straight over the internet, defintely worth seeing them first.

    Hopefully you don't see this as negative advice, yes you may well have the money, but it's very easy to lose it buying the wrong place, particularly with the NZ standard of housing.
    Last edited by chocolate cake; 31st August 2010 at 12:34 PM. Reason: correct obvious typo, there's probably more!

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