Hi everyone. I’m interested to hear how others have managed finding suitable accommodation on arrival into NZ. We’re a family with 4 young children and two cats and will be arriving into Auckland. It sounds like many people will book themselves a hotel or Air Bnb for those first few weeks while they try and secure a house to rent and then cross their fingers and hope they’ll quickly find something they like and within approx. budget (and which will accept their pets/young children).

My worry is that we’re pretty clear on which school zone we want to be in (Mt Eden Normal) and given the market size there’s probably only a handful of houses on the rental market at any one time. It’s quite plausible that we’ll arrive and there will be nothing/very little or even that the market is quite competitive and as a family with cats and young kids, we won’t be at the top of the list in terms of appeal to prospective landlords. As we’re looking at public schools we want to start the kids out where we’d like them to continue, without the need to change schools on them after 2 or 3 months if we aren’t able to find a longer term rental in the zone we are in when we first arrive.

Any tips from others in the same boat? Did you rent something temporary through Air Bnb for 2, 3, or 4 weeks to give yourself time? Were you able to get something in advance by working with a rental agent from offshore? Offer to pay 6 months upfront?

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated!

Vanessa