I can't believe it's been a year! I wanted to share a few new things and touch on a few I've already commented on here:
https://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55434
I could write pages on housing as that's our biggest pain point right now. I'll instead try to summarize. This is for Christchurch and the Selwyn/Waimak districts:
Housing - Rents:
- Current rent $530/wk same nice-ish post quake townhouse as we had last year (includes pet charges for our dog!).
- We looked in June 2019 and rent was flat or even dropping. Decided to stay though as I am only 7 min from work.
- Ok rental stock in ChCh.
- Quality really varies though.
- Market band for us was/is ($450-$550/wk). Plenty of options in that space.
Housing - Buying used (Residential).
- We had to wait a year to buy (Foreign Buyers restrictions)
- Prices where we found stock: $400k to $550k.
- We easily qualified for a mortgage.
- Attended about 20 open homes. Quality of pre-quake homes can be dodgy. Both in original construction but also in quake repairs.
- ~2 were IMHO tear-downs. All but 1 were 'meh'. We really struggled to find value and something interesting.
- Real estate agents: comparable to Canada in quality/attitudes. Some shifty, some ok. No buyers agent in NZ though. (although you can pay someone to represent you, or, just use a lawyer).
- 0 offers made.
Housing - Buying new (Residential).
- Ok stock but 'meh' again on style, layout, location etc.
- Price varies of course: $450k to $650k+ for average homes.
- Big builders are asking, what we think, a 10-15% premium over a similar size/kit-out small shop build.
- Pays to shop around on everything here from windows to kitchens. Good smaller builders available in ChCh, again pays to shop around.
- Not many lot options left anywhere (land banking?)
- Real estate agents: basically sales people for new builds.
- Best mix/availability: Rolleston
- 0 offers made.
Housing - (Lifestyle).
- Typically 10 ac (4 ha) or less.
- New ones/recent builds are $700K to $1M+. Not much stock at the moment so little choice and starting to be out of our budget.
- Old ones are $450k to $700k and, for the most part, aren't great in quality.
- 25 open homes attended, 1 offer made. Not accepted.
- Almost no land for sale in Selwyn or Waimak to build (land banking again, or simply nothing left).
- Priced two builds. One was nuts, $100k+ just to get a driveway and power into a build site and then you can start. Another was okay, more turn key.
- Lots viewed: 20. Offers made 1. Vendor was pushy and we backed out. Lot is still for sale:-)
- Real estate agents: Some crafty cats when the stakes get higher. Agents represent the sellers in NZ...it paid for us to do our research on the lots and the local market.
- Watch out for the GST! Something quirky here about buying blocks that are GST registered. The language and marketing can be murky. The buyer can be on the hook for a 15% hit after the sale. We did our due-diligence on the offers made though...via a lawyer...which was surprisingly reasonable (few hundred bucks to-date).
Jobs - both my wife and I are working now. She's had two jobs, myself just the one. All three jobs did not match the job descriptions nor what the employers described. I would have asked more questions and talked to more people but I did my interviews over Skype and had an offer before leaving Canada. Pay is lower than Canada for similar work.
Pregnancy - so not planned...but we're having our first kidlet in early Jan. We could not find a public mid wife (what NZ uses as primary carer)...because...all the mid wives take summer vacation and are 'booked up' at that time. So we were SOL. It wasn't fun. We had to go the private route with obstetrics care (They have their own group of mid wives who do work through Xmas.) Baby will cost about $5k through the private system so not terrible but a bit of a burn. So far the care has been good.
Climate - solid win. Winter was a joke compared to pretty much anywhere in Canada.
Traffic - another win (in Cantebury at least). Traffic jams are rare and even then - they're like a normal drive home in Vancouver.
Locals/Kiwis - generally friendly but clicky. I'm hopeful the kid will help us break into some social circles. We have not met any couple friends yet, although we're on the quiet side and spend most of our time trying to get our own place.
Would we do it again? Yes...but...it's not that much better than Canada (for us). We're starting to miss our friends and family a bit (Even though everyone is spread out back home) but we feel we're in a better life place now than we were 1-2 years ago. So win for that...and I'm going to be a dad! Double win!
All for now. Hope this helps someone.