Temporary Accommodation in Wellington

[civillian13]

Hello everybody, hoping somebody can help out here. We're pretty much ready for the move to Wellington, coming over start of October. The question is where we'll stay once we get to glorious NZ. We always thought that we would look for accommodation once we arrived, as we don't want to commit to living somewhere until we've seen it ourselves. I'd always kind of thought that we'd therefore turn up, check in to a hotel and start looking, but now we're getting closer to doing it, that doesn't seem so sensible - two or three weeks of hotel and we'd be running pretty low on cash reserves.

So a couple of questions.

1. Are rentals in NZ available fairly quickly? What are the odds we could find somewhere and move in within a week or two?
2. I've noticed some of the move-me-to-NZ agencies offer 'temporary accommodation'. Does that just mean self-catering holiday type accommodation, or is it more like a short-term lease? Does anybody know how you would go about getting hold of this, especially bearing in mind we'd be staying for an indefinite period? I'd be quite worried about arranging to stay somewhere for a week and then having to leave with nowhere to go to because the week's up and we hadn't found anything permanent.
3. Alternatively, can anybody recommend a nice, friendly, preferably cheap B&B, hotel, or flat we could stay in for a week or two?
4. Has anybody else done this, or had this problem? How did you get around it?

Thanks for all your help, everybody.

[Trigirl]

Hi civillian13 – welcome to the forums.

We’re heading over to Wellington soon (as soon as we can sell the house!) and expect to spend our first few weeks in serviced apartments while we look for a rental. There are loads of these, cheaper than a hotel, clean, basic, central. We stayed at Quest on the Terrace for our recce in Feb. There are loads of different Quest apartments or if you search on google for “services apartments Wellington” then you’ll find loads of other ones too.

[Smiler]

Hello civillian13

Welcome to the forum.

There a huge list of weely rental agencies on this thread. http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread....=welly+rentals and have a look on Trade me too. www.trademe.co.nz

The Dom Post newspaper has properties for let on Weds and Saturday as well.

We got the keys to our 1st rental on the same day as viewing and paying the deposit. We had to wait longer with the second one, well it did have tenants!

Quest on Hunter is the best of the bunch and there's also http://www.whatsnew.co.nz/ a bit corporate, but we managed in a similar one for our 1st week. There's also a few nice motels.

Have you any idea where you'll need to be for you 1st couple of weeks, CBD or further out?

[civillian13]

Thanks, Trigirl and Smiler, that's really really helpful. Where we'll need to be in Wellington, now there's a question! When I get round to it, I'm going to do another post about where people think would be a good place to live in Wellington, so that'll be a fun one to look out for, but I think for the first week or two, as central as possible should probably do it - I assume I'm right in thinking that if we're reasonably close to the middle of town, we can get public transport out to most places we would consider living? Actually I've just completely answered my own question, because we wouldn't want to live somewehere that wasn't a reasonably straightforward bus ride into the middle of town. Hope that makes sense! ;-)

Smiler, you mentioned that you got the keys to your first rental the same day (which sounds absolutley idyllic to me!). I was just wondering what sort of things NZ letting agents are looking for from prospective tenants, so we can get in to a property as quick as we can. Do they need you to have a job, for example? (could be a problem if they do... no work yet...). Would they want a financial reference, or proof of income? Or character references? Sorry, I'm sure this has been answered already on another thread, but I thought I'd press home my advantage with such nice, helpful people ;-).

[Smiler]

No worries.

We had a job (well OH did) but we just told the agency that, they didn't call to check or anything and although we brought letters of reference, bills etc with us, nothing was required except a look at our passports. We knew no one in NZ so just put MIL in UK down as a contact incase sommat happened.

I really don't know if it is the same with all other agencies but the 2 we've used have been very laid back on that part. They even waited while we ran down the ATM and drew out the deposit! We trundled round the Warehouse picking up essentials, ordered a bed and sofa for delivery the next day from Radfords and that was us in. OH really wanted it sorted before he started work. (or he didn't trust me ) and we wanted to be 15-20 mins max from CBD for a while.

If you are worried, email a couple of agencies and check what they want to see. If you like somewhere offer the deposit in cash, if the property is empty, they'd prefer the rent coming in.

I went with a friend rental hunting and the process was a little more drawn out for her but there was a queue of people after the place and they did do a check with her job.

HTH but ask away if you need to know more.

[clg]

I know people that have found rentals very quickly, in a day or two and I know people that have taken weeks. It is going to really depend on how selective you are with an element of luck thrown in. You might also want to look into bach rentals, do a google for those words. You can probably get a furnished place out in kapiti for a reasonable price, cheaper than a furnished apartment in the city at least. They will drop the price for longer rentals.

Chris

[Smiler]

I know people that have found rentals very quickly, in a day or two and I know people that have taken weeks. It is going to really depend on how selective you are with an element of luck thrown in. You might also want to look into bach rentals, do a google for those words. You can probably get a furnished place out in kapiti for a reasonable price, cheaper than a furnished apartment in the city at least. They will drop the price for longer rentals.

Chris

Good point Chris. We got $30 a week knocked off our rental in Miramar, just for asking.

[starkhorn]

Hi,

We are also going to Wellington and we are staying in temp accomdation for the first few weeks. We are staying in a serviced appartment with Whats New on Leeds Street. They have there own kitchen, washing machine etc.

Hope it helps.

Cheers
Starkhorn

[civillian13]

Thanks, everybody, that's really really helpful. What's New on Leeds looks like a pretty good bet to be honest, and $480 a week actually seems pretty reasonable for the city centre. Or am I just thinking in UK money? Or applying a London definition of what constitutes the 'city centre'? It looks pretty much walking distance from everywhere.

Anyhow, thank you all , you've been really helpful. Now, if you fancy heading over to 'Locations' and letting me have your thoughts on where I should rent, that'd be too great for words. I owe you all a beer.