Living in Auckland Options...which area?

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Ok, right, thinking of moving to Aucks, looking for a good area, with good schools for the kids, less than 30minute commute to Mount Wellington and not ridiculously expensive for a reasonable house.

Ellerslie seems to be an option, what about Mt. Wellington itself..?

Opinions.. go!

[Andre3000 55]

One tree Hill! great access to schools, not much traffic , pretty quiet streets if you can find the right one.

Google map it...

[Grant 4]

I lived in One Tree Hill for a year before moving here. It was nice, and central to most things. Good neighborhood.

[dubman 39]

Balmoral, three kings, sandringham, hillsborough and One tree hill are all pretty central locations with decent schools depending on the zone. Depending on your kids age, Cornwall Park Primary, Balmoral Primary/Secondary School, Auckland Normal Intermediate, and Mount Roskill Grammar, Mt Albert Grammar and Avondale College for when they grow up.

You are looking at 700,000-900,000 for the above locations for a nice house with garage, but you might get a bargain if you look as with anything.

Mount Wellington, Meadowbanks and St John are also good choices with a nice environment, good pricing for houses, but the schools aren't that flash.

Other people will say different, but thats my 2c lol

[RustyItalian 11]

I think you will need to define what you consider reasonable for house prices.

Is this your first house or are you established sufficiently to buy higher up the price range?

I lived in 10 flats round Auckland before buying. Here are a few comments (as a recent first time buyer):

Meadowbank, nice area but very expensive now. Traffic to get anywhere is crap.

Ellerslie. Lived around here a lot, it was built as a blue collar suburb and tends to be a bit run down and overpriced. Very busy due to pass-through traffic.

Mt Wellington. sh*t hole. No pride. Don't walk the streets. Hated it. Nuff said.

One Tree Hill. Quite variable, some nice stuff but some run down rubbish too. Nice access to city though.

Epson, Mt Eden etc. On my salary no way unless I wanted a bed sit.

I chose Mangere Bridge. A bit rough but was actually a middle class suburb when built and therefore has a lot of decent 70's two storey brick/block houses on decent (800m2) sections. Some houses have great garages or plenty of room to build one. You will be paying $250000 less in this area than the same house in Meadowbank. Prices rapidly rising which also means the quality of the locals is improving. No traffic at all (end of the road) but all that said my daughter won't go to school here...

[elmarco 56]

How about Botany/Howick/Highland Park/Farm Cove? Schools are pretty good (MacLeans College, Botany College, and St Kents are all highly rated high schools and there are good primary schools as well), and it is definitely around 30 mins (or less depending on traffic and the route you take) to Mt Wellington. Bit further to the city though which is one downside, but generally a pleasant place to live.

Meadowbank, Greenlane, One Tree Hill, Glendowie, St Johns are all good but can get real pricey quite quickly. I wouldn't want to live in Mt Wellington, Glen Innes, or Otahuhu personally. Ellerslie can be quite good but can also be crappy as well - just depends on where the place is.

Anywhere in the Auckland Grammar/Epson Girls zones, or eastern bays (St Heliers, Kohimaramara or Mission Bay) is going to be large $$$.

[my_e36 43]

What's your budget? How many people? How many rooms and garage do you want/need?

I live in Pakuranga for the past 7 years. Commute is not that flash to be honest but you can get to Mt Wellington within 30min. Have some decent schools depends on where exactly you want to be (St Kent, Pakuranga College, McCleans, etc...). Most decent 3 bedrooms are 500k+

[kevinator9 57]

Meadowbank, Kohimarama, Mission Bay and Saint Helliers are nice spots (live in the area and went to school there). The closer to the beach the higher the price though.

[Nobimmer 694]

All the cool kids live in Albany.

But, one tree hill would be a good start.

[matt45 1]

might be able to get a cheap wing here.

[Michael. 2313]

One Tree Hill is actually Onehunga in reality, but people that live closer to Campbell Road like to call it One Tree Hill rather than Onehunga for obvious reasons.

It really depends on how much you want to spend, best to try find a house that is price by negotiation too as you may find you could loose out at one that goes to auction (after spending money with a builder or solicitor etc) - which can make the house search all that more stressful.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

What's your budget? How many people? How many rooms and garage do you want/need?

Valuation on our current place is $500k, I could stretch the mortgage out another $100k so $600k in total.

Family of four, wife, two kids. Really looking for 4 bed, one for visitors / rellys / me when I'm in the dog house, large 3 bed at a push.

Need secure and covered parking for two cars, plus two more preferrably off-road parking.

Hmm, not sure these I can get all these things to overlap...

[isis 16]

Definately won't find what you want for 600k budget around Ellerslie, One tree hill.

You could get something that might need work in the south end of Onehunga, but the schools can be a bit ghetto. But for 600k i'd go out east (Howick/Botany/Pakuranga) where the school zones are better & you can take the inner roads to Mt Wgtn

[Michael. 2313]

To get anything remotely decent with what you are after, through the Royal Oak, Onehunga, One Tree Hill, Ellerslie Areas you would be need to be looking in the 600s, if not 700s and beyond.

Just this month we sold two properties which offered what you were after, both 4 bedrooms, renovated, one had a double garage carport, none off street, the other had just 4 or so off street parts but the potential to build a double garage of which both sold in the upper 6's & low 7's respectively.

...And these properties were in the least appealing part of Onehunga!

You would probably have to look at something that needs renovating to get within the range you're looking at, otherwise your just paying the premium for the renovations already been done and most buyers out there jump on renovated properties so your paying extra through the competition.

Mount Wellington area will definitely give you the best bang for buck, but the cheaper you go, ie closer to the Otahuhu end the less appealing the location and general neighbor hood standard... so it becomes a bit of a compromise at the end of the day.

[Docile 64]

why dont you try a bit farther of? got clients atm flocking into manukau - flatbush / dannemora area. lots of new houses 500 - 700k. from 4 bed 2 bath to 6 bed 3 bath.

area is good, brand new school at mission heights and brand new houses still being built beside it. prime real estate still affordable.

[nath 134]

Quite an eye- opener as to how difficult it can be to get to where you want to live in Auckland.

None the less, how about Ellerslie Greenlane sort of areas? I'll admit to being clueless on price, but they aren't exactly the northern slopes of Rem so may be possible

[Allanw 1071]

Quite an eye- opener as to how difficult it can be to get to where you want to live in Auckland.

No kidding!

It looks hard to get all those requirements in one place. The house prices down there are ridiculous!

[NZ BMW 368]

Howick or Onehunga are your best bets given your budget and requirements. Lots of nice villa conversions going on in Onehunga, Howick has more modern homes from the mid to late 1990's.

Then there is always G.I

[Driftit 2078]

East Auckland Jon. The areas are great and Mt Wellington is very close and easy to get to.

Have a chat to Mr Farmer who currently lives in a very nice area in East Auckland. I have lived in the area all my life but recently moved to the shore to be closer to work. The Schools are great and are all a very high decile. The Macleans College Zone is very sought after and actually bumps up the housing prices a large amount. It is one of the best public colleges in NZ. Our large 70's brick and tile 2 story, 4 bedroom + study house will be for sale later this year for around $650-$700K as far as I know.

[shaneg 0]

+1 for east auckland.

Macleans park and the beach there are good for getting the dog a bit of a run around, that area in general is nice.

Friend of mine bought a house in point england for around the $500,000 mark, 4 bed, 2 bath,2 lounge, dbl garage and only 5 yrs old, however not the greatest neighbourhood at the mo, is counting on it to change in the next 10 years.

Best bet would be to do a weekend in akl and have a look at the places you think youd like to live, if i was to buy it would be near bucklands beach, botany is nice too, still plenty of houses being built out that way too.

[Apex 693]

Mt Wellington is a bitch to get to from anywhere, it just bottle necks up massively 7 days a week, I worked in Mt Wellington/Ellerslie for quite a few years and it could take 30-40 mins to get onto the motorway and then the same time again to get back to Papakura where I live.. I was single and didn't mind it so much but that could be 10-20 hours family time a week sitting in traffic if you were to travel there from anywhere further than 10km.

How about in Mt Wellington, there is a lot of development going on there behind Mt Wellington in the College road area. You wont get much of a back yard but you will be close to some great retail and supermarkets and work and it is rather central to everything.

There are some nice parks around, point England is awesome, it is a quick drive down to beach etc.

I have no kids and know nothing about them or schools or anything at all, I would not know what family's do but I know I would rather my kids grow up a bit further north or south, out in the burbs closer to the fringe, I am looking at Pukekohe or further for our family house in a few years.

Ranting.

Meh.

[CamB 48]

To get anything remotely decent with what you are after, through the Royal Oak, Onehunga, One Tree Hill, Ellerslie Areas you would be need to be looking in the 600s, if not 700s and beyond.

I agree - its amazing how much what one might consider a "normal family home" goes for in areas that a few years ago were considered ordinary. (and, of course above and below that price range are equally $$$ for what they are)

I have no kids and know nothing about them or schools or anything at all, I would not know what family's do ....

Speaking only as a parent to a 3yo and 1yo, manual labour and playing with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Edited March 26, 2012 by CamB