# Furnished house needed in Christchurch



## Geordielass

HELP!
I have looked at all the real estate sites, gumtree and trademe but we are finding it really hard to find a furnished house to rent from now until end June. We need somewhere until our container will arrive with our furniture. Furnished places are all long term rentals or too far out from the city for us. Rent unfurnished and what do you do for furniture until yours arrives? We don't want to move too far away from where we first settle so the kids can get settled into schools and make new friends not too far away without having to do it again a few months down the line. Surely there must be a lot of immigrants in the same position? What do they do? Any suggestions would be welcome please.


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## topcat83

Geordielass said:


> HELP!
> I have looked at all the real estate sites, gumtree and trademe but we are finding it really hard to find a furnished house to rent from now until end June. We need somewhere until our container will arrive with our furniture. Furnished places are all long term rentals or too far out from the city for us. Rent unfurnished and what do you do for furniture until yours arrives? We don't want to move too far away from where we first settle so the kids can get settled into schools and make new friends not too far away without having to do it again a few months down the line. Surely there must be a lot of immigrants in the same position? What do they do? Any suggestions would be welcome please.


How about renting the furniture too ? Here's one site: Relocation Package Hire - Hire and Rent Relocation Packages - New Zealand (Aotearoa) — Hire Things

Alternatively hit Trademe, then sell it all again on Trademe when your stuff actually arrives. It's a bit of a hassle, but you won't lose much on the deal.


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## wammers

Geordielass said:


> HELP!
> I have looked at all the real estate sites, gumtree and trademe but we are finding it really hard to find a furnished house to rent from now until end June. We need somewhere until our container will arrive with our furniture. Furnished places are all long term rentals or too far out from the city for us. Rent unfurnished and what do you do for furniture until yours arrives? We don't want to move too far away from where we first settle so the kids can get settled into schools and make new friends not too far away without having to do it again a few months down the line. Surely there must be a lot of immigrants in the same position? What do they do? Any suggestions would be welcome please.


Hi there
We had same problem so booked into a motel for 1st week after landing here and then did a deal on a holiday home for a few weeks. But then we found an unfurnished property that we didnt want to miss out on so we took on the tenancy and lived on skeleton furniture until our container arrived. 
Looking back it was like camping inside your home but it was great fun and we look back on it fondly now.

Good luck anyway


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## Geordielass

Hi,
My husbands been there a week now and each time we think we've found somewhere someone's beaten us to it. We're following over in about 4 weeks but he's trying to find somewhere to stay in the meantime, as the backpackers place he's staying in is really noisy and is booked up going forward. He's got his own room but it's still not great. A good business opportunity here I think if you had the money!
Thanks for the advice from both of you.


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## FrancisJames

Do you think the quakes have been affecting the rentals market over there? Good places are in short supply.


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## 123laura

*Inappropriate*

Do you think this comment is appropriately timed? People have died.


FrancisJames said:


> Do you think the quakes have been affecting the rentals market over there? Good places are in short supply.


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## topcat83

123laura said:


> Do you think this comment is appropriately timed? People have died.


Very badly timed. The whole country feels just like the time after 9/11 at the moment. The last thing on peoples minds is what rental costs are going to be.


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## FrancisJames

There were thousands of homes damaged in the september quake since then there have been five thousand aftershocks that have caused more damage and forced more people out of their homes. When the OP posted her request it was before the most devastating quake. Since then the situation has obviously worsened.

I am just wondering WHY people were still emigrating to Chch expecting it to be business as usual and why they are allowed to put this additional pressure on limited resources. There are plenty of homeless and displaced families out there that would give their eye teeth for a roof over their heads, furnished or not, I wonder what they think about immigrants arriving and competing for the limited number of available houses?

They should halt all inward migration into the city unless people are arriving specifically to assist in the recovery effort and they should encourage all others to relocate to other areas. Heck they are emptying prisons to accommodate rescue workers and people are still emigrating to the city?!! Sheer madness.


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## kiwifruity

FrancisJames said:


> There were thousands of homes damaged in the september quake since then there have been five thousand aftershocks that have caused more damage and forced more people out of their homes. When the OP posted her request it was before the most devastating quake. Since then the situation has obviously worsened.
> 
> I am just wondering WHY people were still emigrating to Chch expecting it to be business as usual and why they are allowed to put this additional pressure on limited resources. There are plenty of homeless and displaced families out there that would give their eye teeth for a roof over their heads, furnished or not, I wonder what they think about immigrants arriving and competing for the limited number of available houses?
> 
> They should halt all inward migration into the city unless people are arriving specifically to assist in the recovery effort and they should encourage all others to relocate to other areas. Heck they are emptying prisons to accommodate rescue workers and people are still emigrating to the city?!! Sheer madness.



Just like some folk are still emigrating to the area's in Australia that had the floods/cyclone/fires...... each for his/her own!!!! Simply a fact of life....


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## Geordielass

We are not just going for the fun of it. My husband is actually working on the damage done by the last earthquake and I was going to be working for the same company. We are under no illusions that it is business as usual and I appreciate the fact that many people are homeless. I spent countless hours on the day of the latest quake not knowing if my husband was alive and well. My children are missing their dad and I'm missing my husband. My husband cannot find anywhere to live and we cannot join him for the forseeable future. It is certainly no picnic.


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## kiwifruity

Geordielass said:


> We are not just going for the fun of it. My husband is actually working on the damage done by the last earthquake and I was going to be working for the same company. We are under no illusions that it is business as usual and I appreciate the fact that many people are homeless. I spent countless hours on the day of the latest quake not knowing if my husband was alive and well. My children are missing their dad and I'm missing my husband. My husband cannot find anywhere to live and we cannot join him for the forseeable future. It is certainly no picnic.



All the best to you and your hubby! I too was 'split' up from my husband when we lived in the UK - due to work - just bloody awful..... So glad your husband was okay regarding the last quake - it is beyond anyone's understanding what those poor people went through - and are still going through.......:clap2: good on ya for standing by your husband's side. Good luck with all your plans!


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## Geordielass

Thanks Kiwifruity
We have had the most terrible 18mths and it was going to be a new start with us all moving to NZ. Yet again something happens to stop us but we'll just have to battle on, even with us at opposite sides of the earth. I just keep hoping that someone somewhere is looking down on us for once and gives us a break. It just annoys me so much when people feel then can voice their opinions when they don't know the first thing about a situation.


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## kiwifruity

Geordielass said:


> Thanks Kiwifruity
> We have had the most terrible 18mths and it was going to be a new start with us all moving to NZ. Yet again something happens to stop us but we'll just have to battle on, even with us at opposite sides of the earth. I just keep hoping that someone somewhere is looking down on us for once and gives us a break. It just annoys me so much when people feel then can voice their opinions when they don't know the first thing about a situation.



Geordielass - only know too well regarding things going wrong - it's a case of 'Murphy's Law' always arises - hang in there - my advice to all giving negative replies who do not know your circumstances......'On yer bike'...


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## topcat83

Geordielass said:


> We are not just going for the fun of it. My husband is actually working on the damage done by the last earthquake and I was going to be working for the same company. We are under no illusions that it is business as usual and I appreciate the fact that many people are homeless. I spent countless hours on the day of the latest quake not knowing if my husband was alive and well. My children are missing their dad and I'm missing my husband. My husband cannot find anywhere to live and we cannot join him for the forseeable future. It is certainly no picnic.


So sorry to hear about what you're going through - and i don't think it was your comment that was badly timed!

Christchurch is going to need people like you that are prepared to work putting the city back together. Thank goodness your husband was OK.


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## ClemClan

Geordielass said:


> HELP!
> I have looked at all the real estate sites, gumtree and trademe but we are finding it really hard to find a furnished house to rent from now until end June. We need somewhere until our container will arrive with our furniture. Furnished places are all long term rentals or too far out from the city for us. Rent unfurnished and what do you do for furniture until yours arrives? We don't want to move too far away from where we first settle so the kids can get settled into schools and make new friends not too far away without having to do it again a few months down the line. Surely there must be a lot of immigrants in the same position? What do they do? Any suggestions would be welcome please.


Hi there, I have sent you a private message with regards to your housing problem, let me know if you don't receive it.

Cheers


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## Song_Si

Hi - this article on Stuff today regarding housing issues in Christchurch. 

*Christchurch faces rental home shortage*

Canterbury's earthquake is expected to compound a shortage of rental properties, despite reports of shocked tenants leaving town.

Property managers say the city was already experiencing a chronic shortage of accommodation for helpers and displaced tenants after the quake in September.

"Now there's been a lot more houses [damaged] so that problem's just escalated, so there will be a shortage," said Martin Evans of A-1 Property Management.

Mr Evans, who is also the national president of the Property Investors Federation, said many of his tenants appeared to have understandably decamped.

"Some are traumatised, some have no water or power so they're just going, they don't care what we do about it." He said people had vowed to leave for good but believed that was the human factor talking.

"A lot of people have said that under stress ... I'm sure the people who have taken off will come back."

Harcourts chief executive Hayden Duncan said there was "no indication at this stage" of an exodus of tenants and was braced for an accommodation shortage.

Normally his firm's rental vacancy rate in Christchurch ran to 5 per cent, but even before the latest quake, it had been zero.

"Whether a lot of people can get back to work will probably have a big bearing on how many people leave, but ... the short-term and medium-term outlook for accommodation in Christchurch is pretty tight."

Mr Duncan said with so many businesses out of action, Government relief packages would play a crucial role for some people.

"We do have an expectation that rent arrears will be quite significant, whether that be because people don't have the funds or whether or not it's not something they prioritise highly at the moment."

His company had not yet formed a strong view on back payments.

Renters are still legally obliged to pay unless the house is officially condemned.

Mr Evans said he had given up trying to get around his firm's 550 rental properties but he had walked about an hour to crowbar open the door of an elderly tenant's house.

He expected some landlords would have to drop rents to make up for the slow progress in restoring toilet facilities or dealing with liquefaction.


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## Siouxzee

Geordielass - Glad to hear your husband is fine! I can only imagine what you must have gone through.


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## Geordielass

At long last everything seems to be coming together. My husband has found a house through work, as someone who was meant to be coming down from the north island with his family, is now not coming, which is lucky for us anyway. We have our flights booked and will be on our way on the 29th March. We can't wait to get there and see our new home for real instead of on skype and more importantly see my husband! It's been a long time!:eyebrows: Thanks for everyone's help and advice directly and indirectly.:clap2:


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