# Coming back to CHCH



## Fatandy26 (Jan 19, 2014)

Hi everybody, I'm heading back to CHCH at the end of February after taking a new job surveying. I worked in the city straight after the Feb shake for six months before having to return to the UK so know a bit about the place. However, now that things have moved on can anybody advise on how the areas have changed, is Merivale still the same or have the demographics been altered, and what really is the situation with rental properties, I've heard so many conflicting stories.

Hope you can help me out, would be nice to get a feel of the place again before I return,

Thanks,

Andy


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## Liam(at)Large (Sep 2, 2012)

From people I know with first hand experience, rental properties are few and far betweeen and those that are available are very expensive.


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## Kimbella (Jul 4, 2013)

Fatandy26 said:


> Hi everybody, I'm heading back to CHCH at the end of February after taking a new job surveying. I worked in the city straight after the Feb shake for six months before having to return to the UK so know a bit about the place. However, now that things have moved on can anybody advise on how the areas have changed, is Merivale still the same or have the demographics been altered, and what really is the situation with rental properties, I've heard so many conflicting stories.
> 
> Hope you can help me out, would be nice to get a feel of the place again before I return,
> 
> ...


The residential demographics haven't shifted much... merival, fendalton, etc are still the choicest suburbs around, most of the eastern suburbs remain quite damaged, including the infrastructure (lots of broken roads and roadworks going on constantly). I lived in New Brighton for the first 18 months after the quake, on one of the "main" roads and the amount of damage was second only to the amount of infrastructure work that eventually started up. At one point we had work going on right immediately in front of our house for 9 months (sewer work), when that was finished they moved about 20 meters down the road and resumed the same in a different spot. Ground shaking and smashing constantly, work trucks rumbling by starting at 0530.. was like a million little shakes (and some big ones by FULL trucks!) all the time. So, depending on what you want, most areas are still up and going with the exception of the residential red zones. We moved eventually, just couldn't suffer the *constant* building going on.

Renting here can be very difficult, altho I suppose it is going to depend on what standard you are willing to accept for your accommodation. If you just care about a roof over your head, you'll find something. It will be over-priced, but stuff is available. For me, I wanted something liveable, and nice. I could not find anything that fit *my* expectations for under $450 pw. If you start looking on TradeMe you'll get an idea of what there is and what the starting price points are. We owned our home before we moved and then decided to rent because we just couldn't stomach buying in such a hyper inflated market, especially when so much remains undone with the rebuild... we wanted to be portable. There has been much in the media about the feral housing market, and it is hyperbole, but not entirely. The "reasonably" priced rental home market really IS feral --- $250 to $350 pw showings are pretty crazy with literally dozens of people coming to viewings. The higher the rent you can pay, the lower the pool of potential tenants, but even in our price range (mid-high), we we vying with about 6 to 10 other couples at the viewings we went to (and that was just at the open house WE attended, some places had multiple viewings). I composed a "rental CV" that had all of our family information on it, adults, kids, pets, our accommodation history, work history, why we wanted to rent now, our hobbies, a pic of the family, and names and numbers for our references, and of course, our contact information. There were two places we were interested in renting and we handed this in to both people showing the places, both places were offered to us the same day we viewed them. I also gave this suggestion to two other people in a different ex-pat site I visit, and they both also had almost immediate success getting a rental, one person had been searching for MANY weeks she said, and got a place the first day she used the CV method. There are so many people vying for rentals here that you really do need something to set yourself apart from the pack, AND that is easily accessible for the potential landlord to see and reference, which makes their job easier--which hopefully translates into them thinking you'll be an easy care tenant to have. 

Anyway, the area of town that I find to be the family friendliest, and liveliest is where we live now--south city: Sydenham, Beckenham, Opawa, Cashmere.
Sydenham business area on the outer skirts of the CBD has become the new business buzzy area, lots of new shops, restaurants, etc. The residential area is pretty well untouched by EQ damage and is close to the rebuild centre of the city, etc. Riccarton, Upper Riccarton, etc also nice, but again, probably at a premium price, and might be more than what you even need. After two years in a completely EQ destroyed home, I just had to move my family into something that was really nice--we needed it for our mental health!  It's not cheap, but we feel immensely better. There are cheaper and less "fancy" places here in Chch, you just need to stand out from the rental market pack, and decide on what suites YOUR needs! 

Best of luck!


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