# Palmerston North



## parkinson_matthew (Aug 4, 2016)

Hi there,

My family and I are in the process of relocating to Palmerston North and are looking for good local advice please.

We are a family of 4 looking for a suitable place to live and our boys are 4 and 9.

Any helpful thoughts on the following would be greatly appreciated.

Nice areas to live
Good schools
Rental advice
Back accounts
Shopping/Supermarkets


We are bringing our dog with us too if anyone has any advice on that.

Anything you have had a good or bad experience with will be useful information I'm sure.

Many thanks,

Matt.


----------



## escapedtonz (Apr 6, 2012)

Hi Matt and welcom to the forum,

I don't mind Palmy at all. Quite like the town centre. Fairly cosmopolitan with plenty of shops, cafe's, restaurants etc, but that's my only experience of it.
Some friends of our have recently moved out there from south of Auckland simply because they couldn't afford to buy a place near Auckland so went to Palmy as the cost of property and land is so much cheaper. In Pukekohe, South Auckland they lived in a rented 3/4 bed bungalow which would go for around $750 000 , however in Palmy they could buy a 3/4 bed lifestyle property with sheds and a huge garage and maybe also a sleepout in 5 hectares of land for around $500 000. The cost of property/land usually has a bearing on the area and what it has to offer. The lower the prices the less of a demand there is to go live there which usually means the facilities and opportunities there are less than elsewhere. 
Started off as a tiny farming community like most places and just grew. Renowned for the University now I think (Massey) so there's a lot of youngsters about which means the place has that young vibe to it. I'm told there's a bit of a gang thing to be aware of but there's gangs all over. The majority of the lower socio-economic areas of a town or city will have gang members. That's just the way it is.
Place itself has always had a bit of a stigma attached to it and it is often said it's the place to stop on the way to somewhere else. Ask any Kiwi and they say its a cold hole, which I think is unfair, but hey many Kiwi's say anywhere they don't live is bad!!!
It isn't a highly populated area and the job market is small. Out of the city it is pretty rural.
Does get very windy through there quite often and is the reason why there's so many wind farms in the area.
It is in the middle of the country, but you are only 30mins to the beach at Himatangi, close to the mountains and valleys of the central plateau for the ski fields at Mt. Ruapehu. It has an airport so flying is an option.

Can't really help with areas to live. Don't know enough about Palmy to comment. Can guarantee it'll be better than Donny though being that you live on the wrong side of the Pennines ;-)
A good pointer will be the decile ratings of the schools in the area. These are calculated using census data from the zone they operate in, so a school with the highest decile 10 rating will most likely be in an affluent area.

There are 2 x rental contracts - fixed term or periodic.
Fixed term is as it states from one date to the next date usually 6 or 12 months away.
A periodic contract is month by month and what happens automatically when a fixed term contract ends. 
Generally you'll always start on a fixed term at least 6 months maybe 12 months then automatically you'll move to periodic when that fixed term expires unless you negotiate another fixed contract which one would do for security. If you go to the periodic you're at risk of notice being served to get you out in 4 weeks just as you can serve notice to leave within 4 weeks.
Don't commit to any rental contract unless you check a place out in person. Highly risky to sign a contract on a place you haven't seen in the flesh or just via internet photo's. Once you sign on that dotted line you are locked in to pay the weekly rent for the period of the contract and they are difficult to get out of.
Costs on signing a rental contract are usually around 6 x the weekly rental fee up front (4 x rent for the bond, 1 x rent for advance rent and 1 x rent (plus 15% GST) for the agents fee) then you'll have to pay another week as soon as you move in which is generally 1 month or so after you have signed up - depending on who is in there currently.
Initially, go for something temporary or a holiday home or a motel so you can get your bearings and work out where you want to live.

You can open bank accounts in NZ from the UK. All the big players offer you opening accounts online like ANZ, BNZ, Kiwibank, Westpac etc. Once signed up you can send money over to deposit. Before you come out just make an appointment at a local branch in Palmy to meet, go through all your ID's and activate your accounts. Have them order your ITM cards beforehand so they are ready at that meeting. You can also then sign up for credit cards and insurance etc as you need.

Supermarkets - main ones are Countdown, Pac n Save and New World. Shopping here is very seasonal and don't be surprised when you start having to spread out your shopping instead of doing it all in one store. Supermarkets here are NOTHING like in the UK. They sell food, beer, wine and personal items and nowadays the odd bit of clothing. They don't have a third of the store set aside as clothing and they don't have an electrical department so you can't buy TV's and washing machines....yet! You have to go to other stores for them. Have a look at Countdown online to get an idea of costs and what you can buy. You can even do an online shop to check prices.
Much cheaper and better quality getting fruit/veg from a local farmers market and meat from the butcher although I understand it's easier to get it all in the one shop.


----------



## anushka1977 (Aug 15, 2016)

Hi 

I lived in Palmerston North for a year. It's a homely town with everything sl close by. You get plenty of schools and nice houses with gardens. 
I live in Auckland now and I hate it here. The people in Palmy are very friendly and helpful!.

regards,
Anush




parkinson_matthew said:


> Hi there,
> 
> My family and I are in the process of relocating to Palmerston North and are looking for good local advice please.
> 
> ...


----------

