Papakura Living

[Edbear]

Go north young man, go north...

[Indiana_Jones]

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere,
I'm all alone, more or less,
Let me fly, far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun...
I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose,
Drinking fresh mango juice,
Goldfish shoals, nibbling at my toes,
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun...
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun...

-Indy

[scumdog]

Yep, Auckland is expensive.

Down here for $500k you'd get a three bedroom house on 10 acres of land, including pond and established trees and within 12 minutes drive of all the schools, preschools etc.

Right in town, for $500k, you'd get a brand new four bedroom house with double garaging.

And if you can't afford Jantars area and want to 'slum it' then come down here, 1100sqm section, 3 bedrooms and two car garage (brand new)in a cosy coastal town, good neighbours (Pounawea) on the Southern Scenic Route might cost you $260,000 - $280,000.
Sealed road, 5km from nearest town with swimming pool, district school , doctors, 4-Square,pub, Police, 30km from Balclutha, 125km south of Dunedin.

Last burglary in 2004. (last known crime)

[750Y]

And if you can't afford Jantars area and want to 'slum it' then come down here, 1100sqm section, 3 bedrooms and two car garage (brand new)in a cosy coastal town, good neighbours (Pounawea) on the Southern Scenic Route might cost you $260,000 - $280,000.
Sealed road, 5km from nearest town with swimming pool, district school , doctors, 4-Square,pub, Police, 30km from Balclutha, 125km south of Dunedin.

Last burglary in 2004. (last known crime)

pretty hard to argue with that, & a dam nice corner of the world to boot, not to mention a great environment to raise the kids.

seriously, check out hunua area. fantastic environment for the kids.
I live out hunua way as does another kb-er. we both have young families & my kids love it, so do i. there's a great school too. prices right now are ok, & i noticed a few semi-bargains when moving within hunua several months back.
i drive howick to hunua every day & so does the mrs(separate cars, long story). also the roads are great for riding & you can be at the boat ramp in 30 mins for fishing at kk-bay. you can do the coromandel loop in 3 hours return so leave at 6am be home by 9am with the whole day ahead for family stuff. there's pig/deer hunting in the ranges, bushwalks & mountainbike tracks. waterfalls, dams, f-all cars & relaxed people. take a fresh look you might be pleasantly surprised. i would not buy in Papakura expecting a brilliant return in capital within the next 10 years...other places will however move.. howick is close to maxing out in many ways but there's still some good people round that way. good luck mate

[Beemer]

I don't know how people can afford to live in Auckland. For what you'd pay for a three bedroomed house on a pocket handkerchief sized section, you'd get a mansion in other towns!

People knock Levin, but there are lot of Wellingtonians shifting here and commuting to the city during the week. A few years ago you could pick up a nice house in town for about $150,000. Now you're lucky to get one under $225,000. We live in the country and the house at the end of our road is on the market right now for $445,000. Five bedrooms, double garage, six acres of land - they paid $250,000 for it in 2003! We know, because we had an offer on the place too in case they pulled out. We paid a bit more than that for our place but we've got three acres and a newer home with five car garaging and a pond.

Years ago you'd think someone was a millionaire if they lived in a half a million dollar home - now they're likely to be the local plumber or shop worker! Our place is worth over $300,000 now and although it's lovely, it's not anything amazing - well, I suppose the views and the peace and quiet are! We're eight minutes from town - two high schools, several primary schools, hospital, several pubs - the works.

[Ozzie]

I've lived in good old Paps for pretty much the entire time I have been in the country (11 years) and haven't had any trouble of any kind. Having said that, I don't look for it either. I have lived in a couple of different areas, and as I say, have been fine, but there are some really scody areas that I wouldn't go, day or night (me being picky more than anything else).

House prices in Papakura over the last 5 years have seen a higher percentage capital gain than the majority of Auckland, but, that has slowed now.

Schools are good, depending on area. I have 3 kids, 2 in primary school, they go to Cosgrove, and seem to enjoy it. They have had no trouble either, however the bro factor of the people in their school make me think of moving prior to them starting high school, things could change by then though. In the area, best junior schools are drury, conifer and cosgrove, best intermediate are both rosehill. If you are looking for the area, look for school zoning.

Takanini, in parts is quite nice (very small parts), most is very low income and high violence (domestic if nothing else), Conifer Grove (actually in the grove) is protected by a single route in and out that has 24hr recorded surveilance, apparently it has FA crime and has a nice park and water front walk to take the kids and the dog.

Drury is nice, quite small, and only an additional 2 minutes south on the motorway. It has a quite good primary school, but is in the Papakura catchment for senior schools, which is a downfall. Drury has enough for you to get by if you forget to get something on the way home, a dairy, superette, servo and other bits and bobs.

Hunua, not sure of the schooling, but the area is very nice, and plenty of valuable/pleasurable riding in the area. There is FA in Hunua itself, but it is a very short way from Paps, which has everything you need. Hunua only has a servo, and it isn't open all hours.

If you are ok to wait, the area inbetween Botany and the back of Manukau is under huge development, and is set for 7 new schools in the next 5 years, and targeted at middle income, so worth considering.

Anyway, that's enough, hope that helps.

[Bytor]

hmmmmm lot's of mixed reactions, which is what I expected. What's one man's paradise is another man's gutter. We'll have a drive around this weekend.

Can all you guys living out of Orkland shut it about your 'low' house prices it just depresses me. We never intended living here always preferring the south island or towns like Tauranga and Napier, but the reality is that the work just isn't available large scale in these areas. I was offered jobs in both Tauranga and Napier soon after arriving from UK but the salaries where half of what I earn up here, and yet the house prices are similar. One recruitment company told me that they are really struggling to get people to leave Auckland and move to these areas because they simply can't afford to!!

Auckland is just sucking up all the business away from the rest of the country - something has to change otherwise NZ will become a giant city called Auckland. Sure once we are more established we can move around, but the danger is we will become trapped up here.

Having said that we like it here in Howick. 2 mins to Howick and Cockle Bay beaches, close to decent retail (Botany) and yet 5 mins from wonderful countryside and good riding roads. We could take the easy option and buy in Dannemora but we just don't like it - legoland with FA character. Iv'e yet to meet anyone who doesn't regret moving there.

Anyway thanks for all your suggestions and opinions it's been much appreciated.

[McJim]

I looked long and hard at moving out of Auckland myself - problem is I couldn't find any work anywhere else - I have to agree with Scumdog - Southland is New Zealand's best kept secret - comes in for a lot of flak from other towns coz it's so far away from everything else - I've got in-laws living down that neck of the woods. There are other options around Auckland too - there's Glenfield - still affordable and quite nice on the North Shore, Titirangi is gorgeous, scenic and affordable (coz it's near the Waitakere Range and rains often - kiwis don't like rain. I'm from Glasgow where it rains 350 days out of 365 so I didn't notice it!) I've been looking into this subject for a year and a half so will share my insights - I've also visited every town in the South island at least once this year so far through work so can let you know a bit about this country from an imigrants point of view.