New Zealand's housing crisis

Not the kind revolving around sub-prime mortgages. Or failed banks or greedy people trying to have more house than they can afford.

To put it quite frankly, the housing here kinda sucks. If you visit any ex-pat forum/blog on the web, this is one of those topics that is always talked about by those coming from the UK, Canada and the US. As mentioned in a previous post, there is no central heating in most homes. Wood burners are common (though recently banned here in Christchurch) and while many are being replaced with a heat pump, the pump is normally only found in the lounge of the home. The rest of the house is heated room by room with either portable heaters or electric heaters of some kind. Most homes also have no insulation and single glazed windows. And remember that Christchurch is roughly the same latitude of Salem, Oregon but just in the Southern hemisphere. Which means similar weather to Salem. Which means cold and rain in the winter. Which means a frickin cold house.

So, all in all, housing standards, up until recent times, have been fairly abysmal. New construction has to meet more stringent standards but let's face it folks, we are not in the price range for renting a newer home.

Thus far, our search for a rental ain't lookin so pretty. Yesterday, we viewed one home that was at the top of our price range. It was in a "nice" neighborhood and had a nice yard that backed up onto a public primary school (since Miss M will start kindy in December) which was sweet. But the house itself? Oy vey. What a dungeon. It was run down and dreary inside. Mike and I both thought it would be the perfect house to buy and fix up but for a rental? No thanks.

We tootled around the city and found some other neighborhoods that we liked, especially Merivale, which is very close to the central business district. We did view the outside of a few townhouses and houses there and in some other key neighborhoods but overall, we were underwhelmed and left feeling a little depressed. Mind you, we know we are going to be renting and so we must lower our expectations but there are a whole lot of dives out there and it is no fun to have to wade through them.

Last night, Mike and I perused "TradeMe", NZ's version of Craigslist mixed with a little "Ebay", and got even more depressed. So we started looking at the burbs that are considered "really far away" and we started to feel a little better. So, this morning, off we went to explore the suburbs along the coast. New Brighton, Sumner, Red Cliffs, Lyttleton- now you are talking! We had a little more luck in finding some possible places (including one right on the beach) but these areas would mean a commute by car (and not by bike which is my preference) and with gas at $1.65/liter, that is probably not such a good idea for our tight budget.

So, we will keep searching, probably a little closer to the city center but farther out than we originally planned (and still bikable). Late this afternoon, we found one that looks pretty good. We drove by it tonight and will take a look at the inside tomorrow. Again, wish us luck and some good sense to find the right place.