Rents have decreased in Christchurch - Market Update.

[MikeO]

Hi Razzzor
Suburb = St Albans, near to the city. I rented it abour 6 weeks ago which I reckon is the WORST time to find a tenant at the very end of winter. My property manager didn't want to drop the rent to 360 but I didn't want it vacant too long. I would say it should be a bit quicker to find tenants now.

[Kirwee]

What is a reasonable suburb to buy to live in for 12 months and then use the property as a rental?

Have to be in Christchurch for the next year before returning to Wellington.

Thanks.

[MikeO]

What is a reasonable suburb to buy to live in for 12 months and then use the property as a rental?

Have to be in Christchurch for the next year before returning to Wellington.

Thanks.

Tricky question in Christchurch as you need to think about the land status as well as the neighbourhood. I wouldn't buy TC3 unless it was ridiculously cheap and had insurance. Places I would consider buying rental property in (for a variety of reasons) include:

St Albans - good rental demand, close to town, need to be careful though as a lot is TC3
Burnside
Cashmere (not in the hills)
Sydenham
Bryndwr
Bishopdale
Casebrook
Ilam
Avonhead
(parts of) Papanui
(most of) Riccarton

Suburbs I would stay clear of:
Most of the east but in particular Aranui, Avondale, Linwood,
Hillmoreton
New subdivisions miles away from town (although who knows what will happen with new roads etc)

Suburbs I might take a punt on
Addington
New Brighton/North Beach/ South Brighton/ South Shore (that would be a big punt though and it woudl need be across the road from the beach)

Areas I might look at if cashflow lower priority, capital gain more important:
Fendalton
Sumner

Just my personal view and prejudices. Would be interested to know where other quaketown investors prefer.

[Razzzor]

I'm not so sure about Sumner. With all the growth being to the west and north canty, I think Sumner will slowly become more like Brighton, the cheap part of town. It probably would have gone that way already if it weren't for all the rich people living on the hills, but apart from a view I really don't see much of a catch for the rich living up on the hills anymore. 5 years on from the EQ and the long, slow 1 lane road towards town is still a piece of crap to drive on, it would be enough to make me want to move. Plus all those on the hills probably don't work very close very close to where they live anymore.

I don't mind Linwood too much either, it'll always be 1 of the closest suburbs to town and very easy to get into it with cashel/hereford/worcester/gloucester/kilmore which never have traffic jams.

Kirwee; it really depends on your budget and what quality and size place you want to buy.

[Kirwee]

Thanks heaps MikeO and Razzer.
That's a lot of info and unless you know the area well I guess you could end up in a bad area.
Cheers

[Wayne]

How's the flooding situation around St Albans now?

[MikeO]

How's the flooding situation around St Albans now?

Yer good point. Best to check LIMs carefully. Flockton basin in particular I guess. Maybe 15 years ago I had a place on Archer St which is near to Flockton St and it stated flood risk on the lim. Didn't worry me for that place as it was about 3 feet higher from the neighbours but they had lots of flooding even back then.