Nice areas of Wellington to live in?

Hi,

We are looking to live in Wellington when we move to New Zealand, can anyone tell me the nice areas to live. We have two small children aged 4 and 1 so would be looking for a family friendly area with good schools and a not to bad commute into the city.

Cheers,

Chris.

Hi Chris,

I lived in London for 10 years - am now back in Wellington. The hot areas to live are the eastern suburbs (miramar, stratford etc) with price tags to match if you are buying a house. Saying that - you can still pick up a reasonable deal and renting is fine too.

Other areas that are popular are Newtown, Mt Cook, again focussing on getting sun. The western suburbs lose the sun in the afternoon if on the wrong side of the hill. I like Wadestown, Kelburn, Northland - good schools, etc

Cheers,

Donna

Hi Chris,
We're living in Johnsonville at the mo, which is a kind of self-contained suburb only 15 mins from Welly by car (2nd exit off the Motorway - SH1 - heading North out of Wellington). It's got it's own shopping mall, 2 supermarkets, take aways, restaurants, pubs, video stores, hairdressers, banks, post shop etc, and is only 10 - 15 mins to Porirua's larger shopping mall, North City, so unless you really want to, there's no need to go into Wellington city if you need something desperately. (Although we can't keep away from the city - we love it!) It seems to be quite family orientated here, and the mall is being developed in the next few years so they reckon that this will become an even more desirable place to live, pushing house prices up which at the moment are quite affordable.
When are you planning on coming out? Is Welly a definate or are you looking at other places too? What do you want out of the place you live?
Cheers,
Jodie

Hi Jodie,

It all depends on our PR application and after the trip to the Expo on Sunday I won't be holding my breath just yet! :icon_biggrin:

We are looking for a nice family oriented area to live with good schools for the kids (two sons aged 4 and 1) but without a massive commute to the city. Wellington is definitely where we want to live as it would seem to offer the job opportunities for me (IT Consultancy/Support) with the life style we want.

I guess the first hurdle is to get there and then get a feel for the areas and rent until we are happy that we know that we want to live in a particular area.

Cheers,

Chris.