Before we arrived in New Zealand we wrote the article about How to Find a Home in New Zealand. We must have done as much research as anyone! Looking back I think we had under estimated the challenge and I do wonder if anyone else did as well!
It has now been 3 months since we were flat hunting, we happened to have arrived in peak season, it was the middle of the summer and right when of all the Auckland students were arriving for the start of their new school years. This meant we were up against thousands of students needed somewhere to live fast!
As with any new town or city you move to we needed to view some properties and figure out what we can get for our budget and suss out the areas we wanted to live in. We used Trade Me to find some properties in a few areas we like or heard a lot about. To find out more about the regions of Auckland check out our article here!
Flat hunting in Auckland can be a challenge…
Our experience was a challenge and we hope others reading this can take on board our experience and learn from it! Here are the lesson’s we learnt – fast!
Lesson Number One: Don’t Be Late!
These agents don’t wait for no one!
It was our first viewing and we had it scheduled at 11am and safe to say new city meant we got lost! We were 5 minutes late (okay maybe more like 8, but still!) we were stood outside the property and the property manager was not there. We rang him and he said he drove by the property 5 minutes ago saw no one was waiting for him and drove off. No text message, no phone call to see if we were stuck in traffic he simply couldn’t be bothered to wait a few minutes. The properties in Auckland are that much in demand they know it will be snapped out of their hands within days of being advertised.
Lesson Number Two: Get Your Application Ready to Hand in whilst you are viewing the Property.
On our second viewing we made sure we were 20 minutes early for! But this time this was an open viewing with around 20 other people waiting outside the property to view it! It was like queuing in a Chinese sweet shop! People were so desperate for the place they wanted to hand in their applications without actually inspecting the property. We soon realised you actually have to hand in your application at the time of viewing the property. This ensures you introduce yourself to the agent, get on their radar so they remember who you are!
Queuing to View a Flat
Lesson Number Three: Be Quick!
We had a third day of viewing ahead of us, this time we came in force with our application’s ready and came extra early! Again they were all open viewings but with slightly smaller groups. In between one of the viewings we had an hour to kill so we decided to hop on Trade Me and see what new properties were listed that day. We found one only a ten minute walk from where we were parker. We decided to call them and within 30 minutes we were viewing the property. The property manager said she only put it on trade me less than an hour ago and she already had 7 phone calls! Anyway she liked us so we filled out the application there and then, she was straight to the point if you can move in Sunday the place is yours with no credit checks needed and no letting fee, just a bond/deposit. We snapped the offer right out of her hands as lo and behold we didn’t get the other properties we viewed as the competition was so tough!
So there you have it our top tips for bagging a place to live in Auckland from our first hand perspective! Good Luck!