Hoon Hay - CHCH people help

I don't really like the area but its fine and safe and admittedly I have never lived over that side of town at all so really have no idea!

I'm the same as Peanut, I've never lived over that side of town so not 100% sure. Think it would be fairly reasonable. It wouldn't be in my top 10 suburbs to live but that's all gone out the window with the earthquake damage now anyway

Now it's pretty tricky! Basically anything North or West is good in terms of less quake damage. It depends on what you are after. If you want to stay south then I know that Halswell is really family friendly, I know a few people that live there.

It depends on your budget really. I like Halswell but it's too expensive for us. The school is really good though (I work there lol)

I live in Hoon Hay. A good area for young families IMO, for the price you pay. I'd avoid Rowley, and Lyttelton St/Studholme etc. As for Sparks Road being munted - um I live on Sparks Road and it's only about 1/4 of Sparks Road that's been damaged, it was actually Rydal St, Hoon Hay Rd, Smartlea St etc. Also Barrington st (not Hoon Hay but close) was pretty bad. Nothing at all like parts (OK a lot) of the east side.

If you were to buy in Hoon Hay, I'd be looking for a house that's in the Hoon Hay zone, I wouldn't send my kids to West Spreydon.

Feel free to PM me if you want info on specific streets - we've lived here 4 years and it's been great for us. But like I said, it depends on your budget, you get good value for your money here but if I had another 100k to spend (hopefully when the house is fixed!) I'd be moving to Halswell area as it's just that little bit closer to Dh's work (and we want a larger and newer house)

My last piece of advice would be to not buy into the 'area' thing - some of the nicest areas (Fendalton/Merivale, parts of St Albans etc) have been quite badly hit this time around. Like any area, there's good and bad streets and for us, because I grew up on this side of town, I wanted to stay here to bring up my own kids

Might be a good idea to have a look at what you can afford and then go from there. Hoon Hay wasn't my first choice, hell I'd love to live in a 500k home in Halswell but you buy what you can afford, and what's available. Personally I wouldn't live in Spreydon, used to live there and don't rate it at all. But then again, some people class us as Spreydon and we're definitely not. Beckenham, Cashmere - definitely nice. Although Cashmere got a hammering in this quake.

On my side, if you could spend up to 500k for a fairly decent home, I'd go Halswell first choice (Aidanfield and Westlake/Oaklands come under that umbrella too, although some parts of Oaklands aren't that nice either), then Beckenham (depending on if you want to live in an older home generally, which are usually lovely BTW), then Hoon Hay/Lower Cashmere (so heading from Sparks Road and Hoon Hay Rd intersection east towards the hills), in a nice cul-de-sac or something. If you're both working on the south side of town, try and live over here as traffic is a nightmare trying to cut across town. Colleagues of mine are spending an hour each way when they used to spend 20 mins.

We def don't have 500 grand for a house, more like 300....so it is limiting us somewhat! We are in Beckenham at the moment I think, we quite like it round here, like the proximity to town etc. But I do get a bit puzzled as to where the suburbs start and end!

There is still some good buys in Bishopdale/Burnside/Brywndr. I love it round there. Great parks, local supermarkets for the quick trips. I live in St Albans and can't imagine living anywhere else. So close to everything. I work in RE in ChCh so let me know if I can help at all!

Yeah for around 300k it does limit you. Halswell houses around that price range aren't the best IMO, you are paying more for the area so you generally get a lesser house. But on the flipside, in all areas you need to see what the street is like and the surrounding streets. eg some people love living in Ilam but there are some incredibly dodgy areas within that suburb, same with all areas of Chch as they spread state housing around and there are always less desirable streets even if they're non state housing

nzlisajo wrote: Bubbaloo - I'm in Hornby (closer to Hei Hei) at the moment too. Can't wait till we can buy our own house and get out of this area of town! Hate it!

Yeah were more in Islington just of Parker street I actually don't mind it too much here but it would be nice to be in a nicer part of town but were quite content here it's close to everything we need at this stage were going to to the place up were in the upgradebut at the rate were going that probably wont be into we are well into retirement lol.

My new job is in the city, well as close as you can get at the moment anyway...so closer in is always better. What are peoples thoughts about Addington? And also is Shirley a bit dodgy or is it ok? Miles from where DH works tho.
We started out looking in hornby/heihei and it didnt really appeal....so maybe we were right there!