Christchurch?

The great thing about ChCh is that there are not many dodgey areas. The only areas I would really recommend avoiding are Linwood, Aranui or New Brighton. Everywhere else is nice, particularly on the Port Hills eg Cashmere, Mt Pleasant (depending on how much money you are coming with!) Uni is in Ilam. Have fun house hunting

When we were looking at buying we were mostly looking Hornby way cos DPs mates are all out that way (and some streets were no's there) but depending on your budget Fendalton, Ilam, Burnside or Avonhead arent bad and aren't too far from the Uni. Riccarton has some nice streets but there are some dodgy areas towards Church corner. Id suggest driving around a couple of blocks either side of any house you look at and driving past at night to get an idea if you feel safe in the area. There are lots of areas that are half nice half dodgy. They really need a map that shows you what streets to avoid!

Schools im unsure about Josh's cousin goes to Russley School and his mum really likes it and the others i knew with kids were at Rangiora cos they lived out there.

we are in bishopdale and highly recommend the area...but like any area it has its dodgy streets.
I would go harewood, bishopdale, avonhead, ilam, all good for schools and close to uni. Avoid woolston, linwood, aranui, city and also a lot of hornby and islington is dodgy. Avonhead and Ilam can be expensive which is why bishopdale and harewood are good because they are really close but a little bit cheaper. Riccarton is ok, very busy though and heaps of student flats etc so just be careful where you go.

We are in Ilam/Avonhead, its fantastic, you can still walk to uni but not close enough to be full of students. The schools here are excellent, my girls go to Westburn which is fantastic, goes to year 8 so you can decide if you want them to continue and get leadership experience or transfer to an intermediate. Its not cheap to buy here, but there is plenty of room for negotiation the way the economy is. Have a drive round and see what you think.

Don't go!!!!!! Stay here and both workin the vinnys! lol

I grew up in Bishopdale/Papanui and also went to Harewood School, so lived out that way as well. Bishopdale/Pap are close ish to town and the Uni. Chch has good bus system.
My Family all lived in Linwood at some point (cheaper) and while its cheaper, I probably wouln't live there...Thats just me, tho. Linwood has a good mall, but is a bit more, um. Well, yeah. But I'm a snob and you already know that! I can't think of anywhere here that compares.

I really like Riccarton, Fendalton, Ilam if I had the money I would live there. We live in Hornby/Islington and will say it has a pretty bad rap and it is not that bad and is definitely going places so it is actually a good time to by over here has it is starting to get more expensive so a good place for an invstment aswell we have never had any probs here and James' Daycare is awesome and a real community vibe to it.

Not to sure about schools either has I haven't really looked into thereis a few primary and intermediates to choose from but really only one highschool.

Whats wrong with New Brighton??!

I live here and its awesome! Sure, there are a few rough houses in parts of it, but you get that in any suburb!

I would recommend New Brighton as its so close to the sea, nice people (like me and all the others I know from groups like plunket), only 10kms from the central city - you can drive to uni in about 20mins in rush hour traffic!

I too, have lived all over Christchurch and another area I really loved living in was St Martins - which is over by the base of the Port Hills - not far from Cashmere but rent and house prices are a wee bit cheaper. Awesome school there too!
Bishopdale is quite close to uni and if you found a place probably on the airport side of Greers road and towards the airport, there are lots of nice houses over there, but if you're looking for a Housing NZ house - they have some too on the other side of Greers Rd (and you'd be close to Northlands).
If you get real close to uni, you might end up paying more for rental (if thats how you're going) as they know houses are at a premium for students!

Good luck!

It also depends on your other interests as you won't live at uni. If you live in the New Brighton, parklands, quenspark , Burwood area you have the forrest, beach and great schools (the reason we moved here) and parks close.

If you go south eg cashmere, beckenham etc there are the hills and parks. Sorry don't know of the schools.

Just think of what you want and remember everything else is a short drive or bike away

However for crime statistics perposes i would avoid Linwood, Phillipstown, Aranui, Hornby and the "hood" area of Shirley. The square of Shirley Rd, Hills rd, Briggs rd and Quinns rd.

Sorry if I offend anyone who might live in those areas but they are personally not for me and my family

Good luck and I hope you find what you re looking for.

LOL...hows that for helping you..i think you have a suggestion for all areas...good luck

Hiya, if you want to be in walking distance of the uni, then I would look in Avonhead, Ilam, 'Upper Riccarton' (but be careful as sometimes that's Hornby worded nicely), Riccarton, Fendalton, and some parts of Merivale.

But basically anything's a go-er. I personally wouldn't live in New Brighton if one of the two was attending Uni full time - it's a big commute across town and it used to take friends of mine almost an hour (as they were against traffic so could never turn etc) in the morning, whereas I lived 30km out of town and got there in 20 mins!

I'll be a bit more specific about suburbs we didn't even consider when looking to buy: Hei Hei (Hornby side), Linwood, Woolston, Opawa (but there are some nice streets there), Shirley, Dallington, Islington, Addington (too commercial for my liking and pretty dodgy having lived there before and had a murder 2 houses down from me), Bexley, Bromley. Um that's all I can think of.

If we didn't have to be on the south side of town for DH's work we would have looked at Casebrook/Papanui (again, you need to buy in the right area), St Albans, Harewood, Bryndwr, Halswell (that's where we'll move next lol). We are in Hoon Hay which used to take me 15 minutes to get to to Uni, it takes 15 mins to get into work which is in the central city (that includes finding a park lol), we have everything close but it's still suburbia.

As for schools, it really depends on where you are looking to buy as everything's zoned now. Someone mentioned Russley school - I think it's great. Kendal School (Burnside) I've heard mixed reviews about, Riccarton Primary mirrors the racial makeup of Avonhead - there's a vast majority of Asian students going there which is sometimes good, sometimes bad (number of students needing ESOL teachers, leaving class for other lessons etc). Just thought I'd mention it as it's not everyone's cup of tea. Avonhead Primary is lovely. Basically if you look up ERO reports, the higher the decile the better the school is supposed to be, teacher-wise and resource-wise. Obviously there are exceptions, some lower decile schools I've been to are amazing and some higher decile schools are crap, but it's the general rule, and proven that children in the higher decile schools come out with higher educational status overall. It doesn't tend to work for the middle decile schools though for some reason so you have to be careful there. PM me if you have any questions and I can probably get some dirt for you