Dannevirke: Council targets Auckland home buyers

Ron Ashford and his wife, Monique, have set up their furniture restoration, repair and custom furniture business here after moving from Auckland. Photo / Christine McKay

This week staff from the Tararua District Council will be at the Home Show in Auckland trying to attract new residents to Tararua.

Armed with details of homes for sale in the district Mayor Roly Ellis and his team will be making a bid for those looking to move.

And as well as the lure of cheap housing, the council team will be selling what Tararua has to offer tourists, our educational options and the lifestyle.

More than 500 exhibitors will be trying to appeal to the more than 45,000 expected at the event which runs from tomorrow through until Sunday.

"We will be promoting the district as the place to live, work and play," Mr Ellis said.

"And while we would love people to work here in the Tararua, we have to appreciate there are job openings within an easy commute of our district too."

For self-employed Ron Ashford and his wife, Monique, moving to Dannevirke last year came after a lot of searching online and for their furniture restoration business being on State Highway 2 was a clincher.

"We wanted to get out of Auckland where the rates were going up and with the mortgage we had, given our age, we'd never pay it off," Mr Ashford said. "We trawled Trade Me looking for a place to live and because I was familiar with the lower North Island and liked it and having driven through Dannevirke we started looking at what our money would buy."

The Ashfords discovered there were a lot of cheap areas to live around the North Island, but some were too isolated and others came with social problems.

"What we liked about Dannevirke was that, in general, houses were well maintained and the people extremely friendly," Mr Ashford said. "We'd looked at Hunterville and Marton too, but with Dannevirke on State Highway 2 and most of my work clients within 5km of the highway, from Napier to Featherston, it was a sweet decision."

And has the decision to move here been the right one for RoNZ Furniture Hospital?

"I've given myself three years and I think we are still on track, but a lot of it is getting known, mostly by word of mouth," he said. "We thought because dairy prices were high [when we came here], we thought the economy would be buoyant, but being mortgage free makes a huge difference."

But it's not all work for the couple. Mr Ashford joined the Dannevirke woodturners group and was enjoying a new focus for the group.

"We're both involved in the church and Monique has taken up spinning and knitting and she also volunteers at the library reading programme."

Mrs Ashford is also on the executive of the Dannevirke and Districts RSA and the Ashford's are heading away soon to help at a missionary hospital in the jungle of Borneo.

For Chris Milham, the Minister at Knox Church, the move to Dannevirke from Auckland has been a positive one too.

"The people here are great and we haven't looked back. I'd encourage anyone to come and live here and although we miss family and friends this is a wonderful place."

Mr Ellis said it was vital the council went out and promoted the district. "If we sit and think people are going to come to use, then we're blinkered."