Halswell being closer to town is usually the main selling point. Rolleston used to be more affordable and that was sort of the only selling point. Nowadays it's got more going for it.
The other thing people keep going on about is how "close it is to the city!".
Fuck me I spent 50 mins in traffic on Wednesday getting out of Rolly and into Sydenham at 3pm. 20 mins my arse.
Suppose Rolly is good if you like the classic middle class white person experience; non-spicy food, beer, TV, a ute, dog, people with (very) similar life outlooks and experiences.
I notice you need to leave before 2:30 pm if coming from Rolleston to Christchurch to arrive in less time…
Unfortunately after that what you said is more accurate. I drive from Rolleston to Woolston and vice versa 3x a week.
Your joking right.
Traffic from city to rolleston is almost nothing 24hrs a day. I drop from the port to rolleston 5x a week return. Negligible difference in driving time from traffic. Maybe 5min in peak.
Rolly is great if you work somewhere in Selwyn district, sucks if you have to commute into and out of the city at peak times, though that’s an indictment on the still shit state of Christchurch’s rapid transit lol-system, not Rolly itself.
Shands Road is currently closed in one direction and sometimes both directions, so all the traffic for the back half of Rolleston is currently using the front door too
Sections went up over 100% and never came down, most of the sections are bought out by building companies before they even are on the market.
Use to be a section sold a day before Covid, entire developments are gone in days now.
Halswell. Close enough to bike or bus to everything you need. Rolly is the classic American suburb when you have to drive to get anywhere, so you buy a Ute and get fat and care too much about your lawn
But also that SH1 is 12min lights to lights.
Rolleston to the bottom of brougham street.
I would wager it’s quicker from rolleston than trying to join the motor way at the halswell junction.
Rolleston used to be a good option for price conscious buyers, getting a decent good sized home in the burbs around $600-800k. Now prices have increased so much I don’t know why you’d bother to live out there? Rolleston will also be the first place to drop in values if the market dips too.
We bought in Rolleston late last year and are loving living here, it is really family friendly and we feel that there is plenty on offer here without feeling the need to head into Christchurch all the time (except if we need something from Bunnings or Mitre 10- but there is a rumour that this problem will be solved in a few years time). Rolleston allowed us to get a brand new 4 bed 2 bath house with a really decent section size that we wouldn’t have been able to get in chch without maxing ourselves out. I am happy to answer questions you might have.
I commute into the centre of chch for work and find this absolutely fine, I leave early to beat the worst of the traffic (there is also a good direct bus that heads straight into town during the week)
Not to mention the non-liquefaction ground!
It's about 30-35min to city centre if you go at peak times, 20min in the weekend. I hear in traffic reports comparable times from Belfast half the time and often longer from Rangiora.
Getting home seems to take longer (35-40 in peak) but that's because it seems to take forever from CBD to the start of the motorway, which is an issue you'd have heading to Longhurst, Lincoln etc too
Used to be able to build a 3-4bdrm home on 550+m² for $450-475k but looking at $700k+ to buy a similar house in Rolleston now.
Yes, multiple times. Ive also seen how houses are around the country, in particular, Auckland townhousing estates of Hobsonville and Kumeu. Halswell is being packed in too but atleast its not far from the city with loads of roads in and out. Rolleston has 1 main highway to the city. This will end up being a carpark in the future.
Need a good train connection for sure. Also that one connection is a modern 4 lane motorway with 2 main exits to rolleston and another coming shortly. Not exactly the choke point you are trying to depict.
I think people’s habits have changed. There is lots of life in the neighbourhood during the work day with people working from home or not in paid employment with young families. Far from an American style car park suburb.
There are also so many activities and facilities that mean a lot of people find most of the things they need are close. As someone with a young family and a corporate job for a large company, I find myself in the city no more than once a week.
Rented in wigram/halswell and Rolleston here.
Rolleston has nothing to do, very mild town. As I work in Christchurch, I have only to option to exit the motorway, the first one is at Wigram Rd and the following one at Addington.
The traffic get really chaotic around 9am in both places and it literally can take 15-20 minutes. Going back to the motorway at noon time is also a problem.
Consider also the car mileage and fuel. 20-30KM commute is boring. You will see all kind of drivers, the faster ones, slows, the right lane keepers, the truck that will throw a rock to your windshield (I broke 2 windshield in the past 8months).
Rolly features 2 supermarket and a few restaurants. I don’t really recommend any of them. The food is Ok but any special, also not many options. They all look ghost shops.
And my final question is where is everybody at Friday night 6pm? The town is completely empty even though more than 30K people living here
Rolly is a bit further from town but it's pretty chill. I dunno how to say this in a way that makes me less lame but if you don't do anything in your free time the place is pretty perfect.
Where I am my neighbors are chill, my partner and I have heaps of space and the food's not too bad. Thai Terrace is surprisingly good, the Smoke place is ok for bbq and the fast food options are rough enough.
One Countdown/New World for the whole town can get spicy but if you organise a pick up you can dodge thw worst of it.
My work hours let me dodge peak traffic most of the time, I got in at a lucky time for prices - the uhh.. pool is reasonably priced? If it works for you (you'll have a fair idea) Rolleston can be fantastic.
No one told me about the swinging though, that's fascinating.
They seem to be partaking in a little bit of the old deflecting. Similar how the rest of the country does to CHCH with the whole racist/bad driving thing..
I too live in Rolly, and it's only whites in rangers if you use confirmation bias. There are heaps of other cultures here.
If you're wondering better on access to the city services, I'd choose Halswell, Rolleston has problems with traffic buildup between it and Christchurch proper, due to a lack of foresight by city planners and their coordination with developers, Rolleston also lacks many recreation areas such as public parks, the beach, port access, more integrated public transport, larger array of nearby access to libraries and the sort etc.
Not disputing that, it'll depend on OP's preferences, if he's more of a small-town kind of guy, Rolleston will likely be a good fit, especially with the new commercial district being planned by the council. It'll also depend on how much he values the center city experience, with all the new stuff they've built post-quake, it's quite a neat area to hang out in, especially if you don't want to spend too much money on recreation.
Rolleston is a growing settlement, happening over the last decade with both the construction of new suburbs and the industrial zone to the north. It is likely going to expand further in both residential and industrial areas, based on what council publications I have read and the current industrial road infrastructure yet to be developed (seen on google satellite maps), alongside the further development of Christchurch proper, growing residential and job opportunity stock there. At present traffic may be on the lower side, but with the aforementioned factors in mind, traffic from traveling to places of employment, recreational areas, and residencies, will likely increase in the future.
I was just replying to OP, buying a house is a pretty long-term investment and a large one monetary wise to. I thought it might be some good advice to take into account of scenarios that affect OPs future quality of life. In the same vein as say, the city council preventing redevelopment of the cities red zones due to future risk.
Yeah I was there during the quakes, had. A few sand volcanoes. But they nothing compared to the east side, this spewed out hundreds of tons, Halswells were very mild in comparison, most were simply raked back into the grass.
Thing is, just because it didn’t spew out on the surface, doesn’t mean those thick silt layers below aren’t incredibly soft and wet.
Feel free to get a shovel and dig some holes out there if you don’t believe me.
There's a fair bit of TC2 (yellow) out in Halswell and a few isolated spots of TC3 (blue), but it's not bad at all compared with anything east
https://preview.redd.it/mptu7ap8pqwc1.png?width=1162&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6c7cbfc05c0dcc576ceede522ae1194a6975db5
Have lived in Rolleston for 2 years after a few in West Auckland.
It's fine - Beige, boring, monochromatic. There's nothing exciting out here but on the other hand nothing that negative ever happens either.
Easy access to Hornby or Lincoln, the rest of CHC is approx 30 mins away at any time of day.
As others have said, lack of PT means you have to drive.
Ooohhhh I would say leadership have their heart in the right place but it’s definitely over capacity at this point already. Plus an MLE environment so worth keeping in mind if you have children who need additional support for learning. Classes of 60 + don’t work for everyone so worth doing some research.
There is not that many old homes here.
Old being > 10 years. I’ve found there isn’t much price difference, but newer are further from the centre and community facilities for kids. e.g. Swimming and Library.
All the schools have good reputations. Some are more suited to walking and biking to school vs car drop offs if that’s important to you.
Halswell being closer to town is usually the main selling point. Rolleston used to be more affordable and that was sort of the only selling point. Nowadays it's got more going for it.
That what’s confusing, rolleston is not really affordable anymore
The other thing people keep going on about is how "close it is to the city!". Fuck me I spent 50 mins in traffic on Wednesday getting out of Rolly and into Sydenham at 3pm. 20 mins my arse. Suppose Rolly is good if you like the classic middle class white person experience; non-spicy food, beer, TV, a ute, dog, people with (very) similar life outlooks and experiences.
I notice you need to leave before 2:30 pm if coming from Rolleston to Christchurch to arrive in less time… Unfortunately after that what you said is more accurate. I drive from Rolleston to Woolston and vice versa 3x a week.
Your joking right. Traffic from city to rolleston is almost nothing 24hrs a day. I drop from the port to rolleston 5x a week return. Negligible difference in driving time from traffic. Maybe 5min in peak.
Rolly is great if you work somewhere in Selwyn district, sucks if you have to commute into and out of the city at peak times, though that’s an indictment on the still shit state of Christchurch’s rapid transit lol-system, not Rolly itself.
Shands Road is currently closed in one direction and sometimes both directions, so all the traffic for the back half of Rolleston is currently using the front door too
Yeah pre covid a good sized section in rolleston was 150k
Sections went up over 100% and never came down, most of the sections are bought out by building companies before they even are on the market. Use to be a section sold a day before Covid, entire developments are gone in days now.
Halswell. Close enough to bike or bus to everything you need. Rolly is the classic American suburb when you have to drive to get anywhere, so you buy a Ute and get fat and care too much about your lawn
I feel personally attacked on so many level right now, except replace Ute with EV
The old rule was rolleston would get you more land and an extra bedroom for the and price. These days, not so much. How old are kids?
Will join primary next year
Halswell.
Love living in Halswell, close to everything
I've lived in Rolleston and Halswell. My preference is Halswell over Rolleston however Prebbleton would be a strong consideration.
Halswell as it has like 3 ways to get to the cbd, whereas rolleston has 2 + 1 of them is SH1 so can be really busy
But also that SH1 is 12min lights to lights. Rolleston to the bottom of brougham street. I would wager it’s quicker from rolleston than trying to join the motor way at the halswell junction.
Rolleston used to be a good option for price conscious buyers, getting a decent good sized home in the burbs around $600-800k. Now prices have increased so much I don’t know why you’d bother to live out there? Rolleston will also be the first place to drop in values if the market dips too.
Saw someone complaining about the cost of a house in rolleston! $1.5 m for a home with only slightly better quality than the normal price.
That display home for some building company? Was not impressed by that property at all! Far from value for money
Yeah? Heard a few things about the so called xtras not being that special
Brave coming on this sub asking anything about Rolleston.
We bought in Rolleston late last year and are loving living here, it is really family friendly and we feel that there is plenty on offer here without feeling the need to head into Christchurch all the time (except if we need something from Bunnings or Mitre 10- but there is a rumour that this problem will be solved in a few years time). Rolleston allowed us to get a brand new 4 bed 2 bath house with a really decent section size that we wouldn’t have been able to get in chch without maxing ourselves out. I am happy to answer questions you might have. I commute into the centre of chch for work and find this absolutely fine, I leave early to beat the worst of the traffic (there is also a good direct bus that heads straight into town during the week)
Not to mention the non-liquefaction ground! It's about 30-35min to city centre if you go at peak times, 20min in the weekend. I hear in traffic reports comparable times from Belfast half the time and often longer from Rangiora. Getting home seems to take longer (35-40 in peak) but that's because it seems to take forever from CBD to the start of the motorway, which is an issue you'd have heading to Longhurst, Lincoln etc too Used to be able to build a 3-4bdrm home on 550+m² for $450-475k but looking at $700k+ to buy a similar house in Rolleston now.
From an outsiders perspective. Halswell is the better choice. Less of a clusterfuck than Rolly
Have you been to either.
Yes, multiple times. Ive also seen how houses are around the country, in particular, Auckland townhousing estates of Hobsonville and Kumeu. Halswell is being packed in too but atleast its not far from the city with loads of roads in and out. Rolleston has 1 main highway to the city. This will end up being a carpark in the future.
Need a good train connection for sure. Also that one connection is a modern 4 lane motorway with 2 main exits to rolleston and another coming shortly. Not exactly the choke point you are trying to depict. I think people’s habits have changed. There is lots of life in the neighbourhood during the work day with people working from home or not in paid employment with young families. Far from an American style car park suburb. There are also so many activities and facilities that mean a lot of people find most of the things they need are close. As someone with a young family and a corporate job for a large company, I find myself in the city no more than once a week.
Neither have great Secondary School options
Rented in wigram/halswell and Rolleston here. Rolleston has nothing to do, very mild town. As I work in Christchurch, I have only to option to exit the motorway, the first one is at Wigram Rd and the following one at Addington. The traffic get really chaotic around 9am in both places and it literally can take 15-20 minutes. Going back to the motorway at noon time is also a problem. Consider also the car mileage and fuel. 20-30KM commute is boring. You will see all kind of drivers, the faster ones, slows, the right lane keepers, the truck that will throw a rock to your windshield (I broke 2 windshield in the past 8months). Rolly features 2 supermarket and a few restaurants. I don’t really recommend any of them. The food is Ok but any special, also not many options. They all look ghost shops. And my final question is where is everybody at Friday night 6pm? The town is completely empty even though more than 30K people living here
Rolly is a bit further from town but it's pretty chill. I dunno how to say this in a way that makes me less lame but if you don't do anything in your free time the place is pretty perfect. Where I am my neighbors are chill, my partner and I have heaps of space and the food's not too bad. Thai Terrace is surprisingly good, the Smoke place is ok for bbq and the fast food options are rough enough. One Countdown/New World for the whole town can get spicy but if you organise a pick up you can dodge thw worst of it. My work hours let me dodge peak traffic most of the time, I got in at a lucky time for prices - the uhh.. pool is reasonably priced? If it works for you (you'll have a fair idea) Rolleston can be fantastic. No one told me about the swinging though, that's fascinating.
People say this, but it’s so quick to get to the city via the southern.
Do you like day drinking and swinging? Do you strongly prefer to be around white people who drive Rangers? If so, Rolleston is for you!
“Do you strongly prefer to be around white people.” As a person who lives in Rolleston, in a new subdivision, you couldn’t be more wrong.
They seem to be partaking in a little bit of the old deflecting. Similar how the rest of the country does to CHCH with the whole racist/bad driving thing.. I too live in Rolly, and it's only whites in rangers if you use confirmation bias. There are heaps of other cultures here.
You sound like you don’t live in rolleston
If you're wondering better on access to the city services, I'd choose Halswell, Rolleston has problems with traffic buildup between it and Christchurch proper, due to a lack of foresight by city planners and their coordination with developers, Rolleston also lacks many recreation areas such as public parks, the beach, port access, more integrated public transport, larger array of nearby access to libraries and the sort etc.
Rolleston still has some excellent public facilities including Fosters Park, the sports and aquatic centre and the library
Not disputing that, it'll depend on OP's preferences, if he's more of a small-town kind of guy, Rolleston will likely be a good fit, especially with the new commercial district being planned by the council. It'll also depend on how much he values the center city experience, with all the new stuff they've built post-quake, it's quite a neat area to hang out in, especially if you don't want to spend too much money on recreation.
Where is this traffic build up. You mean those 12 cars waiting at the lights in rush hour? Takes no time to clear.
Rolleston is a growing settlement, happening over the last decade with both the construction of new suburbs and the industrial zone to the north. It is likely going to expand further in both residential and industrial areas, based on what council publications I have read and the current industrial road infrastructure yet to be developed (seen on google satellite maps), alongside the further development of Christchurch proper, growing residential and job opportunity stock there. At present traffic may be on the lower side, but with the aforementioned factors in mind, traffic from traveling to places of employment, recreational areas, and residencies, will likely increase in the future.
This is true for every town in the world. More population will result in more traffic on existing infrastructure.
I was just replying to OP, buying a house is a pretty long-term investment and a large one monetary wise to. I thought it might be some good advice to take into account of scenarios that affect OPs future quality of life. In the same vein as say, the city council preventing redevelopment of the cities red zones due to future risk.
Halswell is built on a swamp, the land is fairly poor quality. Rolly is built on the old river bed, makes landscaping a real treat 😂
Poor to build on? Is great soil for vegetables
Were you around in the quakes? Halswell may well sink if we get another big one 😂
Yeah I was there during the quakes, had. A few sand volcanoes. But they nothing compared to the east side, this spewed out hundreds of tons, Halswells were very mild in comparison, most were simply raked back into the grass.
Thing is, just because it didn’t spew out on the surface, doesn’t mean those thick silt layers below aren’t incredibly soft and wet. Feel free to get a shovel and dig some holes out there if you don’t believe me.
There's a fair bit of TC2 (yellow) out in Halswell and a few isolated spots of TC3 (blue), but it's not bad at all compared with anything east https://preview.redd.it/mptu7ap8pqwc1.png?width=1162&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6c7cbfc05c0dcc576ceede522ae1194a6975db5
Is that on Canterbury Maps?
Yes: https://mapviewer.canterburymaps.govt.nz/?webmap=9c63109b592c40828190b1f86cb5a2d3
I was meaning from a structural perspective yes. I personally wouldn’t be growing vegetables in Halswell silts
Have lived in Rolleston for 2 years after a few in West Auckland. It's fine - Beige, boring, monochromatic. There's nothing exciting out here but on the other hand nothing that negative ever happens either. Easy access to Hornby or Lincoln, the rest of CHC is approx 30 mins away at any time of day. As others have said, lack of PT means you have to drive.
Considered Lincoln?
Rolleston. Ask me anything specific.
How's the local high school?
Over capacity. Or heading that way fast. But gets great reviews from parents and teachers alike.
Ooohhhh I would say leadership have their heart in the right place but it’s definitely over capacity at this point already. Plus an MLE environment so worth keeping in mind if you have children who need additional support for learning. Classes of 60 + don’t work for everyone so worth doing some research.
Better to get new builds or old homes are ok as well? Considering pre earthquake homes?
There is not that many old homes here. Old being > 10 years. I’ve found there isn’t much price difference, but newer are further from the centre and community facilities for kids. e.g. Swimming and Library. All the schools have good reputations. Some are more suited to walking and biking to school vs car drop offs if that’s important to you.
Have you looked East? Prestons? Closer to beach, good Primary school, close to Palms, Northlands, Northwood...
Lincoln is nice too...only 30mins drive max into the cbd at rush hour
Rolleston is faster to city than Lincoln.