THEIR PLACE EDD COOMBER

Architectural designer Edd Coomber moved from Auckland to Christchurch to get onto the property ladder – and says other first home buyers will need to make similar sacrifices. Coomber, 34, works for Common Architecture and Interior, and has used his knowledge and flair to completely make over his two-bedroom 1970s Linwood townhouse. EDD: Auckland s ust horrendously expensive and I was never ever going to buy a house there.

o I moved back to hristchurch to buy property. hen I got the place, my mortgage payment was less than my rent flatting in Grey Lynn, with three of us in the flat.

I d spent the summer in elbourne 20 20 and ust out of curiosity around the table we were talking about property in hristchurch, and on Trade e I saw you could get a smaller 70s townhouse for next to nothing.

I was born in hristchurch, but grew up in elbourne. It s home in one sense that s where my family is. I m the only one who came back.

I came back in 2007 to do my tertiary stuff. In hindsight, I m so glad I did that. I got to know hristchurch before it disappeared in the earth uakes . I got to know my grandmother before she passed away.

Living in ew ealand for a number of years in some ways ruined elbourne for me. othing against Australians, but our iwi way of life and ust our very down-to-earth attitude is appealing.

I looked at the townhouse that was on the market next door to this one. Afterwards, I told the real estate agent, This is perfect, but I don t want anything that s been renovated. he said the owner has the property next door too. eing at the end of the row, it had the bigger yard, more windows.

It had been a rental for a long time. It had lots of stains on the wall, the carpet had holes in it and a big burn mark in the middle of the lounge. The backyard was overgrown, with broken furniture.

Anything you could think of that could make it look bad, this place had it.

ut it was perfect because it hadn t been touched since the 70s. And I knew because of the way it was that I could get it for a decent price 2 2,000 .

After years of flatting – even though I had a great flat and flatmates – I wanted something I could afford on my own and not have to rely on someone else.

I removed a few walls downstairs to open the space up. The whole kitchen and bathroom were re-done. The flooring was ripped out. The place was re-plumbed, re-wired.

eing an architectural designer is a doubleedged sword.

ou get the bonus of knowing what you re doing, hopefully, and you have in your mind a lot of ideas you ve put forward to clients that they might not have gone for, but that you want to use yourself.

The downside would be there s a lot of pressure, expectation from other people to see what you do.

It s like if you ve got a friend who s a chef, and you go around to their place, you expect a pretty decent meal.

ut I also had a point to prove that there s still worth in these old properties. ith a bit of hard work and clever planning you can do a lot with them.

I wasn’t interested in re-sale. I think re-sale’s a dirty word because it just makes everything bland. If you do something with a bit of character and personality, it will stand out against all the other beige.

The other term that I hate is wow factor. It just makes me cringe. No-one’s said that about my place yet.

I would have loved to have bought a house in St Albans, but I can’t a ord that. So I bought to the east of the four avenues instead of to the north; it’s the same distance from the Square.

Linwood’s always had a bit of stigma in Christchurch. That reputation is changing. There seems to be a lot of people buying up at my sort of age and stage: People seeing the value in it.

There’s a lot of talk in the media about how hard it is to buy a house and that’s absolutely true. If I’m able to do it, anybody could do it.

I wasn’t earning a huge amount of money. I didn’t get a cash donation from a parent or an inheritance. It was purely KiwiSaver and having a very savvy nancial advisor who suggested I go in a growth fund.

I had to sacri ce where I was living.

I’m not like most Cantabrians who hate Auckland. It’s just so expensive to buy there.

If I want to go there, it’s only an hour on the plane. Shoot up there for the weekend, enjoy the best of the city, and y home. ou’re not having to pay for the convenience of living there.

above The Verner Panton chair was in the meeting room of Edd Coomber’s first workplace, and was given to him many years later as a housewarming present by the company director, for whom Coomber has worked off and on over the years.

Above The digial clock is 30 years old and came from his family home – it was the replacement for one his sister took to with their mother’s sewing scissors, cutting its cord and giving herself an electric shock.

Coomber adopted retired racing greyhound Richie just before lockdown in 2020. He chose the wall colour, Resene Midnight Moss, after seeing it in OGB Bar in the central city.

Above Coomber’s grandmother, Dot Coomber, painted the sea captain at his request in 2007. Below Coomber has had the Bialetti Moka stovetop coffee pot for 14 years and says it only gets better with age.