‘Giving up wasn’t an option’
Andrey Andreev has some advice for people struggling to find a rental property in Invercargill — look outside the square and persevere.
Andreev, who moved to Invercargill from Auckland with the aim of studying at the Souther Institute of Technology, took five weeks to find a house to rent when he was looking in 2016 — well before the shortage of available properties reached its current levels.
Even then, he enquired about ‘‘dozens’’ of properties before being accepted.
Eventually he found a place in Invercargill through a rental agency but decided to move out later in the year to a warmer home for his family.
It took another five weeks to find his current rental property in Richmond , and got it more by good luck than good management.
He saw a small advertisement in the newspaper and rang it, and two days later the home owners who had placed the ad accepted him and his young family as renters.
Going the normal route had proved fruitless, he said.
‘‘I was thinking, it’s not impossible, right? But I was talking to other people ... and they said finding a place was so hard.’’
His advice for would be renters: ‘‘Look for places where you won’t expect to find a listing, ask people you work with ... because everyone is looking online and it’s hard to compete.’’
His perseverance had paid off, he said.
‘‘Giving up wasn’t an option.’’