Cannons Creek

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Overview

The locals have always been loyal to Cannons Creek and it is slowly but surely transforming into a community that attracts first home buyers from across the region. Along the way it is shaking off the negative reputation that has dogged it for so long; the stereotype of poverty, crime and rundown state rentals. Crime rates have plummeted, rainbow-coloured murals have replaced tagging and housing upgrades are underway. Increasingly, a sense of pride seems to percolate through the neighbourhood, while new families are moving in and enthusiastically smartening up former state houses. Cannons Creek may not be rich in dollar terms but it is in cultures, families and passion for a place where neighbours know more than just each other's names. It's a place nowadays where people put "I Love Cannons Creek" stickers on their fridges and cars - and mean it. Critically, it's also an area that represents real value for first time buyers, young families and investors alike.

Amenities

Schools

Cannons Creek's five primary schools spanning Years 1-6 are vibrant, well-resourced learning hubs with murals on the walls, passionate teachers and involved parents. Painted in bright colours with refurbished classrooms, Cannons Creek School was praised by a recent ERO Report for "the celebration of achievement, quality literacy programmes, educational trips and emphasis on physical fitness and healthy eating." Year 7-8 students attend Brandon Intermediate.

Local secondary Porirua College, with a growing roll currently at 531, recently underwent an $18.5 million upgrade that effectively rebuilt the school with modern, flexible learning spaces, a performing-arts centre, library and large gymnasium; they also introduced a house system designed to mentor students.

Shops

The Cannons Creek Shopping Centre on the main road provides most day-to-day items. There's a fruit-and-veg shop, dairies, bakery, barber, laundromat, service station, medical centre, pharmacy and library. For everything else, the shopping hub of Porirua City Centre is less than 10 minutes' drive away.

Leisure

Cannons Creek has parks and green spaces that any suburb would envy. The green corridor of Bothamley Park and Belmont Regional Park's hills, valleys and tracks are on its doorstep, and the beautiful Cannons Creek Lakes Reserve is a popular spot for picnics, runners and dog-walkers. It has sports clubs covering indoor bowls, karate and boxing, as well as one of the best learn-to-swim pools in wider Wellington, and cultural, church and community groups that are part of everyday life. The Cannons Creek Residents and Ratepayers Association is spearheading the redevelopment of Calliope Park, where an outdoor fitness circuit and new play areas have been constructed.

Real Estate

Typical Homes

This will always be a state-house area, but don't rule out buying in Cannons Creek without doing your homework first. A third of residents own their own, well-constructed (former state) homes. Built mainly in the 1950s and 60s, these uniform, boxy weatherboard or brick-clad buildings with small sectioned-off rooms are as familiar to most New Zealanders as sheep and Marmite. Often situated on the flattest part of sloping sections, most homes are set back from the road or at angles. Front yards are tidy, lawns mowed, Toyota Corollas in the driveway, with some streets proudly proclaiming the year of their "Tidiest Street in the Creek" win. Many homes no longer owned by the state have been painted in cheerful colours, extended, redecorated, and insulated.

Real Estate Trends

Where else can you buy a three-bedroom home for $150,000 just 20 minutes' drive from Wellington City? Former state houses (typically on generous 800-square metre sections) start at $142,000, and don't rise too steeply from there, with a median of around $170,000. A smart, three-bedroom weatherboard home redecorated, insulated and overlooking a reserve with a garage and a carport recently went for $212,000. These cheaper house prices allow families to sidestep cripplingly high mortgages, and live on one income if desired.

Real-estate prices here are influenced by government policy. Government landlord, Housing New Zealand, hasn't sold any of its Cannons Creek state houses in recent years, but should it do so, it is unlikely to sell too many at a time so as not to depress prices. Low prices here may become mere memories as the popularity of fashionable new neighbouring subdivision Aotea, rubs off on Cannons Creek and adds to its gradual positive transformation.

Community

Who Lives There

Cannons Creek is the face of Porirua's vibrant Pacifica community, with two-thirds of residents of Pacific Island descent, and strong contingents of Maori and Europeans. The suburb's backbone is families and children, with one in three people under 15 and many now heading for steady jobs rather than state benefits. Occupations are largely blue-collar - trades, labouring, administration - and incomes tend to be relatively low. Many residents have lived here for decades, and multiple generations living within a few streets of each other is not unusual.

Increasingly, families and first-home buyers are moving into comparatively cheap former state houses here, and are warmly welcomed into the community. In one street, you might find a family with two young children living next door to a house-proud, middle-aged European man and a young, newly-married Polynesian couple; all benefiting from the fact that they have some disposable income for things other than just paying off their mortgages.

Local Hero

Cannons Creek Pool

The happy squealing and splashing of children is the background music at Cannons Creek Pool, considered one of the best learn-to-swim pools in the Wellington region. Home to Dash Swim School and the Porirua City Aquatics Club, the six-lane, 25-metre indoor pool, with a depth of one metre, attracts children, adults and school groups from all over Porirua. The pool puts on school-holiday programme activities for $1 per child, local health provider Ora Toa sets its water-aerobics sessions to Pacific music, and mums can play with their water babies in the shallow toddlers' pool. Best of all, on Sundays between 11 am and 1 pm, entry is free.

Why We Live There

Matt Crawshaw

Originally from Wellington, community worker Matt Crawshaw and his family moved to Cannons Creek in 2008, teaming up with another couple to buy two duplex units owned by the state until the 1990s. Paying well under $150,000 for a three-bedroom home, Matt and wife Christine renovated, insulated and redecorated, adding a garden, a driveway and a deck. Although cheaper house prices were a factor in moving here, the main attraction was the multicultural, village-like community where their children play with the neighbours' kids and learn about other cultures. "But low accommodation costs mean more flexibility and time to spend with the kids and in the community," Matt says. He can support the family working 30 hours a week and Christine can be a stay-at-home mum to their three children and two foster children. They spend a lot of time outdoors, walking, running and picking blackberries in Bothamley Park, and hiking over hills in the nearby Belmont Regional Park. "We love it here."

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