Glen Eden

By ROBYN WELSH

Glen Eden has long been one of West Auckland's favourite suburbs for first-home buyers, and this trend still stands today.

Nowadays the choice includes new townhouses, affordable older homes and the established weatherboard houses that typified Glen Eden's greatest period of growth during the late 1950s and 1960s.

Pinnacle Ridge is Glen Eden's newest development in West Coast Rd. The enclave of 16 three-bedroom townhouses - complete with garaging and off-street parking - has been popular with young professionals who have chosen to swap high city rentals for home ownership.

One of these townhouses - costing between $179,000 to $199,000 - gives buyers a lifestyle with a modern edge and a city outlook across the bushy valleys of Glen Eden.

Elsewhere, group houses built in considerable numbers in the 1970s are popular for their affordability. In the $140,000 to $150,000 bracket, they offer a basic three-bedroom home and garage on a 500 sq m or 600 sq m section. Returning a weekly rental of around $250 makes these properties attractive to investors, too.

The older weatherboard homes offer similar lifestyle choices for slightly higher dollars - around $200,000 - as well as the chance to discard the outdated carpet and polish up the native timber floors.

Glen Eden's history goes back long before the 19th century, but the few remaining villas dotted around this large suburb are reminiscent of the days when large acreages of land and clay roads were the lifeblood of a far-flung community with many labour-intensive industries.

Known as Waikumete before its name was changed in 1922, Glen Eden was famous for its resourceful pioneering families who used the clay soils for brick-making, hauled logs from the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges with bullocks and ran businesses producing everything from canned fruit and jam to cane chairs.

The family connections remain in the local streets, which are named after many of those pioneering families. As is typical of well-established suburbs, it's not unusual for some of Glen Eden's older residents to have lived in the same houses all their lives. And it's not uncommon for young families buying their first homes here to have been brought up locally.

The area is well-served by primary schools, a variety of sports clubs and three golf clubs. It is close to the West Coast beaches and the train service, which began when the line to Henderson was opened in 1880.

The original station, in the heart of the shopping area, is a focal point today, as much for its train service as for its recent refurbishment. To the delight of a new generation of Glen Eden residents, the new-look station is all set to house a new cafe.