Manurewa

Including Weymouth, Clendon Park and Wattle Downs

Diversity is the key description for this area, which includes everything from rundown state housing to luxurious contemporary homes and some of the city's cheapest waterfront real estate.

There's a lot of coastline, thanks to three peninsulas jutting into the Manukau Harbour. It also has numerous reserves, many on the waterfront, and some glorious tracts of native bush.

Manurewa is also home to the 65ha Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens. The area is becoming popular with families, and part of it is in zone for the well-regarded Alfriston College.

Choices, greenery, good schooling and sea views - if it weren't in South Auckland, you'd be paying mega-bucks.

The availability of fairly cheap rental homes has made the area popular with those on low incomes, including refugees and other immigrants. Ethnicities represented include Iranians, Iraqis, Fijians, Indians (there is a Sikh temple on Great South Rd), Maori and Europeans.

Around the botanic gardens, the homes are new and more upmarket, so the residents are young professionals and families with a bit more money. Further east, lifestylers live on the larger blocks of semi-rural land.

Most Manurewa homes were built in the 1960s or later so the most common materials are weatherboard and brick-and-tile, and the sections are generously sized. There are a few houses owned and rented out by the state, as well as ex-state housing. New and grander developments are typically of brick and plaster construction.

Amenities

The high number of schools reflects the high proportion of families here. Alfriston College is highly regarded.

Manurewa has both mainstreet and mall shopping, but both look rather down at heel. It appears that those with discretionary income prefer to spend it elsewhere. Most people go straight to Manukau City to do their shopping.

Nathan Homestead, built in 1925 and still surrounded by 3.5ha of much-loved lawn and gardens, is an arts, community and function centre. The Manurewa Leisure Centre has full gymnasium facilities and a swimming pool.

Totara Park and the Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens are the key places; other parks like Weymouth Domain, which runs along more than 3km of coastline, are well used by locals. The Manukau Golf Course is nestled between Wattle Downs and Papakura's Conifer Grove.

Trends

Three-bedroom homes are very popular in this area, with demand outstripping supply at the time of writing. Hill Park, near the botanic gardens, has long been popular and its new development, The Gardens, has enhanced that.

Anything near Alfriston College, which opened in 2004, is considered a desirable locale because of the school's good reputation.

Rental and investment

The area is popular with renters and landlords: from the most basic humble abode through to the prestigious homes near the botanic gardens, there's plenty of demand.

Best streets

Any of the streets next to the botanic gardens.