Tawa

Best Suited To

Young families, first home buyers, those who enjoy an active community spirit.

Population Profile

Tawa is Wellington City’s northern most suburb, bordering Porirua City.  It therefore attracts residents who work in either city. The family demographic includes many young parents with school age children. The demographic does vary throughout the suburb.

The central and northern portions tend to have a higher number of flats and units, attracting younger people and renters. The southern portion tends to be dominated by detached homes, the domain of established families and older folk.

Tawa was dry (no liquor sales) up until 1999, well known as the suburb with ‘many churches and no pubs’. There are pubs now but churches still dominate the landscape – lending some truth to the rumour that the suburb is relatively conservative and dominated by old fashioned values.

Typical Homes

Tawa Flat, as it was originally known, was settled in the late 1800s as a small farming community. The flat valley remained sparsely populated until the 1950s, when the Wellington-Porirua urban motorway was created along the eastern edge of the valley. This led to a boom in residential development between 1950 and 1970.

In Tawa you’ll find the dependable, single storey weatherboard home, identical to those you find in Newlands and Paparangi.  Development spread higher onto the eastern and western hills from 1970 onward, these typically larger homes with integral garaging.  Development continues today to the southern end of the eastern hills. This includes an area of small lifestyle blocks.

Some larger sites on the valley floor have been subdivided, allowing for new homes to be built, although the family demographic here tends to hold on tightly to its traditional, Kiwi quarter acre.

Amenities

Tawa has a long-established, central shopping strip on Main Road. This shopping area has had mixed fortunes over the years, affected by new retail developments both north and south, although the strip appears to have bounced back in recent years with strong local support in conjunction with efforts from the Wellington City Council. Here you’ll find the local library, various takeaway stores, hair salons, real estate agents, lotto and DVD stores, gift shops, clothing stores, a chemist and various convenience stores.

Outlet City, a large covered retail shopping complex, is set to the south end of Tawa and here you’ll find a number of stores with a focus mainly on women’s and men’s clothing. Tawa has two supermarkets, the first being New World, situated just behind the Main Road shopping strip. The newer, Countdown supermarket is set to the southern end of Tawa, adjacent to State Highway One.

Tawa has a large variety of primary school options. These include Tawa School, Redwood School (zoned), St Francis Xavier (catholic), Hampton Hill School, Linden School, Greenacres School, and He Huarahi Tamariki. Tawa Intermediate and Tawa College are the local, well regarded secondary school options here.

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Tawa has a number of playing fields and small parks, ideal for those with children who need a compact outdoor space to run around in. One of the nicest is probably the Willowbank Reserve, situated close to Takapu Road railway station. Tawa swimming pool is situated within the Grasslees Reserve in central Tawa. Here you’ll also find an attractive ad mostly level area of gardens, children’s playground and bowling clubs.

Real Estate Trends

Tawa property consists mostly of dwellings erected from the 1950’s onwards and the overall size of the suburb means that there is usually plenty on the market at any one time to choose from. Locals seem to stay in the suburb and often move up to a larger home, when their families grow in size.

The most affordable detached houses in Tawa will start at about the $600,000 mark. This will get you a standard, 3 bedroom 1960’s weatherboard home that’s in need of renovation and it’s likely to be on the western or eastern hills, further from amenities. There is a lot more choice once you head into the $750,000 to $900,000 bracket. In this range there will be plenty of renovated or part renovated smaller homes, both on the flat and on the surrounding hillsides.

Larger homes situated in the desirable streets around Redwood (south Tawa) will likely be priced in the $900,000 to $1.2 million bracket. There are lifestyle properties situated on and around Bing Lucas Drive, in the south-eastern foothills. These new or near-new family homes, tend sell in excess of $1.8 million.

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