100,000 Kiwis now connecting on Neighbourly

Neighbourly.co.nz, New Zealand's free and private neighbourhood website, has just broken the 100,000 membership milestone.

The website is active in over 1,600 neighbourhoods, and works to bring neighbours and communities closer together, allowing members to share advice, plan events, find employment, discuss community issues, buy, sell and give away items, find lost pets, exchange recommendations on local services, and get to know each other.

Currently Tawa tops the membership leaderboard with 1,475 neighbours, followed by St Heliers (1,245) and Rumuera (1,159). At 73%, a significant number of members have invited a neighbour to join them on Neighbourly.

The 100,000th member, Marta Karlik-Neale from Wadestown, Wellington, says she joined the site after receiving a letter invite from a neighbour.

"I then met more of my neighbours at the Neighbours Day Aotearoa picnic on the weekend organised through Neighbourly," she says.

"I really appreciate connectivity in my neighbourhood and truly value people getting to know each other.

"It's important to be part of a community rather than just a group of strangers, to be able to chat with neighbours on the street and know that if we need anything there are people around we can ask for help.

Casey Eden, Neighbourly co-founder and managing director, says cracking the 100,000 member mark is proof that New Zealanders really are looking for more connection within their neighbourhoods.

"The team and I are incredibly proud to be playing a part in something that is literally connecting thousands of great Kiwis while raising awareness of how important our relationships with our communities are," he says.

"We launched Neighbourly as a way to reconnect people with their communities and encourage face-to-face relationships with their neighbours - now, every day, we're hearing incredible stories about neighbours who are banding together to make their communities better.

"It could be as simple as neighbours discussing local road works right through to members setting up a community garden or putting on a street BBQ," he says.

Neighbourly launched across New Zealand in June 2014 after a successful two month pilot in Auckland.

The site fosters interaction and conversation between neighbours and community organisations by creating a way for them to talk and share online through free and private websites for their suburbs.