Mark Smith

So why don't you collate all this information from this thread and put together a sticky on Auckland housing/living costs? I don't disagree with the majority of your posts Davros.
Putting your experience and knowledge into a useful article is more constructive IMO.

barnsleymat

I agree, a thread about the costs of living in Auckland would be very helpful and I alo agree with what Davros writes. We lasted only 11 and half months in Auckland due to the fact we didn't stand a chance of ever buying a good property.

Assanah

I agree too. The high housing cost in Auckland were among the reasons why we left. It is important to point it out again and again.

pippalonghorn

It is important to make people aware of the housing costs who are hoping to make a new life in NZ. NZ has a way of hiding their problems from the outside world when other countries are more transparent about theirs.

All countries have problems, the UK having their fair share too. Luckily housing is affordable where I live. Someone mentioned on an earlier post that they would not leave a country simply because they couldn't afford property there. It was one of the reasons for us leaving. I didn't want to spend the rest of my days renting and being at the mercy of my landlord. Will we get our notice? Will the rent increase? Is he ever going to fit heat pumps or any source of heating? We were not allowed to fit smoke alarms. A part of the settling in process for us included having our own home. Somewhere to call our own. Somewhere to pass on to my daughter. It is very important for a lot of people. That is why I strongly agree with what Davros is posting.

Builder UK

I enjoy reading this forum and have visited NZ and looked deeply into moving over there, I am highly skilled and have been offered work/jobs when I have visited, I am also young enough and confident enough I wouldn't have a problem getting the correct visa.

I also enjoy reading davros's posts, he doesn't dress the truth up, whilst I agree NZ is a beautiful place and has some stunning views, this doesn't pay a NZ$500,000 mortgage on a wooden shack.

I still can't get over how mis-sold the Christchurch rebuild is, false promises of high wages, plenty of work and a good standard of living.

Buying a house in the UK is do-able, 12 months of hard saving, buy a property and scrape through the next 12 months until you find your feet and crack on with life, to me NZ seemed to offer a few years of hard, hard saving, buy a property and live hand to mouth for a long time.

Unless you had a big wage coming in, NZ gave the impression you'd be forever watching the $'s if you were lucky to get on the ladder.

It will be mixed for everyone, for me, I went, I saw, I didn't like, got bored and couldn't afford to keep myself occupied, housed and fed.

Keep posting davros1984

Builder UK

Stormer999

We lived in Leamington Spa Warwickshire and moved out to Kenilworth for a quieter life. Property prices were a little cheaper in Kenilworth as it is nearer to Coventry City but still this is not London or anywhere near a big wage centre, but...

Detached properties sold for an average price of £431,367, while terraced properties fetched £232,516. Kenilworth, with an overall average price of £286,966 was more expensive than nearby Finham (£210,637), but was cheaper than Leek Wootton (£507,111) and Stoneleigh (£459,286).

There are obviously cheaper areas to live in the UK but this is the price bracket we were used to so buying a NZ stone built detached bungalow in Chch for less than £220k we are more than happy with. The lifestyle that goes with it is a bonus.

davros1984

Thank you all for the support and great additions.

Stormer - your point is valid and its not to highlight that everywhere in the UK is affordable, certainly it isn't and is one of the reasons we initially left the UK as we thought the UK wasn't affordable! Oh what a sea change going to NZ brought about. However there are plenty of affordable areas in places that are easy to commute from, I can be within a 25 minute commute of the city centre where I am now and buy a 3-bed Victorian property for 115-120K GBP! Incredible.

As for Leamington Spa (LS) - a very posh and affluent area (Something NZ doesn't have a lot of), LS is somewhere that I wouldn't dream of being a first-time buyer place. . Not all of us wish to buy big detached properties, its very much a case of getting an affordable 2-3 bed semi and getting on the ladder, something that NZ (primarily Auckland focused) lacks. Its the first-time buyer market where in my view there is a clear difference.

I do know that within an hour of London where yes I could certainly earn 2-3 times what I earned in Auckland, I could easily buy a 3-bed semi in the low 200's. Trying to do that in Auckland, just no! But NZ taught me that certainly there is more to life than money and impressing others by how much your house is worth, hence why I left Auckland and have avoided London and the immediate South-East region.

Builder UK - sorry to hear your story, but hey - you gave it a go and regardless of the final outcome you must still be stoked that you did it and tried something else!
Mark Smith - this is something I may do, although give me some time to settle into my new life first alright?

Robbo25

Whilst I see many truths in what you post, the main issue I feel is the fact that you paint (at times) an overly rosy picture of what life is like in the UK and it leaves people to either be drawn into the UK vs NZ debate which everyone tires of, or to pick off the bits that you stretch the truth on.

I am also very happy for you in being happy in the UK but the truth is that for many people the UK is far from ideal and what suits one does not suit another. It is also a fact that trying to buy housing anything like an hour from the centre of London is a dream for most people, at least for those wanting any sort of life outside of work.

PS
I wouldn't class Leamington Spa as "a very posh and affluent area" whilst it is wealthy and certainly for the more comfortable in the wallet.

davros1984

I appreciate your honesty - genuinely that isn't my intention. Personally I don't think I make the UK seem overly rosy, certainly it has its issues, i.e. population pressures and traffic in certain parts of it. I think I've made it clear that I don't think you can have much of a quality of life in London/South-East - hence I wouldn't live there again.

I wouldn't say its a dream, there are plenty of places about where you can buy houses in the early 200's. I totally agree on the lack of life aspect, to me its no difference having an hour's commute into London or an hour's commute into Auckland - that is not living. In my view there are more affordable places within an hour of the centre of London than there are within an hour of the centre of Auckland (and I don't mean the total number of properties - of course that will never be equal)

Bo-Jangles

Funny that, for the fifteen years prior to moving to Auckland I lived in a house that was ten minutes walk from a railway station: I walked to the station got on a train at 8.20am and arrived at London Bridge for 8.45am . A further ten minute walk and I was in the office for a 9am start. If I wasn't going out in town after work then I quite often got a lift home and either way train or car, I was home before 6pm.

I used to think that it was a hard slog and dreamed of better things..........so I moved to Auckland..............

People really do need to be very careful what they wish for: whoever would have thought I would look back fondly on those days of sitting on that train, reading my book and gazing out of the window.

Robbo25

And I am guessing that you didn't move into that situation of living close to a rail station close to London i.e. you grew up in the area etc? Not many people can afford to move into the situation you describe sadly.

If you live an hours commute on the train from London then try affording the rail ticket and on top of that enjoy the tube trip across London i.e. try living in say Swindon and having a job in the City. On top of the hours you'd have to work and then the commute it all stacks up to something more than the rosy picture being portrayed.

I left Sunnynook on the North Shore for the first time the other day to give someone a lift to East Tamaki with them needing to be there before 9am. Still conditioned to the UK experience I thought I'd screwed it by leaving at 7:40am. At 8:20am I was there and although the traffic was slow it did keep moving and I was very surprised. I am however lucky I enjoy driving which I accept many people don't, but when going into the city I use the bus and find it great also and it doesn't take too long.

I massively agree with the fact that people need a does of realism when going to Auckland, but that depends on finances as it can be a great commute. I am not Auckland's greatest fan either any more, but it is more a region now that a city and the sooner it is treated like that the better.

Bo-Jangles

No not at at all, I moved into the area after several years of renting with OH and we moved to be closer to his family. Having other family there made not one happeth of difference to us in terms of affordability or proximity to station. We still have family and friends in that area, kids grown up and now making their own way into first time homes; so I think the visions of those from afar are somewhat distorted.[/QUOTE]

I'd prefer they had a transport system that connects it all together, like they do in most other cities in the world.

Northern Henry

You could be in work in Central London within half an hour but found that a chore.... Your expectations for any major city environment in the world will be dashed with that comparison... What were you expecting??

marblep

High expectations.

marblep

I do appreciate your posts, but I also question if this is satire? - gosh I pray it is. If that was a hard commute and hard slog for you in central london - then I imagine you and I are yards apart. I hope you dont suffer too much in NZ