TommyLuck

Glad to be of service.

Obviously, I could only use my personal points of comparison. But the facts about our NZ income v. expenditure are there for you to see.

We did of course chew in to savings whilst not working (July/August 2013), so all of this is based post September 2013 when I started full time work.

It's still got time to come crashing around our ears of course, still early days. So far, so good however.

Assanah

I can only compare prices Auckland to Berlin. And Auckland is massively more expensive. I would guess food and entertainment in Auckland is about 30% more expensive. Rent is very expensive in Auckland maybe 50 to 60% more expensive than Berlin. A few things were cheaper in Auckland. I remember tennis courts and jeans to be cheaper.
But our salaries in Auckland were also higher. We were OK financially but many Kiwis I know are not. So as others already said it really depends on your income.

TommyLuck

Rent is expensive in many a major* city in the westernised world compared to Berlin (and other major German hubs)!!

* I use the term 'major' realtively.

Assanah

So? That just shows that there are still major cities out there that are not massively expensive.

Pom_Chch

We don't find it that expensive. Some things are more, some things are less. TommyL makes a good point - it really depends where you have lived in the UK and where you are going to in NZ. I have only ever lived in Dorset and London and have come out to Chch. We have a greater household income here than in the UK mainly because we work in occupations in demand. We were two a penny in the UK but more sought after here.

Cost of living is such a subjective topic to discuss. Everyone has different lifestyles with differing expenses. A lot of it is based on opinion. What one person finds expensive, the next person will not. That is why it is a good idea to work out your income and outgoings as BEVS suggested. Facts and figures will help you more at this stage rather than people giving their opinions on whether it's expensive or not.

In very broad terms our biggest expenses in life cost us less money here. That being a mortgage and petrol. Groceries are more, but not by a huge amount. Because of big outgoings being smaller a little bit more money on food isn't an issue. Insurance is a lot cheaper here, which helps. The great thing I find about living here is that you can pop a bit of petrol in the car, pack a picnic and drive somewhere awesome for the day at such little cost. Barely any traffic, no overcrowding, plenty of parking, temperate weather. Even if it was heaps more expensive to live here those things help make it worth while in my opinion

Good luck with the move!

jmh

Yeah good point. I lived in London and now live in South Auckland which is cheap. I've said it before, but I'm often surprised at some of the prices people pay for things here. Food wise, my meat is cheaper and seasonal fruit and veg is also cheaper and better quality. Milk and cheese is more. Specialist European cheeses and salami etc are expensive so think of them as a treat rather than a significant part of your diet (like they used to be before Britain joined the EU). I use to shop in Waitrose, I now shop in New World.

You don't tend to get the cheap non-seasonal fruit flown in like you do in the UK, e.g. strawberries in winter. If you do it's really expensive. Some people find that really shocking. I suppose I'm old enough to remember when it was the same in the UK so it's not such a shock for me.

Power is the same, petrol cheaper, car insurance for me is more expensive.

jmh

I'm not sure you can compare Auckland with Berlin:

.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/20...ent-green-laws

TommyLuck

jmh - has done some research, pretty much backs up my thinking. And Auckland isn't massively expensive, compared to say Hong Kong. I can pick and choose my examples too, to prove a point.

Berlin is an exception in terms of rent. Good for you that rent is cheaper, but I've never lived there and I know rent is relatively cheap, it's hardly a secret so you must have also known this - I dare say it was a key consideration of yours given your repeated lambasting of the value of rental property in Auckland ...

Interesting that jmh's research suggests that rents are rising sharply in Berlin, in % terms ... now there's a comparison with Auckland!!

davros1984

Tommyluck - glad you found that comment insightful, I think its true. I also believe it sums up NZ and the UK very well. Each of the countries has its expensive and less expensive places, its just a case of being aware of the facts and what you're used to.

CHCH does indeed sound like a far better place to live than Auckland. What you say above sounds like the opposite of driving in Auckland, traffic and parking can be and has been a total nightmare. I'm glad we sold our car, the last few weeks of driving it have involved nothing but queueing to get on a motorway or sat still on the motorway. It reminded me exactly of those awful times when you're sat on the M25 and just nothing is moving.

Interestingly, more and more people at my place of work (including senior managers) are selling their houses and moving into apartments into the city, simply because of their anger with commuting. It either takes them 30 minutes or over 2 hours to do the same journey, its a problem for most during the week.

Unfortunately, Auckland has become a very dirty city in the past 12-18 months. Its impossible to walk down any of the major streets now and not get harassed by homeless people, its become such a sad situation. The streets have become increasingly littered as well. Just tonight for instance, I walked my partner to a meal out with her friends, and I got asked by over 10 seperate groups of homeless people if I can spare change.

Guardian sourced, so don't take it as 100% true! Heh.

Anyway...

Hopefully this thread has been quite insightful for the OP.

Tommyluck and Pom have made some solid contributions, as has Assanah.

I think the one thing I would take away most from this thread is pretty simple: Auckland is a very different beast to Christchurch - where you choose to live will massively impact your costs of living. CHCH is not the major city that Auckland is and by reading what Pom has indicated, my costs of living there would be approximately half of that in Auckland. I would also be able to buy a house for a similar amount of money as what I can in the UK. Likewise, where I am considering moving back to in the UK, my costs of living will be between 50-75% cheaper than living in Auckland.

As a FTB looking to buy a 3-bed property in a semi-reasonable area, I am looking at a mortgage of approximately - $2000 a month (with minimal deposit) back in the UK, here its over $4500 a month with a minimal deposit. Of course, if I was to put down the minimum deposit amount required in NZ back in the UK, the amount would be much less than $2000 a month. My rent is currently $2000 a month in AKL, back in the UK we are looking at $1200 a month (thats double the size of the current place in AKL).