Myself and my partner are moving to New Zealand within the next couple of weeks. He has a job over there and will earn $60k. Is it realistic that we will be able to live on his wage and rent a property, if I do not get into work straight away?

Depends what you've got in the bank as reserve, but my wife and I are planning on this basis and it seems we can cope.

Are you going over on PR or with a working visa of sorts?

Hi there Happy Camper & welcome.
I've moved your query to a thread ( topic ) of it's own , so it doesn't get lost in the living expense thread.

IMO this will all depend on where in NZ you will be living. Auckland for instance is a lot more expensive than Dunedin.

We managed last year on a much reduced net income of $45K. No rent or mortgage to pay though.

Tax on the $60K will be around $11K leaving you $49.

Try looking at trademe for rentals in the area that you are thinking of settling. You will probably need some funds for bond and rent in advance etc. you just have to think around the box cook from scratch, buy in season. It all depends on how much you want it to work out. Probably annual trips to uk are out unless you are super frugal. Wish you all the best, lucky you coming over in summer, two on the trot.

Don't know how old you are, but many young couples are house sharing in Auckland for economic reasons - might be short term solution till you work things out. Gumtree - Auckland branch can be useful

Hi, thanks for your help, we have money for a bond etc when we arrive. My partners job is in Christchurch, so we're hoping to settle there and quite happy to live relatively cheaply.

Yes. If we can do it with 3 children in Auckland (Nth Shore), then of course you can. It depends on nothing more than a willingness to succeed.

happy camper, thats the same amount as us, my partner will hopefully get a job when we arrive, i have a job in christchurch too , and we were wondering about rentals etc, When are you hoping to get there?

be interested to see opinions on this. round about the same money for us too untill i started working, no kids though. Christchurch aswell

You'll survive but there won't be room for a new car every few years or going on holiday abroad. Welcome to ordinary Kiwi life basically.

Of course I hesitate to call anything that involves commercial air travel or putting up with the same wife year after year really "living" as such .

Lol @ the wife part! Im not bothered about cars, dont have a fancy one here - just a clio. Had a bmw for a few years but it was a gas guzzler and always needed fixed! Much prefer the clio. Holidays - well yeah i would like to come back to the uk after a year and we'd try make sacrifices for this if needed. Plenty of places around canterbury that we'd like to visit for a weekend break first.

Just trying to do more cost of living research at the moment and im sure the other posters are the same so if any comments welcome!

You going to get over the $55K mark ?

If you are thinking of visiting uk before the year is up consider getting open return ticket and then get you next ticket whilst in uk. Airfairs from kiwi land can be very pricey. you can always check them out on Internet.
We use to drive a lovely 3 year old ford focus in the uk now we drive a 1998 Mitsubishi lancer but cars seem to last a lot longer over here thank goodness as we wouldn't be able to afford a new one. We had some friends that shipped theirs over as it was nearly new if you are interested I will see how difficult it was.

Yeah bevs they have WTR people over there already. We're meeting up in september and going to go through everything then and take it from there. Fingers crossed. I think i'd go over on a temp work permit even if we couldnt get over the 55k but dave probably wouldnt.

and .

Make very sure of it though love. You need 2 years to meet the criteria.

Think I'm a bit excited for you now.