BEVS

Kia Ora and welcome to this little NZ forum

That's great. What's his occupation ?
Are you intending to apply to emigrate or are you thinking about just coming out to New Zealand to live and work for a few years to see how you feel about it ?

Browse Woolworth supermarket online.

I'd like Ikea

With so many questions, maybe you could come out for a holiday first to look round and meet with your partner's possible future employer.

sirplug

You'll find most Kiwi's really don't care about the state of their homes, unless they have the kind of houses you have seen on the websites. Most of them are more interested in the toys.....boats, jetskis, ute's, etc. Also, the Kiwi way of life exists outdoors, not in. If it fits on the deck or near the BBQ, they'll be interested!

Other opinions please!

It doesn't matter how rough the house looks, there'll always be a boat somewhere on the property!

House quality here does tend to be worse than the UK, unless you pay top dollar for a house. There is very little in the way of central heating, double glazing or insulation (unless you live on the south island).

Newmarket is quite close to the city with some nice houses in the area. Not sure about crime there. Crime will be reported as the worse in the world when based on a per capita ratio figure. Most of the crime tends to happen in the poorer areas, as per any country. If you don't live in those areas or travel to them too often, you probably won't become a victim. I never feel unsafe when I'm out and about, whatever the time of day or night. But that will be down to where I live........

If you're serious about the move, the next step is to lodge an EOI (Expression of Interest) click here to get all the details you need and good luck with whatever decision you make

Butterfly07

Regarding visa's I think the company has a special visa scheme but we will find out more later.
My partner is a loss adjister and he loves his work!

Butterfly07

Oh dear thats not good that people dont care about their house (interior design is my passion!).. but maybe there is some sort of small market as it does seem some people are missing Ikea & Next!

I think we will wait to hear from the company before we make any steps as we wont (and probaby can't) go unless we have a firm job offer beforehand. There is very few loss adjusting firms in NZ so it would be a huge mistake not to have the offer beforehand. We cant seem to find out much about salaries in NZ for this sort of career.

Regarding houses- what would be considered top dollar?

BEVS

There are a variety of visas but no special visa schemes. Boring stuff I know, but you do need to find out about what visa you can apply for. Who is the company?

I've never been inside an Ikea store in my life. It's their cheap prices in GBP that I like the look of.

newkiwi

Semantics are often important when you talk about visas and immigration etc, to stop yourself getting the wrong end of the stick. So it will pay to find out exactly what the company is offering in terms of a visa. The "company" cannot have a special visa scheme, but what you may be describing is that they are an "accredited employer" with NZIS, which means your partner would (could) be able to apply under a Work to Residence - Talent Visa category if he has a job offer from them. This is likely if they are a largish and well established company. Or, if you take a bad case scenario, they may be trying to pull the wool over your eyes and give you false hope, set you up for "fees" etc.

Interior design would be a niche, NZ is much smaller than the UK and the market will be smaller too. I have seen some shops like that around newmarket, parnell, ponsonby etc. There will always be some people looking to spend money on having their houses looking top dollar, but probably less prevalent in Nz than UK.

A few hours perusing the quite user-unfriendly NZIS website to get clued up about visas may be in your future...

Good luck

Browner_

Because the quality of the homes is generally VERY POOR, youd better believe it.

They may look good at first glance, but many are very poor quality, uninsulated, leaky, damp, cold and noisy, and require a lot of maintenance (time and money). Its vital you understand that issue before investing any money at all.

Butterfly07

Thank you for the replies. Regarding visa we are aware there are different types but it is a little point looking into them ins great detail unless my OH has an actual firm offer which he won't know for a while and the company gives us more information.

The company is very large with offices all over the world- he currently works in the London office for same company- it would be a case of transferring.

That is a shame the housing standards are so poor. It looked like with our budget we could afford some dream-homes that would take us years in the UK. Well if there is an job offer then we have to visit NZ to make sure we would be happy as a whole package.

We are up for an adventure though, you only get one life. I have lived all the world so I doubt much can shock me!

Justcol

Lots of churches in NZ, there are happy clappers everywhere.
have only ever passed through newmarket but it looks ok. handy for
shopping at sylvia park and Auckland city centre. Its not the greenest
of places but you dont have to live there you can easilly commute.
Auckland house prices are higher than the rest of the country as its
the largest city. When the time gets closer make sure you do plenty of
research into where you choose to live and what you choose to live in.
There are some areas that are not to safe although i dont think the worst
of nz comes anywhere near the worst of the uk.
Houses can be VERY dodgy and poorly built and the quality of kiwi homes
leaves a lot to be desired.
Drug use is higher than any other country on the planet
Domestic violence rates are sky high
Child abuse rates are sky high
Poverty (real poverty) is high
Gang related crime is on the up
Drink related social problems are on the up.
Racism is a real issue.
Thats about all of the negative stuff. far to often people either dont know
or are not told about the negatives of life in nz.
I'm not trying to put anyone off, I really like living here and would not return
to the uk if you paid me.

nukiwi

Yes there are lots of Weight Watcher meals over here....I've found there to be more choice here :-)

whitesand

Sirplug, I do agree with you about the state of house decoration here. When looking at the houses for sale in the adverts I cannot believe just how badly they are presented, and at the same time, hope to sell for a huge price. Colours are all over the place, furniture is 70's specials and most look like somethilng your grannie departed from.

pricklykina

LOL
Newmarket is a shopping centre!
It's a great place to shop if you don't like malls.
All the shops in a strip
And some high end ones as well.

Really close to Remuera for fancy "old money" living
Or Mt Eden for the educated and wealthy
Or Kingsland for the young and edgy
oh and Parnell, well for loaded - it's good enough for our super rich PM

TeamEmbo

Given the price of paint and the if it ain't broke why replace or update it, it's hardly surprising! I don't think it's a high priority for a lot of people to replace furniture just to keep up with the latest trends. Mend and make do!

As for interior decorations, from what I've seen, NZ seems to be full of budding arts and crafts types and I can think of at least 7 places in my town to get such items, ranging from the glorious Warehouse (I mean who doesn't want an imitation African drum (made in China) or half a Buddha head mounted on cardboard and presented in a black plastic frame, to adorn their home?!) to reasonably priced ranges in the pharmacy, to (IMO) overpriced boutique outlets.

Try googling homewares and interior design auckland to see what is already available to give you a good idea of finding a niche for your business.

Would also recommend you check out the visa requirements on the NZIS website. Even if it is an accredited company and your OH applies under Talent visa, there are still requirements you have to meet, medicals + BMI, police checks, evidence of work history, relationship etc.

Kids start school on their 5th birthday in NZ (or can delay up to age 6). Majority of schools are zoned, so you have to live within the school zone to apply. All the usual church denominations exist in NZ.

As others have said, houses prices in Auckland are higher than elsewhere in NZ. You would get more space around you and more for your money if you lived further out. Some new subdivisions seem to pile the houses really close together (again IMO) but houses/homes - such a personal thing. From what others in that area have said previously $600-$800k should get you a comfortable family home.

Good luck with it all and keep us posted on how the job offer goes

Batty

Hi - You could live on the North Shore (Glenfield area) and your hubby could bus to Newmarket if he was so inclined (www.maxx.co.nz for bus/train timetables). Newmarket is also good for train transport so basically anywhere that journeys into there (I think South and West trains both do) would be good. If you've got lots of money living around Newmarket/Parnell/Remuera would be an option and schools are great.

It's mid May (equivalent mid-November) and the temperature was seemingly 23 today with 19 tomorrow. That's actually not what you have to look out for - it's the temperature INSIDE that can be a problem. No matter whether you're renting or buying make sure there's a sufficient source of heat. When we were buying in Europe we looked for houses that had the work already done because we didn't want to do it so if you can here that's what you do too - if not, you have to do it. That means; insulation, heating, double glazing - all the things that have been taken for granted in the last couple of decades.

The North Shore is usually the safest place in Auckland (in all the surveys) and I feel really safe here.

You made me giggle at the question about the churches. I'm Irish and when I came here first I was agog at the number of churches! Not what most people would expect So yes, there's loads!

People are very friendly - on a superficial level. But, you don't know them, they don't know you so why would you expect anything else? Sorry, bit of a bugbear!

Oh yeah, it is quiet - we hardly ever hear a siren

BEVS

Retro