Annemarie R

Thank you all for your replies. It's certainly made me think about things.

The reason I say Tauranga and Palmerston North is that I know a family in both areas and they have both said they are nice places to live.

Like I said we have never been to New Zealand so we really do need to come and test the water it's just knowing where to go.

New Zealand seems a lot like France apart from someone pointing out that NZ,s speak English.

The main concern for us I guess would be finding work, although we would have around 300.000 nz dollars so hopefully we wouldn't need a mortgage.(maybe a small one)

We both want to work as we are too young to retire. We just don't want to work our backsides off paying a mortgage.
Does anybody roughly know the cost of building a house there?
We built our house in France but I would imagine it was a lot cheaper over here.

Also I have heard a few people talk about school fees.
Do you have to pay to send children to school and if so how much does it cost?

Thanks again for all your comments.

Genesis

Hi, we have lived in palmy for over 3 years and love it, love it, love it!! My mate built a house (look at Biddy's house building thread) on the Kapiti coast. Costs around $1500-$2000 a square metre to build here, plus the cost of the land, so its not cheap. Have a look at Golden Homes website, I have heard they do builds for well, well under what I have quoted above...I think they are the builders. Bourbon biscuit built one too, over Napier way.

I would love to do it..very popular over here. Hopefully it should be a bit more reasonable as the housing market is in decay.

Good luck!!

Bradfrd12

here is a bad point that was on stuff.co.nz today.........depending on your ethnicity and point of view of course!

'By 2026, almost 800,000 Kiwis will have Asian link'

'16% of the population will be Asian'

The UK in comparison has a much smaller percentage of immigrants, specifically those from a totally different culture who do not integrate, e.g. Indians, Chinese etc

All I am saying is that NZ is very small and wouldn't take much to be swamped.

No wonder most NZ'ers are xenophobes!

Kiwiprincess

I personally think NZ needs more immigrants...

Bradfrd12

Not ones that dont bother integrating and take over like the Chinese do.

southerner

There have been Chinese in NZ from the gold rush days - I can't see that any harm has come of that (except for some racism that they suffered in the early days).

howden40

Swings and round-a-bouts, at the moment not too good for building industry due to house prices. But if kiwi's follow UK trend during bad times they may then renovate, build on existing house rather than move to bigger house.

We are currently seeking quotes for building work. 1 established builder has more work than can cope with but is still taking on work and another is doing jobs at almost cost price just to keep his team together during the tough times.

Some unskilled work available.

Not much help I fear.

Pauline

Browner_

Well, I have to say that NZ is nothing like France in my extensive experience.

France is big, has history and culture and is a huge patchwork of villages and country roads. It is in the centre of civilisation.

By comparison, NZ is none of that. Both countries play rugby , but thats where the similarity ends for me.

Maybe you could tell us what part of France you come from ?

Annemarie R

Once again Thank You for all the replies.

Browner, I live in Brittany.

brussels_sprout

Having lived in France and New Zealand, i can give my comparisons

As someone who has lived in France your first surprise on arriving in NZ will be that you will not see many Kiwis that are rude, smoke, or drive like maniacs after consuming 2 bottles of wine. The people are very self-effacing, well behaved, "nice" people, who think about others , all of which are alien concepts to any French person . NZ wine has french names, but is very good quality.
Unemployment in NZ is really for the workshy, the rate of "chomage" is very very low here, to a French person used to more or less parity with working people this may come as a shock!

Hmm, the bad points, well, of course the Health System, when you leave France for NZ, you are leaving the top health system in the world for one of the worst in the industrial world. Better keep your insurance in France if possible, just in case !

Schools are outdoor orientated places, that bring up well balanced kids. The food in NZ is a slightly better version of English food, with fresher, tastier ingredients. You will see lots of Pacific people here, in France all the immigrants are African and Maghreb. Most of the houses are built from wood, things are cheap here

crap coffee

The food in NZ is a slightly better version of English food

? oh really? I didn't know.

Annemarie R

brussels sprouts CHUCKLE,CHUCKLE,CHUCKLE .

You are sooo right about the French been rude, smoking and driving.

Thank you for your comments.

Can I just ask you where do you prefer living?

Having read quite a lot of comments I am beginning to think the grass isn't always greener.

NZBee

I prefer the French drivers to the oblivious hoon drivers in Auckland!!!!!!!

(I really am a stuck record on this driving malarky now...sorry! )

Ash1

Hi,


Building costs vary depending on the quality and the finish. Golden Homes I believe can build for around $800 / square metre whereas David Reid will cost you around $2000/ square metre. I know that it seems hard to believe the huge difference but believe me you can see the difference and this is no slurr on Golden Homes.
In Papamoa (Tauranga) you can buy a brand new 4 bedroom home for less than $400,000. This is in a nice area too. Good schools, good shops , near to the beach.
Ash

Annemarie R

Hi Ash1

Thanks for that.

How much does the land cost on top of that?