Kotare

NI - you will be quoting Bradford next :-) Agree with all of that, my original post (before being led astray) was that house prices in NZ were reasonable - if it makes anyone feel happier substitute Whanganui, New Plymouth or Massey (excellent university). :-)

Peter

Moses2013

I've never been to Bradford, but it's certainly not in Northern Ireland and you did say to look what you can get for 250K. I did search and found plenty of houses. It's always personal choice and New Zealand can be cheap, or expensive. It's the same in Europe and pretty hard to compare different continents. Reasonable is different for all of us, but you will get more land for your money in Kerikeri, compared to Bradford.

Bo-Jangles

You should also factor the cost of servicing debt, the mortgage interest rate here is almost 3% higher than the UK despite being at an all time historic low. That adds up to several thousand dollars per year on £200k worth of mortgage and sucks up several thousand dollars out of the family budget - kiss good bye to a large chunk of 'disposable' income that would afford a pretty decent holiday or new car for the average family.

chocolate cake

NZ houses maybe reasonable in places where there ain't much work. Would love to live in Kerikeri, the Coromandel and many places besides but the work isn't there.
Generally UK housing is cheaper like for like when compared to incomes than NZ.

Moses2013

One big issue is that most Expats can only live in New Zealand if they have a visa, so people are limited to cities like Auckland, Wellington etc.. Just had a look and KeriKeri is actually not that cheap. It looks like a nice area and as usual the pictures are all nice, but a wooden house on a bit of land will still cost $280K and you're nearly 3 hours drive from Auckland. The houses I've seen for under $300K can be built for less than €50K in Europe, so like it or not, it's not even cheap for New Zealanders. There are still affordable areas in New Zealand (Invercargill etc.), just like there still are affordable areas in the UK with employment close by.

john_hepburn

That does tend to make things a good deal less attractive, one of the things keeping us here is our relatively high disposable income.

Kotare

The figure I quoted was £240k but regardless, staggered you can buy a building section and build a wooden framed house in UK for
£50k (ignoring the ones they were giving away for a £ (and £40k renovation costs).

Why can you only get a job in a city, last headline I saw NZ was encouraging migrants away from them. If it is because the migrants want the bright lights then pay the cost (agree rural NZ can be dull but the same in UK).

There seems a mindset amongst Brits that there is something wrong with wooden houses, they are ideal for the seismic conditions (been in two in medium earthquakes with no sweat) and if suitably kitted out great in the prevailing climate.

Peter

MrsFychan

the reason people are being encouraged to move away from big cities is that they are now over populated with not enough housing, hence the reason why costs are sky rocketing in those area's, and slowly moving outwards as people are priced out of those regions.

from my own personal experience standards of work here is not as good as what I experienced in the UK, and one of the main complaints from expats I have spoken to. Of course you get poor standards in the UK as everywhere in the world but on an average its a lot more laid back with the "she'll be right" attitude here, which frustrates the hell out of me.

Kotare

All the local plumbers, electricians, gas fitters here seem to be Brit and you would be amazed at how quickly they pick up the laid back, she'll be right attitude :-).

Snap Shot

All the tradespersons I have paid to do work here have been great. All kiwis. Well, except for the Canadian concrete contractor. Their work was faultless regardless of where they originated from.

However, I suspect it's because by chance I found (by looking in the Yellow Pages telephone directory) a local contracting company and I only dealt with the foreman/estimator.

He made sure that the plumber or electrician or concrete contractor or bloke that put the Pink Batts in the loft etc turned up and did the job. I paid the contracting company too. So, I guess to stay in the contracting company's good books the local trades people needed and from me got, good customer feedback.

Having said that, the guy that re-coated our roof (as the building report suggested it needed doing and the longer we left it the more it would cost) did an ace job. I got his details from the Yellow Pages. Well, I assume he did and ace job as I've never been up on the roof to check but I've no reason to believe he didn't do a professional job. He also power washed the column the sundial is on 'cause he felt like it. No, the sundial is not on the roof.

The local gas show room gas fitter did a great job of fitting the dual fuel cooker. The guy that crawled in the crawl space in the void under the floor joists to connect the gas pipes from the outside of the house to the cooker in the kitchen was supplied by them too. I went to them directly.

All kiwis. All good. They were there to do work, not make lasting friendships. I've yet to have a wrong 'un. Well, except for a minor mis-hap with an outside water valve that got damaged by a grounds maintenance contractor who I went to directly. This sent a spout of water upwards creating a kind of geyser effect momentarily I assume ! Oh it must looked like something out of, 'Some mothers do have 'em'. Fortunately he was able to get his (British if that makes a difference) buddy who was a plumber & gas fitter to come and fix it. I got billed for that, which I paid, 'cause I couldn't deny the work got done, and the grounds maintenance guy didn't even say sorry !

Either before or after that, I asked for a well established rosemary plant to be moved. He did this but it died after being re-sited. 'Oh, I must have cut through the tap root' was all he could say. No apology, no offer of a few bucks to get a replacement. I went and paid for another plant which I planted but he made no reference to it.

The builder that wrote the building report is British. The guy that cleaned the carpet last year is British.

not2old

Whats the point of this OP, the relevance?

There areas in the UK where one can buy a 2-up/2-down for £25k

2 bedroom terraced house for sale in Leyland Road, Burnley, BB11

There are places in NZ.....(source NZ Herald)

A humble road in central Kawerau has been revealed as a bargain hunter's dream, laying claim to the cheapest stretch of residential real estate anywhere in New Zealand.

"Tamarangi Drive in the Whakatane district boasts 43 properties with a median value of just $17,000 apiece - about the same price as a decent used car. The figure pales in comparison to the country's richest street - Herne Bay's Cremorne St, where the cul-de-sac's 12 lavish properties boast a median price tag of $6.175 million and are collectively worth nearly $90 million.

An investor with enough cash to buy a standard Cremorne St home could instead pick up 363 average properties in Tamarangi Drive - if only more were available."

garethwm

I think Moses was comparing the cost of building a house in Europe with the cost of house and land in NZ? What he forgot is that if you buy a 300k house in Kerikeri, maybe 200k of that is for the land and 100k for the house.

garethwm

I think thats mainly Auckland isnt it? I havnt heard anything about encouraging people not to move to Wellington or Christchurch. Theres only about 300k residents in each and I think the population growth in those two is pretty small in comparison to Aucks.

Pom_Chch

Property comparisons between NZ and UK seems like a straight forward task but dig deeper and there are many factors to consider, which almost makes it impossible to do. Where you are from in the UK and where you move to in NZ will most certainly determine whether you feel property is good value or not. This is difficult to compare as it's very individual and we each have our own experiences.

I personally feel that our house is good value for money compared to what we could get in the area that I would choose to live in the UK (Dorset). Yes Dorset is one of the more expensive areas and sure there are cheaper/better value houses in other areas of the UK. But not in an area that I would wish to live in.

Justcol

As with everywhere its down to where you look to live
I have a beautiful historic villa with a manageable size section (800sqm) with a pool
in a lovely friendly town that has everything I need except a beach

If i lived in Auckland it'd be at least $1m, the cost of housing in NZ varies so much its hard to make comparisons or find avgs