Flippy1963

Sorry to

A lot of the threads seem to give bad press towards actually emigrating to NZ. This has placed us in a slight quandry as we have always had ambitions to move to this country. Not sure whether this is through poor investigation prior to move, bad luck, home sickness, over expectation or a bit of everything, as you always get positives (not as many as negatives though!). :scared:

I will be shortly having an interview for an engineering job in New Zealand.
If successful we would be moving to the Blenheim/Nelson Area. We have a couple of questions regarding the area...

1. Any bad areas. Whats the good areas. House types etc...

2. A lot of the housing seems expensive for what you got compared to the avarage NZ wage. I saw one house in the area, on the internet for nearly £90k that looked like a rundown shepherds hut with a rusty tin roof (free sheep dip included). The prices sem to have gone as silly in NZ as the UK, or is this just the area?

3. I will be bringing across about £60k.. not a lot to some I know (oh, and two kids, a wifey and Mutt). What should I be looking at Salary wise to live comfortably (don't want to be rich or poor, just happy...well enough money not to go begging)?

4. As the contract is for only 3.5 years, would it be better to rent and look to moving to the North Island when the contract ends for a higher standard of living?

Thanks

Joshlin

Hi Flippy
don't have any personal experience of Blenheim / Nelson although my hubby's boss is from there originally so will gather some info from him.

as a general guide, you need to be looking at an income of about $4000 per month net in order to meet your general day to day costs, and that's with some careful budgeting - we're a family of 4 with 2 children (4 and 18mths) so still buying nappies etc and that is a workable budget for us.

Everyone will agree that house prices in NZ have exploded over the last couple of years and mortgage rates are huge so do your research - I would suggest that you are looking at about $350k for a reasonable property outside of Auckland - we've just got a loan for $140k and that's gonna cost us just under $1100 per month - pretty much the same cost as our rental!

re: north v south island - i don't think there's much difference regarding overall cost of living - wages will be higher in auckland but then everything else is more expensive there as well - we settled in christchurch rather than bay of plenty cos we felt that we would get more property for our money!!

re: negatives to emigrating - everyone has their own experiences and hence their own views on new zealand - for us it has been better than expected - we knew that wages would be poor, we knew that cost of living would be about the same, we knew that we wouldn't be mortgage free and we knew that we would both have to work (and both of the latter were the same in the UK!!), however the people we have met, the places that we have been to, the things that we have done and the general attitudes have been as or better than expected - much lower stress levels, a healthier approach to life on our part, a shift in priorities - all for the better - so, so far so good.

Do plenty of research - hear the experiences of others good and not so good, be clear on what you want to achieve and whether you can get it here - not everyone can.
Good Luck
Vicki

newkiwi

Nelson/ Blenheim is popular as tourist locations, so house prices are inflated especially near the coast. What yu require as a salary is subjective, depends on your expectations re standard of living. some ppl get by with $60k, some say they would need at least $100k. In the order of $60-$80k for a family would probably be a reasonable expectation.

I dont know the specific good/ bad areas, of what ive seen the towns are not all that big so probably not huge "bad areas".

I would suggest you rent in the beginning, rregardless of whether its a long or short term contract job. Better to rent and check out the place before buying in any event.

Joshlin

Hi Flippy

Spoke with my boss yesterday at work. He is originally from Blenheim(parents still live there), and has been in Chch for 8yrs. Population in Blenheim, he reckons, has nearly doubled in the time he has left to nearly 40k.
Not any bad areas as such-used to be a couple of dodgy streets but they have long since been sub-divided. Basically, like Chch the nearer to "the hill" you live the better things are is what he reckoned.
The drive to Nelson he said is about 1hr 15mins, but not one he would want to do everyday as a commute.
He is about 40 if that has any bearing on things. Sometimes age will alter perception!!!!!!!!!!
One interesting thing he did mention, is that since he left he realised how "cliquey" and reserved they are compared to folk in Chch.
Anything else we can help with just shout.
Good luck

Lee