naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

Hello all, first time posting but you seem like a friendly bunch who keep saying 'we're a wealth of info so just ask'.
I've done a fair amount of reading for a long time now, and we're coming into our last couple years of prepping before making the move to NZ. So, I have come to some conclusions which I am going to write, and im hoping you can tell me if that's about right or if i'm way off.

1) Cost of living is expensive, but pretty comparable to the UK (outside of Auckland). Food seems to be a bit more expensive, but we dont eat animal products and a lot of the pricey stuff seems to be meat and cheese? The rest seems about the same as here. (also dont smoke, dont buy bottled water, which also seem to be v expensive).
2) I am (nearly) a nurse, and my husband is a primary school teacher. We will be able to survive on these 2 incomes. (we are very non materialistic, spend most of our spare time hiking/climbing/biking in the UK and will continue to do so in NZ)
3) Ive heard about the who you know, not what you know thing. I dont think that applies to teachers and nurses as the jobs are in demand?
4) Buying a house is going to be damn expensive. Are people happy to just rent forever, or are you biting the bullet and paying for expensive housing?


This is all. It just seems one of the top reasons people give for not moving to NZ is cost. But from my research it doesnt seem much higher than how we live here in the UK, in terms of how much of what we earn is spent on rent/food etc.


I really appreciate your time and responses. Thank you <3

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

I'll kick this one off :p
(1) Don't know how you've come to that conclusion. Our family friends who live in Auckland don't seem to pay out any more than we do (we're in Tauranga). You can manage through some of the high costs - i.e. when tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes and avocado's are super expensive (because they are out of season) then don't buy them or go elsewhere to get them cheaper - maybe a farm shop. Other high costs are unfortunately compulsory - i.e. rent, power etc.
I don't see there is any comparison to the UK which to me seems very cheap. We still discuss the price of things with family back home on a daily basis. It appears to be expensive here....period!
(2)
(3) From what I've experienced, nurses are so in hot demand it shouldn't be difficult to get a job. I see the only issue being I'd expect an NZ employer would want a minimum experience period of you being a nurse before they would offer you work - maybe at least a year or two ?
As for your hubby, I've seen first hand on a number of occasions that it is defo who you know, not what you know to get a job as a teacher. Many would be teachers that I've known had to start off volunteering or teachers assistant for a short while before they managed to land a full-time or part-time job in school.
(4) You will only be able to buy property here if and when you have Resident status. The rules of property/land ownership changed not long ago to prevent foreign investors snapping everything up in an attempt to allow Kiwi's to get on the housing ladder. Many many people are still unable to afford to buy their first home and the only option, if you want to leave mums/dads is to rent (if you can afford to rent) or house share. In general a mortgage needs a minimum 20% deposit which is quite high when you consider the cheapest home may cost you $600k to buy. There are opportunities for first time buyers to buy property with a reduced deposit but they'll be stung with a penalty cost from the financial institution offering the mortgage. There's also some government housing schemes available where you receive a grant or assistance towards ownership but these are only in certain areas where the house price is within a certain window.
Yes people seem to be happy to rent forever here, which is crazy, but if you can't afford the deposit to buy then there's not much you can do but rent. Kind of a vicious circle.

We arrived with NZ$80k to set ourselves up. Without that cash we would have really struggled. We spent the majority on purchasing vehicles outright, mobile phone contracts, some furniture and appliances for the long term rental etc all because we didn't want to land here and be trying to finance stuff from the word go. It worked out for us but it was still a financial headache at times. At the time we were earning NZ$100k from my salary alone. It got a whole lot better when the Mrs started back to work (as a nurse) part time. That extra $1200 per fortnight worked wonders for the budget.
And now, after nearly 10 years we're over the ridiculous CoL, insane property prices etc. Sick of watching the cash flow all the time. We really worry about how the heck our kids will ever be able to afford a house here, so we have a plan in place that we've recently pulled the trigger on - we're moving to Brisbane!
Much cheaper CoL. Property is half the price of NZ in comparison so we'd be mortgage free which is a huge carrot to dangle. Salaries are generally a lot higher - especially for me as an electrical engineer. Nurse pay is a little higher in Aus than NZ, but the Mrs fancies doing vaccinator work which is pretty much double the pay of what she earns in NZ - around AU$60 per hour. She's a practice nurse in NZ and most of her day is vaccinations anyways so why not specialize doing that in Aus at double the pay.
Way more opportunities and options for the whole family. Warm weather all year round - yes we'd rather avoid 3 months of 50 degrees Aus summer than 3 months of chilly NZ winter.
Means we'll be closer to the UK albeit only by 3 or 4 hours but with ageing parents we'll have to go back a few times over the next 10 years or so.
We'd be able to get the kids in private school and afford it since we'll be mortgage free. Also means I don't necessarily have to be earning top dollar in my job to live a much better life in Aus since our outgoings will be so much lower.

NZ has been fantastic. We've loved it here and we love it here. We love where we live and the house we built 5 years ago, BUT life here for us is just not sustainable long term.

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

I guess you can find some examples to help justify your assumptions and likely you will not be convinced otherwise but on the whole (noting that it's a been a long time since I was in the UK) I think you will ultimately be 'surprised' at how much more expensive it is here. It's not true that the cost of living in Auckland is the most expensive per se, other than for the cost of housing. We usually notice that petrol is way more expensive in smaller towns, as are groceries if relying on smaller independents and local convenience stores (FourSquare / suprettes / dairies). Cost of utilities also vary a lot around the country and it's not very easy to compare but I think the more remote / rural places pay more for electricity.

The cost of supermarkets is a hot topic *again*, - here's an example of one of many articles this past week or so and most concur that NZ is expensive - your mileage may vary but you just need to be mindful that this really is not the promised land of milk and honey. You haven't lived until you experience the frenzy around free food in an NZ staff kitchen or a free for all buffet. LOL

The world of work and migrants is all to pot just now and any thought if emigration and where to live are but pipedreams unless you have a means to securing a visa and we've no way of knowing when this will open up again, if at all. There has been announcements of immigration reforms and most categories are currently closed except for some exceptional circumstances, so you need to watch that space before steaming ahead with ideas of where to live and such like.

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

Like everywhere homes are more affordable depending on where you live.
The Auckland/Hamilton/Tauranga golden triangle is very expensive. All the houses I owned when I lived up there are way over a million each now, and they were relatively average houses. On the flip side, the tidy little 2 bedroom house next door to me is being listed tomorrow. It'll probably fetch high 3's, and a budget of around 40k would see it up to spec and comfortable. It all depends where you are and what you need. you may want to consider building yourself as I can work out cheaper.

my wife's a vegetarian and her food spend is more than triple what mine is.

A teacher and a nurse can easily live on the salaries they receive

I'm not 100% on this but I think you need to have been qualified and doing the job you're planning to do here for at least 2 years before you apply. Maybe someone with knowledge can confirm that

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

thanks for the replies. yep i need 2500 hours and 2 years of experience to join the nursing register, which is just 2 years of full time work. i guess im just a bit lost with the sheer volume of websites ive visited; budget comparisons and the like. a couple ive been on compared things like a pint of milk in auckland vs elsewhere and auckland groceries were always higher, as were rent and other things(which is where i got my assumption from but no idea if its accurate)... but then here you are telling me its no more expensive and perhaps even less expensive in some regards than other places. its very confusing and hard to gauge when all ive got to go on is websites, groups on facebook and forums where there seems to be ever conflicting information. *sigh*

we've had a family chat about the possibility of moving to OZ for the first few years so we can keep saving but be close to NZ and go for some holidays to to a bit of first hand research :)
I've done a fake shop on one of the supermarket websites...first world or something? - and the food seems pretty compareable tbh. only came to about £5 more than we spend currently in the UK. But, the general vibe people give me is that they're sick of living on the breadline even as high earners....and we live like that now in order to save for NZ and we don't want that to continue forever. so we will check out some other alternatives until we can buy outright or the houses go down :)
Thanks for the reassurance that 'A teacher and a nurse can easily live on the salaries they receive', one lady literally said yesterday- 'Those professions do not necessarily equate with an ability to rent or buy housing.'.

thanks all x

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

If both working in them professions then you'll definately be able to afford rent and the key thing on buying is how much deposit you'll need for a house. Itll be a struggle saving for a house while renting. Assuming once you've done your 2 years and you apply you'd be main applicant so your fella would be searching for a job for a bit and so where you get your job will affect where he can work. I dont think theres much difference in grocery prices for Auckland but theres huge housing price differences between there and rest of nz. Nurses are struggling with their unions over pay and conditions currently and teachers about cost of living but hope you guys do make it cos nz urgently needs nurses at least
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/12606...that-need-them
loads of nurses looking at aus for work, I hear they pay way more, housing less of a worry too

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

I'd be very very interested in that shopping list. :nod:

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

Tempting JustCol. Tempting. We're thinking of our next life phase just now. I'd be closer to my beloved albatross and other wildlife.
Good neighbours ?

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

It all depends what your circumstances are in the UK and what part of the UK you live in and your wages to compare anything in NZ.
I lived in Essex in the UK and me and my wife have alot more spare cash in Auckland than we did in Essex.
I work in construction I clear between 1250 and 1400 most weeks and my wife works in corrections and cleared about 1000 a week.
Had plenty of spare money and not scrapped by at all. save about 600-800 a week in savings.
But I dont really live the high life on piss every week and I don't live in a posh area in Auckland paying 800-1000 a week on rent.
If you like spending and living above your means you will do it any where in the world. If you like credit cards and spending money you dont have and living in places you can't afford it's no different to the UK.
When you first arrive in NZ if its just you and your husband I would house share at first till you find your feet and both have jobs. You pay about 250 to 300 dollars a week including all your bills for a room.
same as materialstic. NZ is very materialstic aswell just in a different way. Everyone wants a 50k ranger ute pulling a 30ft boat or jet skis. its not big on fashion and that but are on other things.

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

Of course 😊



As always, everything depends on where you are but there are still plenty of affordable places in nice peaceful communities down here.

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

Are Health Boards still hiring nurses? I rather thought there was a stand-off about wages within the sector as the Government seek to downsize healthcare costs.

Re: naivety perhaps? help from teachers and nurses please
 

Yes.

Really ? Please provide a link although that would be rather off topic and perhaps better for a dedicated thread called 'I don't like /do like the current NZ govt'