NZ is so expensive
#1
NZ is so expensive
I used to think NZ was reasonable in the price dept. I cannot believe young people (statrting out on the salary ladder) can afford to live here what with the low wage economy and the silly prices for most things. Fortunately I am quite old (thus have accumulated some money) and Kate is on a more than fair salary but I have no idea how those on less money with 3 kids and a mortgage can eek out a living here.
I was in the UK for 8 weeks last Dec/Jan, I was struck by how cheap supermarket shopping was in the Uk and how cheap cars are there for instance. By contrast I know car insurance is silly money (17 year old nephew in Devon with a new clean licence asked for 3/4000 pounds to insure a Micra!!), but generally life in the Uk from a day to day basis does seem more affordable. What do any newly arrived people think?
I was in the UK for 8 weeks last Dec/Jan, I was struck by how cheap supermarket shopping was in the Uk and how cheap cars are there for instance. By contrast I know car insurance is silly money (17 year old nephew in Devon with a new clean licence asked for 3/4000 pounds to insure a Micra!!), but generally life in the Uk from a day to day basis does seem more affordable. What do any newly arrived people think?
#2
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 472
Re: NZ is so expensive
But don't the international economists say that it is cheaper to live in Auckland compared to London or Birmingham?
#3
Re: NZ is so expensive
I have the same thoughts over here in the uk about young people...we have 3 teenage kids who have all passed their driving test in the last 3 years.... INSURANCE has crippled us ...its ridiculous. we could have taken a year off work and gone on a world cruise for the same amount !!
Food costs have gone up heaps in the last 6 months , gas and electric have soared to the point where a lot of people can not afford to heat their houses ... petrol/diesel has soared in cost...... wages have remained the same for nearly 2 years .....
Believe me its no bed of roses over here.... With 6 months of dark bleak winter nights upon us with on average 6 hours of daylight (i use that term lightly)..... I know where I would rather be struggling financially....and it ain't here in the uk !!!
Food costs have gone up heaps in the last 6 months , gas and electric have soared to the point where a lot of people can not afford to heat their houses ... petrol/diesel has soared in cost...... wages have remained the same for nearly 2 years .....
Believe me its no bed of roses over here.... With 6 months of dark bleak winter nights upon us with on average 6 hours of daylight (i use that term lightly)..... I know where I would rather be struggling financially....and it ain't here in the uk !!!
#5
Re: NZ is so expensive
I have the same thoughts over here in the uk about young people...we have 3 teenage kids who have all passed their driving test in the last 3 years.... INSURANCE has crippled us ...its ridiculous. we could have taken a year off work and gone on a world cruise for the same amount !!
Food costs have gone up heaps in the last 6 months , gas and electric have soared to the point where a lot of people can not afford to heat their houses ... petrol/diesel has soared in cost...... wages have remained the same for nearly 2 years .....
Believe me its no bed of roses over here.... With 6 months of dark bleak winter nights upon us with on average 6 hours of daylight (i use that term lightly)..... I know where I would rather be struggling financially....and it ain't here in the uk !!!
Food costs have gone up heaps in the last 6 months , gas and electric have soared to the point where a lot of people can not afford to heat their houses ... petrol/diesel has soared in cost...... wages have remained the same for nearly 2 years .....
Believe me its no bed of roses over here.... With 6 months of dark bleak winter nights upon us with on average 6 hours of daylight (i use that term lightly)..... I know where I would rather be struggling financially....and it ain't here in the uk !!!
#6
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 59
Re: NZ is so expensive
I have the same thoughts over here in the uk about young people...we have 3 teenage kids who have all passed their driving test in the last 3 years.... INSURANCE has crippled us ...its ridiculous. we could have taken a year off work and gone on a world cruise for the same amount !!
Food costs have gone up heaps in the last 6 months , gas and electric have soared to the point where a lot of people can not afford to heat their houses ... petrol/diesel has soared in cost...... wages have remained the same for nearly 2 years .....
Believe me its no bed of roses over here.... With 6 months of dark bleak winter nights upon us with on average 6 hours of daylight (i use that term lightly)..... I know where I would rather be struggling financially....and it ain't here in the uk !!!
Food costs have gone up heaps in the last 6 months , gas and electric have soared to the point where a lot of people can not afford to heat their houses ... petrol/diesel has soared in cost...... wages have remained the same for nearly 2 years .....
Believe me its no bed of roses over here.... With 6 months of dark bleak winter nights upon us with on average 6 hours of daylight (i use that term lightly)..... I know where I would rather be struggling financially....and it ain't here in the uk !!!
#7
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: In a large village called Auckland
Posts: 5,249
Re: NZ is so expensive
Struggling along in either country isn't really a lifestyle choice, eh? You mean people actually want to run away from their awful lives in the UK to be worse off in NZ. I don't think so!!
Cos we all know how terrible and how much of a struggle it is in the UK don't we? I mean really, like everyone can afford to spend ten thousand quids plus a small fortune to emigrate half way around the world. Do me a favour, like it'd be such great fun and you'd all take to struggle street like ducks to water. At least you have friends and family in the UK to turn to, to help you or bail you out if things get tough. Even of it is just to supplement you're budget once a month with a Sunday dinner with mums or grans or treats for the kids.
Anyway, whilst contemplating where the next ten grand is coming from and before folks get too carried away with romantic ideas about being poor and making do and mend with the old No8 wire, where cost of living between UK and NZ is concerned, that old blackened greasy frying pan and fires come to mind.
Housing in Auckland is far less affordable than the majority of the UK cities and on a par with costs of housing in the London suburbs. Yet again we get people trying to justify costs of Auckland compared with London, get this, there is no comparison between the two and I fail to see why people should persist in trying to draw comparisons when there is not even one monied Kensington, Chelsea, West End, Park Lane, Westminster or Belgravia equivalent in Auckland.
One international housing affordability survey in 2010 http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf showed that the main cities of Australia and New Zealand rank almost entirely amongst the most severely and least affordable housing in the English speaking world. Sydney being the least affordable.
SERIOUSLY UNAFFORDABLE
48 UK Leeds & West Yorkshire 4.6
49 US Miami-West Palm Beach, FL 4.7
50 Ireland Dublin 4.8
50 UK Derby & Derbyshire 4.8
50 UK Nottingham & Nottinghamshire 4.8
50 UK Sheffield & South Yorkshire 4.8
54 UK Hull & Humber 4.9
55 UK Glasgow 5.0
55 UK Manchester & Greater Manchester 5.0
55 US Boston, MA-NH 5.0
55 US Seattle, WA 5.0
SEVERELY UNAFFORDABLE
59 Canada Toronto, ON 5.1
59 UK Blackpool & Lancashire 5.1
59 UK Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire 5.1
62 Canada Montreal 5.2
62 UK Birmingham & West Midlands 5.2
64 UK Liverpool & Merseyside 5.5
64 UK Newcastle & Tyneside 5.5
66 UK Bristol-Bath 5.9
66 US Los Angeles, CA 5.9
68 US New York, NY-NJ-PA 6.1
69 US San Diego, CA 6.2
70 Australia Perth, WA 6.3
71 N.Z. Auckland 6.4
72 UK London Exurbs (E & SE England) 6.5
73 Australia Brisbane, QLD 6.6
74 US San Jose, CA 6.7
75 Australia Adelaide, SA 7.1
76 UK London (Greater London Authority) 7.2
76 US San Francisco-Oakland, CA 7.2
78 UK Plymouth & Devon 7.5
79 Australia Melbourne, VIC 9.0
80 Canada Vancouver, BC 9.5
81 Australia Sydney, NSW 9.6
Cos we all know how terrible and how much of a struggle it is in the UK don't we? I mean really, like everyone can afford to spend ten thousand quids plus a small fortune to emigrate half way around the world. Do me a favour, like it'd be such great fun and you'd all take to struggle street like ducks to water. At least you have friends and family in the UK to turn to, to help you or bail you out if things get tough. Even of it is just to supplement you're budget once a month with a Sunday dinner with mums or grans or treats for the kids.
Anyway, whilst contemplating where the next ten grand is coming from and before folks get too carried away with romantic ideas about being poor and making do and mend with the old No8 wire, where cost of living between UK and NZ is concerned, that old blackened greasy frying pan and fires come to mind.
Housing in Auckland is far less affordable than the majority of the UK cities and on a par with costs of housing in the London suburbs. Yet again we get people trying to justify costs of Auckland compared with London, get this, there is no comparison between the two and I fail to see why people should persist in trying to draw comparisons when there is not even one monied Kensington, Chelsea, West End, Park Lane, Westminster or Belgravia equivalent in Auckland.
One international housing affordability survey in 2010 http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf showed that the main cities of Australia and New Zealand rank almost entirely amongst the most severely and least affordable housing in the English speaking world. Sydney being the least affordable.
SERIOUSLY UNAFFORDABLE
48 UK Leeds & West Yorkshire 4.6
49 US Miami-West Palm Beach, FL 4.7
50 Ireland Dublin 4.8
50 UK Derby & Derbyshire 4.8
50 UK Nottingham & Nottinghamshire 4.8
50 UK Sheffield & South Yorkshire 4.8
54 UK Hull & Humber 4.9
55 UK Glasgow 5.0
55 UK Manchester & Greater Manchester 5.0
55 US Boston, MA-NH 5.0
55 US Seattle, WA 5.0
SEVERELY UNAFFORDABLE
59 Canada Toronto, ON 5.1
59 UK Blackpool & Lancashire 5.1
59 UK Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire 5.1
62 Canada Montreal 5.2
62 UK Birmingham & West Midlands 5.2
64 UK Liverpool & Merseyside 5.5
64 UK Newcastle & Tyneside 5.5
66 UK Bristol-Bath 5.9
66 US Los Angeles, CA 5.9
68 US New York, NY-NJ-PA 6.1
69 US San Diego, CA 6.2
70 Australia Perth, WA 6.3
71 N.Z. Auckland 6.4
72 UK London Exurbs (E & SE England) 6.5
73 Australia Brisbane, QLD 6.6
74 US San Jose, CA 6.7
75 Australia Adelaide, SA 7.1
76 UK London (Greater London Authority) 7.2
76 US San Francisco-Oakland, CA 7.2
78 UK Plymouth & Devon 7.5
79 Australia Melbourne, VIC 9.0
80 Canada Vancouver, BC 9.5
81 Australia Sydney, NSW 9.6
#8
Re: NZ is so expensive
Cheap as chips here in Canty - I don't know what the fuss is, so much cheaper than NE Scotland. (Hint you have to compare like with like....)
#9
Re: NZ is so expensive
No-one makes a country choice based on national averages....do they????
I would have thought anyone would take their earning power in both countries into account, not just go by some probably irrelevant (to them) national average.
And that is before you go into how (un)representative national averages can be...
Mr and Mrs National UK Average may not be swayed into emigrating by the prospect of becoming Mr and Mrs NZ National Average....but that isn't the point and is a misleading comparison for an individual set of circumstances.
#10
Re: NZ is so expensive
That doesn't mean to say I'm on starvation rations and have food parcel envy though
#12
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: In a large village called Auckland
Posts: 5,249
Re: NZ is so expensive
I guess the fact that people in the UK can even contemplate swapping one of their precious hard earned pounds for two of our NZ dollars, tells us there is often more money than sense behind such decisions and people will do what they will, whilst they can afford it.
I talk with family in the UK on a weekly basis, we can feel the degradation of our income and increased expenditure compared to all of them. We were as a DINKY couple considerably better off than siblings and parents. We afforded luxuries, holidays and things that others in the family could not. This is definitely no longer the case and we now feel like we are the poor relations listening to all the things they've been up to, the places they go, things they done, holiday, meals out etc. Even my own mother, a pensioner, thinks our life is dull. Simply because we have no spare money for going out galivanting.
The fact that it gets dark at 5.15pm instead of 4.30pm has no impact or bearing on my life. It's still bloody dark by the time I get home from work.
I talk with family in the UK on a weekly basis, we can feel the degradation of our income and increased expenditure compared to all of them. We were as a DINKY couple considerably better off than siblings and parents. We afforded luxuries, holidays and things that others in the family could not. This is definitely no longer the case and we now feel like we are the poor relations listening to all the things they've been up to, the places they go, things they done, holiday, meals out etc. Even my own mother, a pensioner, thinks our life is dull. Simply because we have no spare money for going out galivanting.
The fact that it gets dark at 5.15pm instead of 4.30pm has no impact or bearing on my life. It's still bloody dark by the time I get home from work.
Last edited by Bo-Jangles; Oct 26th 2011 at 10:47 am.
#13
Life is what YOU make it.
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 3,312
Re: NZ is so expensive
I guess the fact that people in the UK can even contemplate swapping one of their precious hard earned pounds for two of our NZ dollars, tells us there is often more money than sense behind such decisions and people will do what they will, whilst they can afford it.
I talk with family in the UK on a weekly basis, we can feel the degradation of our income and increased expenditure compared to all of them. We were as a DINKY couple considerably better off than siblings and parents. We afforded luxuries, holidays and things that others in the family could not. This is definitely no longer the case and we now feel like we are the poor relations listening to all the things they've been up to, the places they go, things they done, holiday, meals out etc. My own mother, a pensioner, thinks our life is dull. Simply because we have no spare money for going out galivanting.
I talk with family in the UK on a weekly basis, we can feel the degradation of our income and increased expenditure compared to all of them. We were as a DINKY couple considerably better off than siblings and parents. We afforded luxuries, holidays and things that others in the family could not. This is definitely no longer the case and we now feel like we are the poor relations listening to all the things they've been up to, the places they go, things they done, holiday, meals out etc. My own mother, a pensioner, thinks our life is dull. Simply because we have no spare money for going out galivanting.
#14
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: In a large village called Auckland
Posts: 5,249
Re: NZ is so expensive
Getting back to such an enviable position of having spare dosh to make such decisions with your life a second time around after arriving in NZ, won't be so easy come, easy go. My pay packet is what it is, nothing I can do to make it go any further.
Last edited by Bo-Jangles; Oct 26th 2011 at 11:05 am.
#15
Life is what YOU make it.
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 3,312
Re: NZ is so expensive
My point exactly; you must undoubtedly have the money sloshing around in order to be able to afford to take the hit in the first place. If the answer is, it is what it is and it doesn't make you cry, then you're a prime example and appear to be so desperate to get away no matter what the cost is. You must ergo be able to afford to gamble all you have on that last spin of the wheel or still have some in reserve
Getting back to such an enviable position of having spare dosh to make such decisions with your life a second time around after arriving in NZ, won't be so easy come, easy go. My pay packet is what it is, nothing I can do to make it go any further.
Getting back to such an enviable position of having spare dosh to make such decisions with your life a second time around after arriving in NZ, won't be so easy come, easy go. My pay packet is what it is, nothing I can do to make it go any further.