Genesis

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?

waikatoguy

But don't the international economists say that it is cheaper to live in Auckland compared to London or Birmingham?

welshrgeordie

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 !!!

simonsi

Genesis

Hmm, good point. One thing is cheap here..car ins, or relatively so. You don't even have to have it here..it's not mandatory!!! Strangely re the weather it's the one thing I did not come for but the weather here is so more clement than it was in the UK. The winter nights are not as long either, I think its because we are closer to the equator than the UK is..we are something like where Gibralter is if you turned us upside down..if you get my drift.

Moliknickers

We have been in NZ a year and are returning to the UK in November.Reasons too numerous to mention all but one at the top of the list is how expensive EVERYTHING is except fuel.Done lots of comparisons over the year and all in, NZ is approx 30 to 40% more.Wages are at least 30% less hence the cavernous gap between earnings and costs. Yes things have increased globally but to stay here would be financial suicide and we have one child IMO of course.

Bo-Jangles

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

Woodlea

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....)

simonsi

...and you have to compare circumstances, whether an individual takes a 30% salary drop (or not), is important, not the national average.

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.

simonsi

No, but all things being equal I'd rather struggle with life's tribulations in Auckland than in the Midlands.

That doesn't mean to say I'm on starvation rations and have food parcel envy though

simonsi

Indeed it is.

Bo-Jangles

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.

Stormer999

BJ the exchange rate is what it is....Anyone wanting to compare the £ value against any other currency will break down and cry when comparing the Euros value to sterling....

Bo-Jangles

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.

Stormer999

Don't get me wrong BJ I do understand where you are coming from but as Welshgeordie has said it is a choice as to what environment we want to struggle in. Personally the place where I live (England) I found acceptable 10 years ago but I now can no longer accept as a place to survive in. I think lots of things are cheaper and easier to come by in England but they are not the things that will benefit me. I don't want a tv in every room, in fact I don't really want many rooms, I can't abide cattle truck Europe holidays I just want peace and quite. I only eat what I concoct so no one has the chance to poison me with mad cow extract. I only request enough income to survive. So do I stand a chance.........