Jan n Neil

Where are u shopping i think it,s dear as

On the wages front i,m just about to change my job and the money is what i was on in the UK 15 years ago

Neil

waikatoguy

The fact is, NZ Cost of Living, in the only international survey of it's kind I can find (Mercer's of the UK), doesn't come off too badly. In 2010, Auckland was ranked 149th most expensive out of 250 cities surveyed. Wellington 163rd. Do they just make these figures up? Although, in 2011, with the higher exchange rate, I think Auckland has risen to about 110th (from what I remember from a newspaper article), although I can't find the exact ranking. It does seem that generally the cost of groceries in NZ is quite high though. But nothing will convince me that you can buy a 3 bedroom house on a quarter acre section in the outer suburbs of London with a pool for anywhere near as cheaply as the same in the outer suburbs of Auckland.

faye_h

Completely agree with this. We could only afford a one bed flat in the outer suburbs of London. In Auckland (and in a suburb much better than the one we lived in London) we could easily afford a small 3 bed house for the same price we paid for our flat. I know which I would rather live in!

At the end of the day it comes down to the individual, where they lived in the UK compared to NZ, what they earnt in the UK compared to NZ and what they want to get out of moving to another country. We came from a really expensive area in outer London from jobs that were paid reasonably to a beautiful place on the North Shore to the same jobs in NZ with slightly higher salaries!!

For those who think they will get paid less by moving to NZ, this isn't necessarily true, it may not be the norm but it doesn't mean it can't happen.

DC10

As you know better than anyone, Sterling lost a third of its value in a few short months back in 2008 and has done little to regain it. Take a third off all NZ prices/add a third to all UK prices and - voila - everything is about correct...

Genesis

Very true about house prices. But it is all relative. We bought a big house on a big section with a pool etc, etc in a great neighbourhood back in 2005 for about $440,000. That was 166,000 pounds. What would that buy in the UK?? BUT all my kiwi neighbours thought it was overpriced as did everyone else who came to see it. I would have happily paid another 100k plus for it because from my perspective it was cheap. But if I had been a kiwi with no or little equity, having lived in Nz for all my life I probably would have agreed with them.

I heard a while back that kiwi housing in relation to wages is some of the most expensive on earth and at that juncture the median house price was something like 8 times the median salary..clearly way out of kilter eh?

Genesis

Whilst that is true we spend kiwi dollars earned here. For me this is not about the value of the pound it's about stuff here being well expensive. All our UK cash is still there and bears no relation to my feelings about prices in NZ.

DC10

As another anecdote about affordability, when I was a NZ uni student back in 2001 I earned the princely sum of $7.50 an hour (ie. £2.15 - OMG!) working weekends at a service station.

Today in the same role they would have to pay me, I think, $13 (ie. £6.50 - yes I know that £ part isn't all that relevant).

So unless NZ prices have doubled in 10 years (they haven't), lower wage earners ought to be quite a bit better off than they were

mickey_d

Not strictly true:-
Average house price in 2001 was around $150K now $402K.
Petrol $0.97 now $2.099.
Some food items have almost doubled, doubled or more in price since we came on our reccie in 2005 (kids have receipts in scrapbook).2 examples being Milk was $3.24/3l now $5.49, Citrus Tree Orange Juice/3l $2.99 now as much as $7.49.

bourbon-biscuit

I dunno. I don't think it is *that* expensive. If it's 30% more expensive than Britain, it's definitely more than 30% nicer, imo.

I do think it pays sometimes to have less well established lives in Britain (in terms of career, salary and equity etc) to enjoy what NZ has to offer.

We earn more here than in the UK and enjoy a standard of living incomparable to what we could afford in the UK five years ago or (by comparing our lives with my siblings in higher paid professions than we get by on) could afford now.

Genesis

And I wonder how the dentists fare in London/B/ham price wise relative to wages.

I am a regular dentist visitor so visit below is nought to do with the fact that I have not been for 7 years.

This visit.

$95 for check up.
$250 for hygienist work.
$210 for an extraction.
$570 for 2 fillings...$2k if I would like 2 X crowns which will last twice as long. I think I will go for the cheaper option thanks.

So that is about $1125 for this year's visit....cool eh? Now I know why so many kiwis have shite teeth.

A while back some bastard of a dentist/conman tried to get around $4k of work out of me relative to root canal work. That was back in 2007, have I had any issues of any nature because I declined his kind offer of his service? Yet another of the many, many kiwi rip off merchants that have darkened my door.

DC10

One of the main reasons why dentists are so expensive here is that they have, since the 1990s, been paying "full whack" student fees which amount to many tens of thousands of dollars per year. In most other countries, including the UK (though changing), fees are limited on the upside regardless of what course you study. At present UK student fees are limited to around £3k per year for home students.

My Aussie aunt is cursed with problem teeth and simply goes on holiday to have them done. So far she's had crowns, root canals and fillings in (Western clinics in) Bulgaria, Thailand and Morocco. The saving is more than enough to pay for the trip.

Yes if you are a snob you can sneer about Moroccan and Bulgarian dentists, but that is probably without much foundation.

Expat Kiwi

Ever stop to think that it's because people from countries like Britain are paying over the odds for their NZ home? You said it yourself : cheap from your perspective.

Perhaps your neighbours were telling you to stop pricing their kids out of home ownership? Just a thought.

You can't willingly pay an inflated price for your home and then complain that NZ is expensive . Prices are only high because people let them get that way.

Genesis

No, the house was simply overpriced (apparently) for the market at that time. I know some of these neighbours well now and believe me they call a spade a spade and would have told me what you suggested above if they felt that. We had a budget of $600k that is why I said I would have gladly paid $540k for it. It was only a wee bit over the RV which was about 2 years old at that point and in May 2005 the house market was very brisk. And I simply paid what the man wanted for it after trying to get 20k lopped of it.

And if I like a house and it is well above market value I will buy it if its what I want. I am afraid I will not pass a house I really want because of what you suggest above. I believe in paying what something is worth and that is what a house is ONLY ever worth, what someone else is prepared to pay for it... a bit like the overpriced stuff in NZ. But that will not stop me moaning about it and other issues of a negative nature about the place I call home.

whitesand

I don't know how most folks can afford to live here as it's so expensive. I just don't agree that housing is cheaper here than anywhere else. I don't think 500-600 thousand dollars plus is cheap for three-bedroom houses. Most would think that's a fortune. Because the UK is larger there is much more range of prices than you get here. Everything here is standard down to the price of coffee.

This myth about NZ being cheaper than the Uk is just that. And my O/H,who is in the UK at the moment, just mentioned how great it is to buy Alpen which doesn't cost $21.00 like it does here.

DC10

$500-600k buys a very nice property in all but a handful of north island cities and a few prestige areas in the south. Average for what you describe above is more like $300k everywhere else. Fact.