bourbon-biscuit

Most 3 bedroom houses in NZ don't cost 500-600k. If you get a map out and look under/ south of Auckland you'll see there's quite a few inhabited places outside of Auckland

FWIW, I don't think 500-600k is cheap for a 3 bedroom house, but on the other hand I know folk on the North Shore paying more like a million and they're happy enough to do so.

Alpen for $21.00 or you could actually buy Kiwi muesli- loads of nice brands here! I sometimes head to the English shop and buy Galaxy but I don't then whinge about the price of it and I'm more than happy with a nice bar of whitakers.

Indeed. Possibly not as much fun as emotive fiction though.




I agree NZ isn't the cheapest place to live but let's not start playing silly games like "3 bedroom houses here cost upwards of a half a million and muesli's $21".

BEVS

Perhaps it would be more realistic to state what you can get for $300K NZ$ here in NZ and where that would be found,then go on to candidly post about the areas. Of course one also needs to factor in earning power ect but at the end of the day , most of us know, most people look at the real estate pictures and dream, without seeing behind everyday living.

We had a couple on here recently looking at what they thought was a good area , at a reasonable price in Wellington. Turn out to be not where you would want to be.

Link

House sales NZ

luvwelly

On the current exchange rate that is roughly 500 pounds for quite a lot of hopefully painless dental work likely provided in an unrushed manner.
Since it is not subsidised by the NZ Government like the NHS is in UK (for an inferior quality of treatment especially re advanced stuff like root canals) how is that a rip off?
In UK NHS as an employed person/family on reasonable income you would not have been exempt from charges so even after paying income tax etc, you would likely have been in Band 2 or 3 and paid maybe 198 pounds which is roughly NZ$400.
I am not saying it is affordable for the average Kiwi but it is not a rip off even based on what you just posted.

As for a root canal which can involve 3-4 hours of chair time if done properly, my general dentist charges $1200, a specialist endodontist $2000. If done properly (not UK NHS in 30 mins) it saves your tooth and you don't have to crown it straight away.

I think Kiwi restaurants are more of a rip off, very small portions in general and even charge separately for bread with soup quite often.

You get what you pay for in dentistry more so than in other areas quality and ethics wise. The overheads are higher than in the past just on hygiene regulations. I remember when they used to stick multiple patients with the same syringe...yuck yuck yuck such ignorance as recently as 1970/80s when AIDS arrived.
As another poster pointed out, the level of student debt is also a factor in overheads as well. One of the reasons many USA dentists seem to be such unethical con artists is said to be the high level of debt upon graduation too.

welshrgeordie

hey great reply,s from every-one ...isn,t it lucky we all have such different opinions...otherwise nz would be full of winging poms

I can live with it getting dark for a little while at 5-15 BJ ....because at least at the end of that spell of darkness there will b blue skys....

My sis who has lived in nz for 28 years was over here in the uk last october for a month and she couldn't cope with the constant grey skys and grey outlook of most people ....granted she did love a good session in the local pub for a super sunday session

Personally we understand that we will probs take a pay cut...but not by much... yes we will have an old car... yes Alpen might be expensive ..well eat something else if u don't wanna pay that much...toast is always nice haha.. yes the exchange rate is crap...when we went to nz to get married in 2000 we were gettin 3-1 exchange, No i havn;t got loads of spare cash to be able to afford the exchange rate what it is now.... but I also can't change it ....

So what am I trying to say well I guess its this .... The cost of moving lock stock 2 kids and the dog ....is extreme, so it is not done without much thought....I am not moving to nz to become mega rich...... I have researched , researched and then researched and know it is not the land of expensive milk and manuka honey.... but I am happy to do it ... Sorry it hasn't worked for some , but IMO those it has worked are far to busy having a great life to be sitting on expat forums as they are living the NZ life

Genesis

My point was the $4k for something that clearly did not need doing. It was 4 years ago, had I needed it done I would have paid for it in pain/otherwise in the last 4 years. I have had no such problems. He was clearly recommending work that did not need doing. My issue about the dental work just done is that it is a lot of money in a small wage economy. Fortunately we can afford it..what about those who can't? $1100 for a bit of basic work at the dentist may not be a rip off but its bloody expensive.

sheene

Figures for 2011:

Net migration of Kiwis was downgraded to 'deteriorating' status from 'improving' a year ago with the 30,000 New Zealanders departing in the year to June being double the number seen a year earlier.

young women are at high risk with New Zealand having the highest suicide rate for women aged between 15-24 in the OECD.

Balance.

DC10

Expect to see more and more of this from a government which panders to wealthy baby boomer and retiree voters whilst demonising the young (eg. student borrowers), denying them opportunities, and forcing them overseas in extraordinary numbers.

Would the last young person to leave please turn the (candle)light on so the oldies don't trip over their unfunded retirement liabilities

lardyl

more like the Kiwi "investment property" racket that seems to be the way to make money hand over fist at the expense of first home buyers, etc encouraged by tax loopholes that successive governments feel to weak to close

doubt that immigrants have shoved the prices up more than the land bankers, local planning authorities (who hold the area open for development tight so that land prices are kept hight) and developers who appear take the profit and vanish into the mist

the home-oweners who made all that dough on the property boom are now retirees or multiple home owners with enough family trusts to salt the money away

these and their advisers from property development/get rich quick/tax avoidance fiddles are who you should be blaming not the poor sops who came here and bought leaky homes, over-priced homes and other property. their effect was a drop in the ocean in comparison.

Bo-Jangles

Did it never occur to you most of them are in bed wrapped up in blankets trying to keep warm, cos they can't afford to have the heating, lights and computer on all at the same time.

Bo-Jangles

It should be the next Tui ad.

I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to leave such a wonderful country for a better life and to earn more money elsewhere.

Yeah, right!!

bourbon-biscuit

You're all forgetting the pineapple lumps. Fools.

lardyl

anyway NZ is expensive - just work out how many hours you need to work to buy such and such an item or service. very little works out cheaper than it was in the UK or that it is in the US, etc

I don't see many dentists claiming benefits, many of them are driving Astons, etc The only dental work I've had done here was OK but not great so I'm not an expert but many Kiwis I know have done some tourism/dental work holidays and they aren't complaining.
Tens of thousands of $$ in student fees are not a great deal of dosh, the newly qualified dentists I knew in the UK could see that off in a couple of years. Just another excuse for expensive services. The dental cartel here will be broken at some point just as the opticians one is being dealt to by Specsavers, etc.

I'm also finding it hard to see how so many people earn more here than in the UK. Talking to plenty of expats over trhe past 5 years I've only come accross it in about 1 in 20 cases. Lots of people I know have gone back having been here for a couple of months or 3 - 5 years (usually) cause they couldn't make it work. MrsL is on about 60% of UK salary, I was on 40%, even without the benefits, which were useless here, in terms of leave, sick pay, medical insurance, permanent health cover, parental leave, pension, etc, etc.

Anyway good luck to those who can do better here, best of luck to those of us who struggle and have fun to those who are about to come.

lardyl

yep a frozen pineapple lump was what did for my filling 2 years ago

deadly they are

bourbon-biscuit

Suck, don't bite

lardyl

oh yeah and if you can work for yourself here - do it, it can be a great experience, you get a real good tax deal and many many Kiwis are self-employed.

although filing GST can be a pain - hence I am on here when I should be doing the darned books