crap coffee

Heartfelt

Libbyxx

in_denial

You'd have thought it would be common sense....

daveandjue123

Hi everyone,

This is our first proper post on the forum. We’re right in the middle of our research and found this thread an eye-opener. One of the attractions for us (apart from a better life style for the kids and ourselves) is that we would be able to buy a nice house with no mortgage and have cash in the bank.

Is it the fact that mortgage payments are so high that makes life so hard? the lower wages or a combination! Would love to hear from you all.

Best wishes to you all in NZ

Jude J

Hello
I mentioned that we sold our house partly due to the high interest rates, but there were other reasons. We didn't put much of a deposit on our house and the 2 year fixed term was due to end in June this year, and with the rise in interest rates the payments were due to rise considerably.

Our wages were quite good, we had a joint income of 150k, but the stress of the job wasn't worth it, so we quit it for something different.
If you are bringing over enough for a big deposit I imagine you will be fine and have some cash in the bank.

Some of what has been posted lately does give the impression the country is poor, but take a look around and you can see that some people must be earning good money!

daveandjue123

Hi Jude J

Yes we were starting to think NZ was on a long slide down after some of the posts. We would be lucky enough to be able to buy a house out-right but would be unlikely to get a great income, maybe $70,000 between us if we're lucky. the lifestyle is what we're going for but the pressure of no mortgage & money in bank must help that or are we being nieve?

thanks for the help it's really appreciated.

Dave & Julie

lardyl

true some people have money (you do see it in parts of Auckland - just walk down Broadway on a sunny day or go and see the $3m+ mansions that some chinese buy for their kids to stay in when they are studying here - seen them, quite amazing!), but most Kiwis are not on good money compared to the UK/Oz/US/Canada/Europe (even with the house prices and interest rates as they were say a couple of years ago!) - thats why there is a real brain drain!
As others have said the average wages here are something like $35k to $40k - with some of the rental costs and mortgage costs pretty high that does not go very far - hence the comment about child poverty. Also the taxation system does not really favour low earners, unless they have families and can claim free childcare, tax credits, etc.
So NZ is a nice place to be if you are cashed up or able to live cheaply, otherwise its something of a struggle. Depends upon how you look at your long term financial security versus lifestyle and long term physical/resource security I suppose

Genesis

Yes it does immensely. One of the reasons of coming here was to rub out our UK mortgage..what a millstone it was. We earn way less than that but as we have been able to buy a modest house for cash (about £5.50) we are mortgage free and have some left over (after 20 years UK home ownership the poorer post codes I hasten to add!!) NZ is not on ant slide, I think its always had issues you don't appreciate them till you get here.

The main thing about NZ is that it affords us the type of life, time wise, fiscally, spiritually, Space, stress, health wise and in almost every other dept. of our lives the opportunities we could not get in the UK.

NZ has way surpassed all our expectations. It is great, warts and all.

daveandjue123

thanks for the input guys,

I know everywhere has good and bad but always nice to hear from those at the shap end so to speak. So you don't think we are mad looking to leave the UK!!!!

Dave & Jue

jleroux

I'm from Cape Town originally then went to London (had to get away after 4 years) and now I live in Edinburgh (4 years already). I went to Cape Town in December and realised how much I miss the sun so now my feet are itching again. Hang on I see a trend, 4 year London, 4 years Scotland, maybe 4 years in NZ and then off to Auz, lol.

So, I have been reading up for the past month+ on NZ and what I need to do to get over there. We have friends that live outside Hamilton. My OH is fedup hearing about NZ and things I find out on the web. I'm in IT and think I should be able to get $40-60k and my OH works in accounts so she'll be on a slightly lower income. Say together we can get $70-80k and sell up here we can take maybe £100k with us.

So far it looks like Auckland a house I would love to have is around the $450-550k mark which means I will have a mortgage which will take a large chunk out of our earnings. I looked at food prices at a online shop (probably not the right way to compare but only way I could fomr over here) and a week's shopping we just bought at Asda was £15 more in NZ.

I moved from South Africa to have a better life and I sort of have minimal financial worries in Scotland (expect that I haven't had a perm job since August) but we make ends meet. I don't want to move to NZ and have a suffer to survive, than I might aswell have stayed in SA.

Soooo to conclude. Thanks for this thread, you're helping us we can't decide and have fears, do you think I'm being silly? Will we be able to survive on say $40-50k with a mortgage of $300k or will it be touch and go? We were planning to start a family this year but now have put that on hold till we come back from Auckland in December to check things out.

Lexylou

I moved from Edinburgh (stockbridge - gorgeous New Town flat) to Chch. We took a HUGE drop in lifestyle. We had a mortgage of $350K and had more than double the salary you are talking about (we were both working) and we got into debt. Sorry but it is true. We stuggled and felt that we were young people that could not enjoy the things we should. I feel Scotland, despite the weather (just awful at the moment) is as good as it gets, for us anyway.

Where in Livingston do you live? Not the actual address but actually IN Livingston? Did you not fancy living in Edinburgh itself? I could not live in Livingston, no wonder you want to leave!!

Good luck!

Lexylou

sorry that sounds rude doesn't it.... sorry about that. I don't mean to be such a b***h but i just dont like these Scottish 'new' towns like Livingston.

But anyway I think that to survive on a salary of around $50K and a mortgate of 6 times that is asking for trouble. Will you even GET a mortage of that amount on that salary? If you mean $50 K each then yes, you will be fine, but remember the interest rates are much higher and you wont have the luxury of free doctors appointments etc so you will have a lot more costs (and some less too - like heating for 7 months of the year like here!) than you might imagine.

Hey, good luck with what you decide. Only you know how you live and how you want to live but I think that salary and that mortgage is hard to manage.

happynz

I'm thinking you wouldn't qualify for a NZ$300,000 mortgage on NZ$40K to NZ$50K per year.

jleroux

I like Livingston, it's more like South African suburbs than other places I've been to. I live in Eliburn around the corner from the train station. Lol, on the good side of the railway track. I have to agree Scotland is as good as the UK gets for me. Now if only I could get my morocycle out of the garage once before March I might get a small smile on my face. It's has snowed 3-4 times today already.

I love Edinburgh, it has such a lot of character. I'm not a city person, more a surburbs person. The other side is I don't know a lot of people in Scotland thanks to me not being very social (not that I'm anti-social) so I guess that will effect my outlook on life. I always tease my work mates by saying that the Scots has fantastic sportmanship, well they have to they lose at most sports. Always gets a laugh. You just got to love the Scots, well I don't have a choice my wife is half scottish..


Didn't sounds rude. I always laugh about sarcasm because my one callague tried sarcasm on me for months and eventually gave up because it always went straight over my head (English is my 2nd language) and he had to explain what he meant and by that time the sting has gone out of what he tried to say. What I didn't say was that I knew what he was saying most of the time but was just playing dumb. lmao.

jleroux

I'll have a $250k deposit but was wondering if my OH stopped working later on to become a full time mother for say 2-5 years would we be able to survive on only my income if I was earning around $40-60k.

happynz

Are you saying that you are looking to buy a house for NZ$300K and put down NZ$250K deposit?