southerner

All best Matt! Hope the trip home and resettling in blighty goes great.

davros1984

Just noticed this, wow barnsleymat - you too have decided to head back. Best of luck with it. A lot of what you describe is exactly how we felt in our last 12 months of living in NZ. We were earning 160K+ NZD per annum and couldn't get anywhere. We took advantage of the 1.78 nzd - 1GBP exchange rate at the time (Late 2014) and bought ourselves a lovely place. 5 minute walk to town, schools, leisure centre, local pub etc - 10 min walk to the train station. With the rate being lower again now, you really should be able to get a decent property with your money.

If you have any Q's/area recommendations or anything like that, feel free to contact. We now live somewhere that feels slower-paced and less busy than some areas of NZ, but are so close to several centres of work as well as beaches, national parks and family.

As you rightly say, NZ needs to crash and crash hard. When 3-4 bed properties in Auckland (places like Forest Hill, Milford etc) are back to 300-400K NZD (like they were before RWC 2011) it may be a viable place to live again.

Places like Dunedin, houses really shouldn't be higher than $200K unless its a bloody spectacular house with a view. But thats greed, investment and overseas buyers for you.