[Sarah Jane]

Hi Sarah,

I am currently based in Birmingham UK and about to submit my EOI. Got 2 girls. The older one starts school this fall. We were in touch with the recruitment specialists based in Auckland. However after reading your contribution, maybe we should rethink about coming to NZ. Is the standard of living that expensive everywhere (in NZ)?

thanks viv

Hi Viv

Well from what I've learned it isn't that expensive all over NZ.....just in Auckland. My husband has just started working 6 days pw now so that we can make ends meet. It's clearly the cost of housing that is most of the problem.

My advise to you would be to avoid living in Auckland unless you know you can buy a house virtually outright (and for an average 3 bed house here you're going to need at least $450,000. If you will only have half of that to put into a house as we have then you will need an income of at least $80,000 to survive. You may manage on a bit less if your children are young as they add to the expenses when they get older, eg school fees and uniforms, food, pocket money, bus fares.....oh the list could go on forever.................

[Soon2baKiwi]

(and for an average 3 bed house here you're going to need at least $450,000.

Sarah I don't doubt for a minute that the houses you've been looking at are that price but that's not the average price of a house in Auckland. Someone posted a link recently and I think it was around $325k. We don't want a huge mortgage and have decided that $350 is as high as we'll go. Now that's our limit, not our target, so we quite often look at houses that are less than $300k. Obviously it all depends on the area you are in and what your requirements are but we've seen some beautiful houses around that price range in various parts of 'nice' Auckland. Yes, I know, what you see on the internet is often less than ideal in the 'flesh' but my inlaws regularly go to visit houses for us that we like and so far there's been none that have been awful. Again, it's a matter of opinion and taste but I just wanted to say that houses for less than $450k are out there, and lots of them too.

btw - I don't want to sound as if I'm being argumentative first thing on a Monday morning. :no

[foolsgold99]

I have to agree, I've been doing some surfing this morning, looking at new build homes.

You can get a nice, new build 3 or 4 bed in the eastern subs for around $375 without any problem.

We plan on maxing out at $400k, but would prefer $350, we're confident we'll get something nice for that.

Guess I'll find out in 21 days when I get there :exit

[Sarah Jane]

Yes I agree you can get houses cheaper in certain areas. Alot depends on personal preferences and circumstances.
A lot of our choices were governed by children for a start and from the area we've come from in the UK. Living on top of a town centre in a seaside town in Devon meant the children were used to a livelier lifestyle so we chose Orewa as it means they are still in walking distance of a town which has facilities like a library they can use whereas a lot of areas have barely anything other than a local dairy. Also schools were a big consideration as in England our children were always able to walk to school whereas here there is 1 secondary school located in Orewa which is the local school for kids living miles away. A teacher was telling me that some of the children attending the school have a minimum of an hours journey to get to school...this is not something that our children had been used to in the UK hence our choice of place to live.

Also another factor to anyone is the type of house they've been used to living in previously to coming to NZ. My choice of house was one where I wanted an upstairs as with 2 teenage children I sometimes like a little peace from their noise which is difficult in a lot of the houses over here, alot being bungalows and 'open plan'. We are renting a typical 3 bed bungalow at the moment and the kitchen, dining area and living room have no doors between them so if the kids are on the laptop in the dining room playing music while chatting to friends via msn in the evening, I am less than 10 paces away in the living room trying to watch coronation street.....it's not easy. The house we've chosen with the upstairs (and our choice was very limited in this ) means the children have a rumpus room downstairs where they can have their friends etc, and I can sit in peace upstairs. But yes this is all down to my personal circumstances.

As for the average housing prices in Auckland take a look at this story from One News which states the average price of home sold in January by Barfoot and Thompson was $454,345.
www. tvnz.co.nz/view/news_business_story_skin/472776%3fformat=html

Now yes that means there are lots of homes sold for less than $450,000 but then remember that I chose to live in an equivalent area to where I lived in the UK. And according to that story the home I am buying at $470,000 is around the average house price.

[leslie]

okay, i accept that auck wages do not support inhabitants. it is disprop expensive for inhabitants. it is to be hoped they address this issue asap.

that said, most brits bought their prop when undervalued (imagine - when i first moved here there were derelict warehouses/ school buildings everywhere - developers thought noone would live in them) and we are moving to a place that is already on the up. if you moved from devon to equiv in london you would be sobbing in your soup.

a place in the sun? the cheapest london equiv to that £200g flat in the harbour that i can think of is chelsea harbour. how many single, middle-aged headhunters do you think live alone in 2 bed flats at c h? hub thinks flat will be worth double in 10 yrs. i hate to think...

[Sarah Jane]

okay, i accept that auck wages do not support inhabitants. it is disprop expensive for inhabitants. it is to be hoped they address this issue asap.

that said, most brits bought their prop when undervalued (imagine - when i first moved here there were derelict warehouses/ school buildings everywhere - developers thought noone would live in them) and we are moving to a place that is already on the up. if you moved from devon to equiv in london you would be sobbing in your soup.

a place in the sun? the cheapest london equiv to that £200g flat in the harbour that i can think of is chelsea harbour. how many single, middle-aged headhunters do you think live alone in 2 bed flats at c h? hub thinks flat will be worth double in 10 yrs. i hate to think...

I didn't actually buy my place when undervalued, I bought in 1993 when price were stable and I was living in East London at the time. I moved to Northants in 1999 and bought a 4 bed detached house for £85,0000. Yes of course we still had the huge increases in price but the house I left in Devon before I came to NZ I sold for £250,000. Now my friend who is still living in east london has the same size house as mine was that is worth the same money I sold my Devon home for, but she also has a garden which is something I didn't in Devon. My point being that a lot of parts of london are no more expensive than Devon nowadays....just a nicer place to live, but with poorer wages than London.