# Cost of Living & Logistics, Potential Move from America to Hawke's Bay area



## Figaro27353 (12 mo ago)

Hello,

My family and I (including myself, spouse, two elementary-school aged children, and three cats) are considering a move for one year, open to staying longer, to the Hawke's Bay area for work as a specialist physician. We are Americans. Staying longer may depend on whether my mother could join us (currently cannot due to Covid restrictions, to my knowledge), whether the kids settle in, whether the job is a good fit and if it's financially feasible.

I read through some previous forum posts, which helped a great deal. To further explain our situation:

Working on the following assumptions:
1. My wife is not planning on working for the year. She would be eligible to my understanding, however. We would need to cover all costs on my salary alone.
2. Current estimate for my salary is 164k NZ dollars.
3. Though we may have access to a few thousand dollars of assets, we would prefer not to use them.
4. Planning on renting a house. We have questions about furnished vs unfurnished housing as below.
5. Not sure about car rental vs purchase, as below.
6. Kids would be in the public schools.
7. I'm more likely to get a physician vocational specialist registration. This in turn translates to a temporary work visa and later a skilled migrant visa, though I'm not certain on the details of this.

I took the following costs from the official govt cost of living calculator (newzealandnow.govt.nz). That doesn't allow a focus on Hawke's Bay, so I chose Wellington (which may also be an option, also considering Christchurch).

Costs, all in NZ dollars:
NZ Income Tax (excluding Kiwi saver): $47,320 (that's for the year)
weekly--
Food: $354
Clothing: $54
Rent/utilities: $533
Household contents/services (ex: lawnmower, TV): $47
Health: $18
Transport: $209
Communication: $51
Recreation/culture: $275
Education: $15
Miscellaneous goods (ex. gym): $130
Other/undefined: $128

Total weekly costs: around $1,875
Total weekly income: $2,244
Theoretical total weekly left over: $369

In brief internet searches, however, I've found these estimates to be quite low. For example, I saw $750-$950 weekly for a three-bedroom home in Hawke's Bay with a yard and that accommodates pets on TradeMe. I've never been to NZ, so I don't have a frame of reference, to be clear. That's why I'm turning to the forum for advice.

If I adjust nothing else but housing to $1,200 weekly to accommodate what I saw online, not only is there no money left at the end of the week, but I'd be in the red!

I have several questions that result from this brief analysis:

1) In your opinion, what other categories are low estimates? I'm guessing food and car minimally. We are 'foodies' to a certain extent. While we rarely eat out, we get a good chunk of our groceries here in America from local farmers. Seems like Hawke's Bay is a good place to continue to do something like that, but I'm guessing that would raise the cost of groceries, not lower it. Is that correct?
2) Is $1,200 weekly a reasonable estimate for housing and utilities a family of four, with pets? We currently have a house with a yard in America and would like to transition to something similar. While we are flexible, I doubt any apartment would accommodate us given our situation.
3) We ideally would like to find a furnished place to live. I'm not sure how common that is in NZ, or in Hawke's Bay in particular. While I might get a relocation reimbursement budget to accommodate some furniture purchase (perhaps on the order of $15k), that would go quite quickly, may not cover all our needs, and just as importantly, I would prefer not to spend a great deal of precious time on weekends shopping to build up a house we may very well leave in a year. It is stressful in my experience, and I'd prefer to spend the time exploring the area with family. How common is it to find furnished housing? Internet searches refer me to places like AirBnB, and the rates there for a year rental are not feasible (120k for the year, for example).
4) Similarly, I'd prefer not to have the headache of purchasing a car and then trying to sell it after a year. Takes up time that I could spend with family. I'd prefer a year long lease, and currently we don't know how to drive a stick. I got a quote from a car rental company for $1,100/mo for Toyota sedan. That seems really high. Are there better options for leasing (i.e. year long lease from an auto dealer directly)?
5) I'm guessing the health budget may be low, particularly if I have to purchase international health insurance. We have no significant medical issues as a family, but even run of the mill appts for an expat are quite expensive, correct?

Other questions:
6) I was shocked to see how much it is to transport a pet from America to NZ. One agency gave me a quote of about $5,000 USD ($8,400 NZD) from door to door, including quarantine. Didn't seem to matter that we had a 3 kilo cat as opposed to a bull mastiff. Thus, we'd be looking at $15k USD ($25k NZD) in total for three cats. Is this far off from what others incurred? To my understanding, this expense is not covered by a relocation reimbursement.
7) We have the option of moving mid year 2022 or early 2023. School calendars are of course flipped between America and NZ. Have others found that moving in the middle of an academic year from their home country and enter a new academic year in NZ to be less disruptive than the opposite (moving at the end of an academic year from home country to the middle of an academic year in NZ)? Our kids are in grade school. Or is this not a big deal in the end?

Thanks in advance!


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## Kingdragonfly (Apr 29, 2021)

Feel free to message me, and I'll send you my contact information.

There's good reasons why the world's billionaires consider New Zealand the premiere bolt-hole.

I have several doctors in my family, and also been on the medical side of things quiite a bit.

The good news as a doctor, you have the choice of anywhere in New Zealand, and you're one of the professions that can actually get into New Zealand in the next 6 months.

Salary for GP start at USD $64,000, and top out at USD $169,000

You may want to consider Christchurch, since its house prices are much lower.

Christchurch has had some rough breaks, with the earthquake, then the Australian white extremist and the Mosque shooting. But it's a lovely city.

You may want to consider sunny Nelson, warm and great for sailors Whangārei.

New Plymouth was rated the most livable city in the world recently. Plus it house price are among the lowest. Great for surfers.


(Taranaki) New Plymouth NZ $ 590,000 USD $400,000


Canterbury (Christchurch) NZ $680,000, US $461,000


Hawkes Bay NZ $820,000 US $565.000

You may find some culture shock, as doctors are not as elevated as much in New Zealand, and the pay is probably 1/2 as much.

It's the "tall poppy syndrome." It's not unusual for doctors to be called "mister" instead of "doctor"

Houses will be substantially lower quality / small than ones you'll find in the US. For instance central air and two car garages are almost unheard of.

You kids wiil love New Zealand. The education system is much better. While property crime is similar to the US, violent crime is many times less.

By law, you'll get one month's vacation, with 5 weeks not unusual.

You're kids will be consider very "cool" in New Zealand; imagine if someone from London started attending your kids American school.

You'll find the temperature is much more temperate, as we're an island in the Pacific, and it just doesn't get above 95 Fahrenheit ever, and is only snowy in the mountains. Remember it gets colder than the South you go; In Christchurch it snows about twice per year.

I'm not a climatologist, but New Zealand will probably be less impacted by global climate changes, as the southern hemisphere ocean will limit heat waves.


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## Kingdragonfly (Apr 29, 2021)

To simplify cost of living, there's only two things you need to worry about: housing and cars.

So that leads into the category you want to worry about, housing.

I searched the most popular rental website. I used New Plymouth. It would be similar for anywhere EXCEPT Auckland.

I found the median range was NZ $520/week, or NZ $27,040/year.

“Affordable” rent should not exceed 30% of your salary. So $27,040 x 3.33 = a salary of at least $90,133.

If you’re looking at a nicer than usual house, that would be in the NZ $31,000/year. So NZ $104,000/year.

I make NZD $90,000/year , USD $61,000/year. I can attest that’s correct.


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