# Considering holiday/move to NZ, some questions



## Rianthe

Hello all! I am thinking of visiting New Zealand for a short holiday (maybe 1 or 2 months) and then perhaps considering a longer stay (1 to 2 years) if I find it to my liking. I don't particularly like where I come from (Singapore) and apartment/house rentals are incredibly expensive here as well, making New Zealand an attractive destination for me. 

However, I'd like to know more about the country before I do anything, 
considering that I have never visited it before and
do not know anyone from NZ either.  Hence my post! 
I do hope you can help me out here.

1) Will being a foreigner pose any problems in renting a property? 
So far I've found a few promising choices from searching online.
Can all the necessary paperwork can be done outside the country?

2) Is it possible to live in NZ without being able to drive? I think 
this might be my number one concern. From research on the Net it seems 
that most major cities are well-served with public transport, 
but given my budget I may not be able to 
rent a room in a central city. 
(I've put aside 400 a month for rental, 500-600 maximum) 

As I work from home and am able to cook I do not really need to be able to 
move around on short notice, but it would be nice to not have to walk 
10-15 minutes to get to the nearest bus station! It would also be a 
hindrance to meeting people, buying groceries etc if 
public transport was not readily accessible.

If having a car is an absolute necessity, would it be 
possible for a foreigner to learn how to drive in NZ? I know that the
license will only be valid in NZ, which is not a problem for me.

3) Are goods and services very expensive? According to what 
I've learned from Google searches and the like, it shouldn't
be that much more expensive that Australia or any 
other first-world country, right?

4) Anything else I should look out for? The above are my 
primary concerns (especially transport!) but I welcome any and all
advice and suggestions.


----------



## _shel

Your first consideration should be do you qualify for a visa that allows you to live and work in NZ. The rest comes later because without one prices, driving and renting dont matter.


----------



## Rianthe

Well according to the NZ immigration website, Singapore is a visa-waiver country, so I would not need a visa to visit for 3 months. If I do decide to stay there I would then need to see if I could get a different visa which would allow me to do that.


----------



## escapedtonz

Rianthe said:


> Well according to the NZ immigration website, Singapore is a visa-waiver country, so I would not need a visa to visit for 3 months. If I do decide to stay there I would then need to see if I could get a different visa which would allow me to do that.


Yes. Being from Singapore you are from a visa waiver country and assuming you meet the basic criteria you are automatically allowed entry for up to 3 months. You must complete a passenger arrival card and this will be exchanged for an electronic visitor visa at the border. The passenger card is your legal declaration that you'll abide by all the rules of NZ and your visa conditions.
Think you can stay for up to 9 months in any 18 month period but you'd have to approach immigration to stay past the initial 3 months plus you'd have to prove further funds etc.

Quite right - to allow work you'd need a different visa allowing so and these can be very difficult to obtain. Finding the offer of a skilled job is usually a good way in but again not easy as employers are reluctant to offer work to people without the right to live and work in nz.
Please also be mindful of your visitor visa conditions......looking for work isn't the normal pastime of a visitor and could result in your visa being cancelled if found to be in breach. 
1 - 2 months visiting is a long time so make sure you have a visiting plan and matching funds to allow that as immigration may ask.


----------



## inhamilton

There are so many things you have to consider. As others have said, the first thing is the visa. After the initial 3 months is up, you may find it difficult to obtain a long term residents visa. Generally, you need to have either a lot of money, or a skill that NZ is in shortage of.
Then, the answers to your questions depend so much on the area of the country you choose to live. Auckland, for example, is more expensive to live than other places. Smaller cities are cheaper but there may not be as much work. And then 90% of the country is very rural and unpopulated. There are plenty of people that live in cities who don't drive, so it is possible. 
At the end of the day though, the visa is the important thing. Do you have a degree or anything like that? Good luck.


----------



## Rianthe

Thanks for the replies! I think I should clear up something that I didn't present very well in my initial post - when I said I work from home, it actually means that I work with companies from around the world and doesn't matter where my geographical location actually is. I'm a freelance translator, and everything in sent electronically (except for the odd fax and phone call) so I don't actually need to find work in NZ per se. 

I will likely be working after my 2-3 months break is over (everyone needs to rest sometime!) but for visa purposes I will just say that I am taking an extended holiday. I can even pop back to Singapore every 3 months or so (ah, the wonders of budget air travel!) to renew my visa if that would make things easier in the long run. Also to see family etc etc.

Apologies for any miscommunication on that front! 

When you said "a lot of money" in regards to a long term resident's visa - how much would that be? Just curious.

City-wise, I would be looking to stay somewhere which I do not need to drive, but that isn't that expensive either. Definitely not in a rural area. Is there anywhere which matches up? What I'm concerned about is that all the places that have a well-developed public transport system would be expensive.


----------



## luckystar269

escapedtonz said:


> Yes. Being from Singapore you are from a visa waiver country and assuming you meet the basic criteria you are automatically allowed entry for up to 3 months. You must complete a passenger arrival card and this will be exchanged for an electronic visitor visa at the border. The passenger card is your legal declaration that you'll abide by all the rules of NZ and your visa conditions.
> Think you can stay for up to 9 months in any 18 month period but you'd have to approach immigration to stay past the initial 3 months plus you'd have to prove further funds etc.
> 
> Quite right - to allow work you'd need a different visa allowing so and these can be very difficult to obtain. Finding the offer of a skilled job is usually a good way in but again not easy as employers are reluctant to offer work to people without the right to live and work in nz.
> Please also be mindful of your visitor visa conditions......looking for work isn't the normal pastime of a visitor and could result in your visa being cancelled if found to be in breach.
> 1 - 2 months visiting is a long time so make sure you have a visiting plan and matching funds to allow that as immigration may ask.


thank you for your confirm, that information is really helpful


----------



## harrysown

I would just simply answer your questions assuming you are aware of all your visa requirements. 

1. Yes you can rent a property as a foreigner. You might be able to do the paperwork without being here yourself but that depends on Agents who are renting the places. Every agent is different so you have to ask them directly. 

2. If you are living in some kind of city then yes, you can live in New Zealand without driving a car. But the bad part about this is that it is too much time consuming. Normally there is a bus station near every supermarket so you can just rent something near that supermarket. You can drive in New Zealand with your Singapore license for 1 year and after that you have to have NZ driving license to drive. Also you can convert your Singapore full license to NZ full license by just giving theory test which is very easy and straight forward process. 

3. And yes, services might be little bit more expensive(5-7%) compared to Australia. 

4. As for statement of "inhamilton", by "a lot of money" i think he/she is referring to business visa which can also be described as investors visa. For that you would need more than NZD 500,000 to invest in a company or start your own business through which you can provide jobs to NZ nationals. 


$400 a month is enough to rent a place. Then there's electricity bill and broadband/phone bill every month. As for transportation, I would highly suggest you to just get a cheap reliable car which can cost you from $1k to $4k depending on type of car and year. Also New Zealands weather is highly unpredictable, and a day can turn from sunny to rainy within a matter of minutes. 

Oh and learning to drive in New Zealand is fairly easy(I am assuming you already know how to drive a car). I think only rule which sets NZ apart from Singapore is "Give-way" rule which is easy to learn. As for other rules, they are normal developed country rules.


----------



## Rianthe

Thanks for your informative reply, it clears up a lot of things. I actually do not know how to drive (I suspect that I should have made my opening post a lot clearer!) Would it be possible for a foreigner to learn how to drive in NZ? I can take buses until I get my license. 

400 + utilities is well within my budget. The only thing bothering me is whether that is still possible in well-populated area (which I might have to live in until I get a car)

If you are wondering why I am so leery of learning how to drive in Singapore, it's because the fee for driving lessons and tests here are exorbitant. (something like 4-5k or more) Also that and their tests are very difficult. As I do not actually ever plan on driving in Singapore (if you think the test prices are high, wait till you see car prices!) I would rather take public transport in another country or learn to drive there.


----------



## escapedtonz

harrysown said:


> 4. As for statement of "inhamilton", by "a lot of money" i think he/she is referring to business visa which can also be described as investors visa. For that you would need more than NZD 500,000 to invest in a company or start your own business through which you can provide jobs to NZ nationals.
> 
> $400 a month is enough to rent a place. Then there's electricity bill and broadband/phone bill every month.


Make that at least $1.5M for investment into a business plus $1M in settlement funds owned by the person for Investor visa otherwise Investor Plus is minimum $10M.....so as "inhamilton" says a heck of a lot of money.

$400 a month rent in a city! Where have you seen that? Not in NZ for sure.
A person would be very lucky to find a shared student house with one room to rent for $400 a month plus other bills - power, water, broadband, sky tv, refuse collection etc. let alone a house that this person is looking for.
Maybe $400 a week is more realistic for rental of a 2, maybe small 3 bedroom house, but in the heart of a city so they don't need transport, I very much doubt it.


----------



## harrysown

Woops I meant to say 400 a week not month lol. But actually you can find a place fairly cheap if you want to live as flatmate. Also you can rent a house and put it up for other people to join in as flatmates which would practically make you boss in the house and sometimes you can even pay all the rent through money of other people living in house. 

And yes its fairly easy to learn to drive. You just need to know the rules and pass theory test and then you can start practicing in big shopping center parkings after 5pm.


----------



## Rianthe

Yes, that is what I was concerned about. Most of the 400+ rentals I've found have not been in big cities. So either I learn to drive or I go for a more expensive rental in a central location.

Does NZ let you sublet the flat if you are not a citizen/PR? It's good that learning to drive is easy, that's a big plus! 

Either way it's good to learn more about things - that's the whole point of the post in any case!


----------



## escapedtonz

Rianthe said:


> Yes, that is what I was concerned about. Most of the 400+ rentals I've found have not been in big cities. So either I learn to drive or I go for a more expensive rental in a central location.
> 
> Does NZ let you sublet the flat if you are not a citizen/PR? It's good that learning to drive is easy, that's a big plus!
> 
> Either way it's good to learn more about things - that's the whole point of the post in any case!


If you sign a rental contract for a specific period you are legally obliged to pay the weekly rent for the term. You can sublet but it's not just your decision to do so. Itll also be at the discretion of the landlord and/or owner and they'll want to vet the prospective tenants. Even if you sublet you are still legally obliged to pay the rent every week so your at the mercy of the subletting tenants. If they fail to pay the landlord will be coming after you.


----------

