# Price of living in New Zealand



## Irish_nz (Mar 9, 2013)

Hi all, myself and family are hoping to arrive in New Zealand in the coming months.

My question is: Is 110$ not enough to live comfortably? Is the price of living that expensive or does it depend on the area?


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## topcat83 (Apr 16, 2009)

Irish_nz said:


> Hi all, myself and family are hoping to arrive in New Zealand in the coming months.
> 
> My question is: Is 110$ not enough to live comfortably? Is the price of living that expensive or does it depend on the area?


I'm hoping you mean $110k per year!
It really depends on a number of things, including 
- what your expected standard of living is
- how many people you have in your family
- where you want to live.

Auckland is the most expensive area with regards housing, but many people do bring up a family on that kind of money. You wouldn't be living like kings on it, though.


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## tamarisk (Apr 26, 2013)

Irish_nz said:


> Hi all, myself and family are hoping to arrive in New Zealand in the coming months.
> 
> My question is: Is 110$ not enough to live comfortably? Is the price of living that expensive or does it depend on the area?


I'd suggest that on $110 year, outside of auckland and perhaps central wellington, you will be able to live pretty well - ie cover all the bills and have quite a bit left over - a holiday, meals out etc. That's about what me and OH and 2 kids live on and we seem to have plenty - mind you we are not big shoppers, no flash cars or fancy stuff!


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## manckiwi (Jan 13, 2013)

When I was in NZ myself and my partner had a combined income of around $130k; we were comfortable and were able to live in a nice area of Auckland, but we didn't save much and more importantly, didn't have kids. As other posters have said though, your income of $110k would go a long way outside Auckland so it would depend on where you choose to live.


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## rpp (Sep 26, 2011)

*The cost of lliving in NZ*

My husband has arrived in Auckland couple days ago on the 19.6.2013.
Now we decided he is coming back and forget going back to live in Auckland at least for couple more years.
The prices of the houses - sky rocketing. He tried to go for house auction and he says all the same picture - couple yang people trying to get their first house and people butting the price as much as nobody could imagine.

Just couple days ago - the petrol price went up 3 cents and niched the average price of 2 dollars and 30 cents per litre.

The prices of the groceries is also unbearable. 1 avocado in the local shop - 4 dollars and 50 cents. If you are lucky you could find it in Southern Auckland for 3 dollars each item. Although if you take into account the petrol price to get there it could be even if more expensive then in my old pretty vegetables shop ;-)

Well - good luck to anyone who is home sick and wants to come back.
Just hold on tight the roller-coaster...


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## Song_Si (Jun 11, 2010)

^ house prices - yet people still buy



> *
> Aussies snap up our homes
> Wednesday Jun 19, 2013
> Australians are contributing to New Zealand's skyrocketing house prices, with new research showing they bought more property than any other overseas group.*
> ...


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## Irish_nz (Mar 9, 2013)

Thanks for all the replies, we are heading to Nelson if that makes much difference?


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## Liam(at)Large (Sep 2, 2012)

Gas was $2.09 when I got it yesterday with a 6c /litre off coupon it was $2.03.

PAK'nSAVE had really nice avocados 3/$5 when I was there on Sunday.

Don't know where you got your prices.



rpp said:


> Just couple days ago - the petrol price went up 3 cents and niched the average price of 2 dollars and 30 cents per litre.
> 
> The prices of the groceries is also unbearable. 1 avocado in the local shop - 4 dollars and 50 cents. If you are lucky you could find it in Southern Auckland for 3 dollars each item. Although if you take into account the petrol price to get there it could be even if more expensive then in my old pretty vegetables shop ;-)


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## tamarisk (Apr 26, 2013)

Irish_nz said:


> Thanks for all the replies, we are heading to Nelson if that makes much difference?



Check out the rental prices,or estimate your mortgage payments - that will be your biggest expense. Food is more expensive than UK, but not massively, I have found other bills cheaper, and of course petrol / diesel is about half the price, even with recent increases, Road user charges etc. Running a car is certainly cheaper to my mind. Buying things / consumer goods - more expensive - pretty much everything from quality clothes to furniture etc is imported here and so is expensive. But if you ship a crate, that shouldn't be an issue for a while. While it's all relative, and depends on your view of what a decent standard of living is, I think you will find you can live quite well. It is certainly a wage well above average.


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## Andrew Family (Aug 18, 2010)

I know that some say food is more expensive in NZ than the UK but using the 3 x avocados = $5, in the UK would cost £1 each in Sainsbury's and at today's exchange rate equals $5.87.

Not that we eat avocados but thought it would be fun to compare


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## rpp (Sep 26, 2011)

Song_Si said:


> ^ house prices - yet people still buy


Yes. Investors are people. Are they ? Not sure what to say about first home buyers. I can see a lot of people around me are in this category and they simply can't afford.


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## topcat83 (Apr 16, 2009)

rpp said:


> ....The prices of the groceries is also unbearable. 1 avocado in the local shop - 4 dollars and 50 cents. If you are lucky you could find it in Southern Auckland for 3 dollars each item. Although if you take into account the petrol price to get there it could be even if more expensive then in my old pretty vegetables shop ;-)......


My advice is - don't buy vegetables when they're out of season. New Zealand is _very_ seasonal....and we're in the middle of winter.

For example, at the moment tomatoes are $10.99 a kilo. At the height of the season I was paying 99c per kilo. 
Ditto peppers - very expensive at the moment, $1.99 for a large bagful in summer.
Avocados range in price from $5 each to 50c each at their most abundant.
Ditto asparagus - lovely and cheap in the spring.

At the moment, go for pumpkin, cauliflower, broccoli, root vegetables.


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## manckiwi (Jan 13, 2013)

It also depends on the lifestyle you like to lead - as a rule of thumb (compared to the UK) I always used to say that goods are more expensive and services are cheaper. So things like electrical goods, cars, toilettries etc are really expensive, but services such as hotels, restaurants, hairdressers are cheaper. As I was more interested in eating out and weekends away than cars and other material goods, I found it easy to live a good lifestyle out there. I could afford to eat out way more than I can now being back in the UK! But I used to work with an English guy who used to complain NZ was so expensive because he liked flash TVs and cars etc.


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