# University costs and did you get a property to live up to the dream????



## Cosmic26 (Jan 14, 2014)

Hello all,

Just at the early stages and trying to get job offers etc but thinking long term for my kids I wondered if anyone knows the difference in Uni costs compared to the UK?

Also, with regards to property did they exceed your expectations or are they disappointing compared to the UK??

Thanks SO much for your replies - really appreciate it.


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## escapedtonz (Apr 6, 2012)

Cosmic26 said:


> Hello all, Just at the early stages and trying to get job offers etc but thinking long term for my kids I wondered if anyone knows the difference in Uni costs compared to the UK? Also, with regards to property did they exceed your expectations or are they disappointing compared to the UK?? Thanks SO much for your replies - really appreciate it.


No idea about uni cost comparisons, but we do know a little about property.

We've lived in two traditional kiwi properties with the wooden boards. One old and one new. Quality of both equally as rubbish. Nothing like the quality of a house in the UK.
The old house had little insulation and still had all the 70's decor and equipment - old bathroom/kitchen/single wood glazing etc.
Cold through Autumn and winter. Had old open gas flame fires on the walls - would have been condemned back home but supposedly fine here. We didn't use them. Bought a few cheap convector heaters to plug in instead. Luckily the power was included in the rent there.
The new traditional kiwi house was completely modern with double glazing, wooden floor downstairs, all blinds, loads of big windows, gas heating system etc - apparently had the latest building code insulation but during winter it was freezing. 
We actually watched a new house being built next door and I was shocked at the quality of materials and thickness of insulation placed within the wall boards etc. We also had a mate over from UK who is a builder and has his own company. He was totally gobsmacked at the state of the new build next door tho wasn't surprised as he's been a builder in Oz for years on and off.
The double glazing is aluminium framed. 
You can get upvc but it doesn't last long here cos of the sun being so strong. The plastic deteriorates within around 5-10 years apparently.
The aluminium double glazing that we've encountered here is complete rubbish and is designed to run wet with a channel at the bottom to catch condensation which then finds it's way out through drain holes.
The drain holes block often and the channels stay damp for long periods meaning mould grows. If they block totally the result is overflow into the carpet or flooring or over the windowsill down the wall.
The actual double glazing itself is also poor.
The new traditional kiwi home we were in had a whiz combi boiler heating system which worked great, but since the heat just went straight out the windows & through the poorly insulated walls it needed to be on constantly to keep a constant temp in the rooms which obviously costs a fortune. We had a bill for $1300 one month last winter for elec & gas. After that bill we kept it off and wore 3 layers of clothing instead and got heated blankets etc. couldn't afford bills like that all through winter.
We moved out of there as quickly as we could. Managed to find another family desperate for a large house to rent long term as they couldn't find anything so we offered to move out if they took up a long term rental with the landlord.
Made him happy obviously as they signed up for 2.5 years and we got out 5 months before the end of our contract Yay!
Been renting a monolithic clad house since which was built around 1995. A bit dated but feels a lot warmer. It is a smaller house which is an advantage but is better having carpets and curtains.
No heating other than a big wood burner in the lounge although the bathrooms have 500w heat lamps. Not needed any heating as yet.
It's single glazing which is of course rubbish and aluminium framed so designed to run wet. Luckily there's much less glass and covered by curtains so heat escaping shouldn't be an issue with them drawn.
No gas - just electric, and the bill so far has been half the cost of the previous house. Let's hope it continues.
We have friends who live in a brick clad house and that seems way better than every property we have experienced so that's next on our list.
All homes here are either timber or steel framed then clad in either brick, monolithic board or traditional kiwi board.
There are very few brick/breeze block houses like what we would be used to in the UK unless you find one that someone from UK has previously had built for them to their spec.
We've only seen one in all of the Wellington area!

All in all very disappointing. After talking to many people about housing, if you have specific needs I've been advised to spec and build our own.
Central heating goes for $1000 per radiator all in.
upvc double glazing is available in Wellington (not Auckland so I'm told) and also goes for $1000 per unit.
Build costs run approx $1200 per sq metre at the moment with standard cost fixtures and fittings which includes normal double glazing and a normal ducted hot air heating system.
Upvc and radiators would all be extra.


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## Cosmic26 (Jan 14, 2014)

Oh dear!! They look so nice on the website too!!

Are you going to build your own home?

Just another question, so sorry! Why NZ and not OZ was there a particular reason?

Thank You


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## escapedtonz (Apr 6, 2012)

Cosmic26 said:


> Oh dear!! They look so nice on the website too!!
> 
> Are you going to build your own home?
> 
> ...


Yes. Looks can be very deceiving!

We are considering building our own. Just by sheer luck I played golf with a chap and his young son in Hamilton recently and he turned out to be a builder with his own company.
He gave me the real low down on it all and offered to build us a house to UK spec if I so wanted and anywhere in the Waikato or Bay Of Plenty.
All he asked for was a piece of land and an idea of the house type/design and basically he'd take it from there and give us options along the way for heating systems, windows/doors/fixtures/fittings etc. etc.
Without much ground work other than foundations he said probably 4 months till completion. With ground works, maybe up to 6 months.
Not sure though yet.
I think we will buy a near new home initially and see how we feel for the area and what it has to offer. We are moving up to Tauranga later this year.
A couple of guys I work with have just had houses built so I'm aware how it all goes.
It's on the bucket list for the future!

Why NZ and not Oz ? Good question.......All answers refer to Oz :-
1. Too hot
2. Too dry
3. Cities where we would live are big with all the same problems like we had near home in the UK - Too many people, too much traffic, too congested, too many hooning teenagers, still lots of petty crime, litter, graffiti.
4. Very high cost of living but salaries are better than UK.
5. No matter what you do or where you are there's always a fear you're gonna get wiped out by a spider, frog, jelly fish, snake, shark, croc as there's a heck of a lot of beings can harm humans. There's even some tree or bush plant that has a poison that can seriously harm a person who just brushes past it.......Er no! Not for us.
6. Lots of pommies like us have made the move to Oz before and we didn't want our neighbour or close neighbour to be from the same place as us in the UK.
Not that there's anything wrong with anyone from the UK. It's just that we wanted to emigrate to get away from the UK, so thought it would be so demoralising if our neighbour turned out to be from the same town/village as where we lived.
With a high concentration of pommies in for example Perth, we thought it would just be like home, but in the sun. This didn't appeal.

We have been to Oz. We spent some time in Sydney city centre on the way here and absolutely loved it, but as a place to live we didn't feel it gave us any difference to the lifestyle we had in the UK other than being warmer. We wanted to emigrate to change our lifestyle and after lots of research decided NZ was the place where we could do that. It hasn't disappointed.
I need to be near a city due to my work. Living on the coast or in the bush out of the way isn't an option for me. Can't be done in Oz, but in NZ you can live on the coast or in the bush and still be near to the city.

Don't get me wrong, the move hasn't been easy in any stretch of the imagination. It takes a while to get used to. It really is 20 / 30 years behind the UK in lots of things, but slowly you get used to it, accept it and get on with life.
I've had no desire whatsoever to return to the UK so far and haven't really been home sick at all other than missing me Mum!


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