Per Month

Rent in one of top cities for one bedder, mold on walls, crap carpet, freezing due to no insulation: 1000-1200
Food: (if you actually want to eat more than rice and lentils, which, by the way are expensive and hard to find) 600
Electricity: 150 a month in summer 300 in winter (most houses are uninsulated shacks)
Phone: 150 a month with internet (slow, substandard)

Total: approx. 2,300 a month on substandard lifestyle, no entertainment. no car, no private health insurance

Other odds and ends:
Pizza: 25 dollars large size
Takeaway Indian food (crap, btw) 60.00 for two
Movie: 17.00 for one
Lettuce: 3.50 a head
2 pounds (1 kilo) mince: 15.00
Wages: You won't get paid for the work that you do (holes in employment laws big enough to drive a truck through) or far below average for skilled labour elsewhere in the developed world.

Dental work? Forget it. Get em pulled for 200 a pop

small efficiency, 650 USD/month in rural area, power and water included,
noisy partying neighbours no one can control, food 150 USD a week for two
people living VERY frugally, do laundry in my sink, do not have car and
walk everywhere, cost of living much higher than that of U.S. in general,
housing much lower quality and very expensive for the quality, jobs pay low wages,
internet very slow and pricey, tagging, P labs and crime. Lawyers and
accountants and other professionals several times more expensive, tax
rates very high (over 30K USD/year and you're in a 33% tax bracket). Big
welfare class. Medical system starving for good people. Very conformist and
provincial society. Dumbed-down schools and sensationalist media. Do not
recommend for migrants of any sort, hoping to get out and return home
soon.

Why bother coming to NZ in the first place if you are going to be so negative? On the plus side, NZ has heaps of open and green space, clean air and water, relatively low crime (evn if it is always emblazoned over the papers and TV news). Our medical system is generally excellent, and very cheap ($30/visit, free if young or old).

In most areas, kids can mostly walk or cycle to school in perfect safety. Housing is expensive, but is coming down quite fast at the moment! Tax rates are also coming down, and the 33% bracket is of course only on money earned above $30K, and earnings below that are far lower taxed.

As for conforming and provincial, depends where you are, as it does anywhere. On average, we'd be far to the left of the average US citizen, far more innovative and welcoming of change.

I guess New Zealand is more about lifestyle than stashing away the maximum amount of money in the shortest possible time.

I'm just interested to know where in New Zealand the first two posts are referring to in order to have such a negative impression of it! Maybe we are talking about two separate New Zealands because my experience has been the exact opposite. I have lived in NZ for 7 years and would never be able to move back to the stats due to the amount of crime, close mindedness, dumbing down of kids ('no child left behind' ring a bell?) and the general over the top living where everyone has to own a car because they are too lazy to walk anywhere. The list can go on but I'm sure we are talking about different places because the NZ I know is not what has been described above.

Thing is, for some people there is a very personal and story attached in going to NZ with personal choices made that didn't work out and then they are stuck for it. Of course that will spoil life even more for you and I think it will be extremely hard to be objective. You kinda have to know the person behind the posts too, but take from it what you can. Just don't make choices with rose colored glasses on or with some romantic fantasies attached or because you think it's a grand thing to do and others will envy you for it. It's a small and isolated country with limited resources.

I'm a new zealander who moved to Australia six years ago and the first two posts are correct. Life is much easier in australia, power is probably 1/3 the cost, my house has central heating, my wages went up 50% when I got off the plane and my cost of living went down. Most kiwis don't know how bad their cost of living is until they move elsewhere. The scenery in Nz is nice, but you can't eat a view, or heat your house with it, and most countries have beautiful areas (australia is full of them) Also, in australia doctors visits are subsidised, optician checkups are free, and taxes for lower income earners are less.
N.Z has a lot of great things going for it, but cost of living is not one of them, and really, having to work long hours for sweet f.a doesn't a happy life make, even if the mountains look nice in the distance.

As a proud Kiwi I’m sorry to see how disappointed a couple of our foreign residents have been. If they leave I sincerely wish them a happy return home. While I agree with them about certain high costs of living here, I do think some of their claims are inaccurate and incomplete. Whenever you go to live in another country it takes time to learn how to adjust your spending patterns to fit in with local conditions.

What is my credibility to comment? Well, I spent most of my working life as an expat Kiwi living in leading cities in Europe, America and the Middle East, returning to New Zealand to retire five years ago. I was apprehensive about our return – not least because we were worried about the cost of living and our newly constrained income. I’m pleased to say that overall we have been relieved (pleasantly surprised!).

Housing: Overseas my employers were always paying vastly higher rents than would be the case in NZ. I can’t comment on the initial contributor’s renting experience here but here’s my own case: we now own an up-market, quite large, very comfortable modern home in an outer suburb of Wellington with a market value of around USD400,000. It is well-insulated (and I agree with the complainant that is not always the case for older houses); with double-glazing (ditto) and central heating (ditto). Our hillside home is nestled in native bush but also has a zillion-dollar sea view. We are 30 minutes by commuter train from downtown Wellington (in Plimmerton, for those who wish to verify my claims). Annual property taxes (“rates”) are about USD2,000. In my experience of living in six other countries that is all astonishingly good value – and housing is of course the largest cost-of-living expense.

Utilities: In Wellington’s cold wet windy winter our power (electricity and gas) bills do go up briefly to a max of USD400 a month (for July-August) – but is that more than heating bills in the northern States or Europe now? And for most of the year we pay around USD100-200 a month (no need for air-conditioning in summer). I keep household accounts so can tell you that for all of 2008 our total power bills came to around USD2000.

For my combined phone and broadband account I pay USD60 a month. Not the cheapest, nor the fastest, but not as high as claimed by your complainant.

Yes, petrol is much more expensive than in the States – but far cheaper than in Europe. I think it is well known that such gas price variations are solely due to the tax levied on them by national governments.

Food: I share your complainant’s irritation at many food prices, but I’m relieved that the prices I pay at my local supermarket are significantly less than he pays (perhaps at a central city convenience store?). I’ve never paid anything like the prices he quoted but I do get annoyed at the huge seasonal variations in price and availability. We’re in mid-winter now and lettuces, tomatoes, cukes etc are way over-priced: at my supermarket around USD2 a lettuce and tomatoes are up to USD5 a kilo (USD2.30 a pound). What is worse is that processed and packaged foods are relatively limited in range and relatively more expensive than in larger continental markets. You really do need to adjust to local conditions. That said, the quality of fresh produce tends to be good and the quality of meals served in even quite modest restaurants all around the country is usually impressively good (incomparably better than in the States, IMHO!). We might be called “foodies” and entertain quite frequently but our weekly supermarket budget (not just food), including wine (which we enjoy every night), but excluding dining out (only a couple of times a month now we’re retired), is under USD150. Is that so horrific?

Not unrelated to the high price of food is the high price and limited range of other consumer goods. On my return home I was relieved to see that consumer choice is infinitely better than when I left NZ’s fortress economy in the mid-70s, but it still isn’t nearly as good as in far larger markets. There are a number of things I make a point of stocking up on when we go to the States (most years).

Health costs: NZ has a sort of socialized health system, so most costs are paid through our taxes. The system is not perfect (whose is?) so like many people we have supplementary private hospital insurance, which costs around USD80 a month for the two of us (but this will go up significantly in a couple of years when we hit 65). Of course that shouldn’t be compared to the full medical insurance cover needed in the States, but the far lower cost to our household budget (especially as retirees) is greatly appreciated! We pay our local GP around USD20 a visit (in addition to the fee they get from the government; ie we do pay more through our taxes) and I pay my local dentist (who is not subsidized by the government’s health system) under USD50 for an annual check-up. (Buyer beware: my wife’s dentist in the Wellington CBD charges more than twice as much!)

Crime and safety: Watching TV and reading the papers you’d think NZ is a most dangerous and violent society. It was another apprehension we had on returning here five years ago. But while I know there is truth in all the reports, for most people drugs and violence are just not seen. Like everywhere some places are safer than others and I would agree we live in a luckier area than many people. Indeed, we have a large suburb of low-income housing less than 10km away and they seem to have more trouble than we ever see here. Every morning I wander down to the beach with my dog and see lots of young kids walking or biking happily to school. Sure, there are many parents who seem to think it desirable to take them by car, but clearly most are convinced it is still perfectly safe for kids to go off by themselves – thank heavens!

We think we enjoy a very high standard of living. Excluding overseas travel (which we regularly do), any substantial capital expenses (eg car replacement) and emergencies, we live very comfortably on an annual post-tax budget of under USD40,000 a year. We’re happy!

High cost of living hits immigrants

By Simon Collins

New immigrants to New Zealand love the lifestyle - but a third of them say they don't have enough money to make ends meet.

The Cost of Living in New Zealand has Gone Up!
An expatriate Brit friend of mine who has been living and working in New Zealand for the past four years recently took a trip back home to the UK. She was so shocked to find how relatively affordable everything was in the supermarket, and how many more jobs were potentially available to her in the UK than in New Zealand at the moment. I found it hard to believe what she was saying and so began to dig a little deeper – mainly because I feared for her sanity.

However, she’s wholly right. The cost of living in New Zealand has shot up and is truly affecting the average household which has not seen a rise in wages – and which in many cases has faced unemployment because of the recession. Things in New Zealand are not rosy.

US expatriates living in New Zealand: Frequently asked questions

6. What is the cost of living really like in New Zealand?

There's no way to be nice about this, it's pretty damn expensive to live here. But then again, costs for everything are rising everywhere in the world right now. So everyone is finding the cost of living painful. The difference is that wages in New Zealand are comparably very low to other western countries.

NZ houses world's least affordable - page 1 - National - NZ Herald News

NZ houses world's least affordable
By Anne Gibson View as one page

New Zealand has the least affordable houses in the world.

It scores worst in an international survey of the world's six most expensive housing markets, passing Australia for the first time.

Houses in October most expensive in 10 years, says REINZ | BUSINESS News

Median house prices in October were the highest they have been for 10 years in that partlicular month, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) says.

Figures released by the industry body on Friday show a national median house price of $355,000, nearly 6% more than the $335,000 median recorded in October last year.

Suicide - Social Report 2009
New Zealand had the second highest male youth (15–24 years) suicide death rate (after Finland), and the second highest female youth suicide death rate (after Japan). New Zealand is one of a small number of countries which have higher suicide death rates at younger ages than at older ages.

New Zealand has among highest drug abuse rates in world - page 1 - National - NZ Herald News

New Zealand has among highest drug abuse rates in world

New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of ecstasy and amphetamine abusers in the world a United Nations survey has found.

The global survey, the first of its type by the UN, said New Zealand and Australia were second only to Thailand on methamphetamine abuse.

Pollution study lifts lid on New Zealand's 'green' beaches - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Pollution study lifts lid on New Zealand's 'green' beaches

Looks pristine: But a new study says many New Zealand beaches are unsafe because of pollution

A study of New Zealand's most popular swimming spots has found that a third of them are unsafe because high levels of sewage and dairy effluent at beaches and in rivers are making swimmers sick.