Moving from UK to Christchurch: What to bring with me? How much is the difference in cost of living?

[AEN]

Dear all,
I am a 49 year old geotechnical engineer. I will move to a company in Christchurch within the coming 3 month. We are a family of 4. The children are in public outstanding primary school in the UK. The continual depreciation of the UK£ value against the other currencies have made the NZ & Australia salaries very attractive for UK citizens. Further, it has also led to continual rise in cost of living in the UK. The major expenses in the UK are Housing (mortgage or rent), fuel, as well as the bills (council tax, electricity, heating, food, car and house insurance....etc)

I have read many articles about the high cost of living in NZ, compared to the UK. I can see that there are some differences, e.g. No free NHS health service in NZ, NZ annual leave is 1 week shorter than in the UK, Cars in NZ seems to cost more than in the UK. I see that the fuesl costs (Diesel & Petrol) in NZ are cheaper than in te UK. However, I have the following queries:

1- What are the major parts of the monthly expenses in NZ? Is it like the UK?
2- How much is the rent/mortgage for a 4-bedroom house in areas with good schools in/around Christchurch?
3- What is the difference between the sizes of 4-bedroom houses in the UK and in NZ?
4- Is furniture in Chrsitchurch more expensive than in the UK? Could you please send me some links to shops that sell furniture with reasonable prices in Christchurch, so as to assess the feasibility of shipping my used furniture against buying new/used furniture in NZ.
5- My car (Renault Grand Espace Diesel 2.2L engine) seems not to be popular in NZ, as I could not find any car for sale from that model on autotrader.co.nz. Is this a correct impression? If so, how to buy spare parts for this car in NZ, if I ship it to NZ?
6- If I ship my car to NZ, it will cost about £1500 for shipping, and I may still need to pay some customs, as I would have owned it in the UK for about 9 months in the UK before shipping it. The car is a 2004 year model, and has a relatively low mileage (60000miles). Is shipping my car to NZ a cheaper option than buying a Japanese used car in NZ?
7- Any advice about what is worth/necessary to bring with me, where to live...etc?

Regards
AEN

[JennyV]

Hi AEN,
Congratulations on making the move - I came over last year with my family and am working as an Engineering Geologist in Christchurch (ChCh). Who will you be working for? - feel free to private message me if you want to talk shop. Responses to your queries below:
Cheers TV

Dear all,
I am a 49 year old geotechnical engineer. I will move to a company in Christchurch within the coming 3 month. We are a family of 4. The children are in public outstanding primary school in the UK. The continual depreciation of the UK£ value against the other currencies have made the NZ & Australia salaries very attractive for UK citizens. Further, it has also led to continual rise in cost of living in the UK. The major expenses in the UK are Housing (mortgage or rent), fuel, as well as the bills (council tax, electricity, heating, food, car and house insurance....etc)

I have read many articles about the high cost of living in NZ, compared to the UK. I can see that there are some differences, e.g. No free NHS health service in NZ, NZ annual leave is 1 week shorter than in the UK, Cars in NZ seems to cost more than in the UK. I see that the fuesl costs (Diesel & Petrol) in NZ are cheaper than in te UK. However, I have the following queries:

1- What are the major parts of the monthly expenses in NZ? Is it like the UK?Rent is higher, but includes council tax, no water rates in chch, mobiles/ internet/ tv/ phone is more expensive than UK, conveniance or out of season foods/goods are expensive, in season food is cheap. Drugs/medicines including hayfever tablets cost more, especially if you are used to uk supermarket ownbrand items. books are expensive. electronics are comparably priced

2- How much is the rent/mortgage for a 4-bedroom house in areas with good schools in/around Christchurch? Halswell ChCh for 4 bed is $500-600 per week, Merivale ChCh $600+ per week. Bear in mind that the earthquake damage has displaced a lot of people so certain types of property are more in demand. If you are willing to commute for 30min you can get somewhere way cheaper

3- What is the difference between the sizes of 4-bedroom houses in the UK and in NZ?NZ houses are far bigger than UK houses, nearly all have a garage, most have double, and twin double garages are not that uncommon. Terraced or semi-detatched houses are rare.

4- Is furniture in Chrsitchurch more expensive than in the UK? Could you please send me some links to shops that sell furniture with reasonable prices in Christchurch, so as to assess the feasibility of shipping my used furniture against buying new/used furniture in NZ.Furniture is more expensive, check out: farmers, target, big save furniture, harvey norman, smith city or trade me

5- My car (Renault Grand Espace Diesel 2.2L engine) seems not to be popular in NZ, as I could not find any car for sale from that model on autotrader.co.nz. Is this a correct impression? If so, how to buy spare parts for this car in NZ, if I ship it to NZ?See www.trademe.co.nz, it is more popular than ebay or autorader in NZ. My friend has a renault clio sport and buys parts from th UK, cheaper than NZ, takes a few days to get them delivered, which is quicker than Auckland to ChCH. If we had had a decent car when we left the UK, we would have brought it. A 2l petrol here is seen as a small engine size, diesels are not popular as you also have to buy a road user charge (RUC) which is based on the odeometer reading of you car

6- If I ship my car to NZ, it will cost about £1500 for shipping, and I may still need to pay some customs, as I would have owned it in the UK for about 9 months in the UK before shipping it. The car is a 2004 year model, and has a relatively low mileage (60000miles). Is shipping my car to NZ a cheaper option than buying a Japanese used car in NZ? toyotas are popular here, with a price tag to match, however as it''ll take 3 months to ship a car over, there is some beneifit in selling it in the UK and buying another car when you arrive

7- Any advice about what is worth/necessary to bring with me, where to live...etc?When I came I filled a 20ft container with stuff, mainly because the company I moved to paid the relocation costs (I still have loads of unopened boxes of books sitting in the garage). The less stuff you leave behind, the less attraction you will have pulling you back to the UK, (we sold our house and car) however you also need assimilate into the NZ mindset and shop/buy use NZ goods, so the more UK stuff you hanker for, the harder this will be. There are a couple of expat shops in ChCh, and tesco and Marks and Spencer will ship to NZ.

Regards
AEN

[Mamee & Co]

Hi and welcome

I moved from the UK..well getting close to 3 years ago now.

1. Major expenses rent/mortgage, food and childcare!
2. Really depends what type of house and area you are looking for. I am in Sumner and some properties are not too badly priced at the moment, but others are horrendous...all the local schools are very good. Look at Wikipedia for Christchurch schools. The decile rating gives an indication of the socio-economic status of the catchment area at the time of the last census.
3. As already said, houses are generally larger.
4. If you have reasonable furniture ship it. Selling, and buying will cost you more than shipping as if you bring a full container your shipping costs fall, otherwise you will be spending quite a lot buying crockery, linen, kitchen stuff, furniture...it is not just a case of sofa and TV!
5. Unless very sure of your car's history do not ship. On entry there is a thorough test done and an unknown fault may cause expense or failure. We brought one, a VW Touran diesel and bought a Honda odyssey here for 10k at 10 years old. Insurance costs have increased since EQ but not as expensive as UK.
7. Bring generic medicines if used eg paracetamol and feminine hygiene products..these are a lot more costly here. If shipping a printer bring cartridges. Otherwise just go with the flow and get used to NZ brands...makes life much simpler!!

Good luck with the move.

[edw123]

I did the same move in 2011 - good luck! Anyway, I'd say:-

1- It is very similar to the UK, I find rent cheaper in ChCh than in a good UK City for an equivalent property (with stuff included like council tax etc.), Some stuff costs more (Sky TV, some food), some less (other foods e.g. meat/fish, car insurance). Largely speaking you won't find it a shock in extra costs, nor will you find you're suddenly rich. Probably vitamins/tablets etc. show biggest differences.
2- Market is stuffed in ChCh, demand far greater than supply, although at the top end (4 bed), there's a bit more flexibility. About $500/$600 per week will get a reasonable place, possibly slightly more. Areas do vary greatly, work out the best one closest to your work. To buy is about $500/$600K I'd say for something good. Mortgage rates around 5.5%.
3- Really depends on what you mean. Most houses in ChCh are single storey (not sure you'd get me in a 2nd storey one after the quakes), they do tend to be bigger on average, although generally the quality is lower (insulation etc.). That said, some UK houses can be big. I'd work on principle of slightly bigger.
4- Yes, it's more expensive - massively so for quality furniture. Target is acceptable, likes of Smiths City and Harvey Norman amazingly expensive (a nice sofa can easily be $4000+); if you go to designer/flash places, costs can spiral. If you have nice stuff in the UK, I'd import it, everytime, wish I'd done that!
5- I really, really wouldn't ship that car. No offense, but it's not a great one, renault parts will be expensive, you'll find it impossible to part ex if you don't want it, diesel is a pain in the a*** as you effectively have to buy road tax per mile, find it hard to sell, and it's just not worth it. Buy one in NZ - cost of fuel is less and you'll find you spend most of your time in/around ChCh, not motorway driving like the UK. Sell it, and buy one here - I struggled with cars, as had diesel Audis in the UK, but a nice v6 Passat estate or Audi estate will be acceptably priced, and be more fun to drive. I'm bought into v6 motoring - similar torque to diesel but lasts longer and more fun, and with cost of diesel/road fund, works out as cheap.
6- Don't do it; shipping is painful, I looked at it. $1500 is before customs, you've not owned it for too long so cost will be high, then you have registation costs, you have to get it steam cleaned, deal with frontal emissions (be more painful as they don't sell that car here I don't think) etc. etc.; I looked at doing it with an Audi A2 when I moved, hassle put me off.
7- Yeah - I made mistakes - don't bring your electrical goods unless they're something rare (e.g. an old vintage computer!) - you can get them all here for roughly the same price, plus you don't have hassle of adaptors/changing plugs. Bring lots of tablets, especially if you have something like hay fever; buy as many clothes as you can, and shoes - they are expensive/lower quality here; stock up on DVDs, CDs, Books etc. you don't have and want - painful to bring, cheaper to ship. Remember - there's plenty of quality stuff in NZ, which is different/better than the UK. All about adapting, but for stuff you cannot do without - bring it!

My advice in ChCh is really around areas to avoid - pretty much anything in the East, near the Central City, New Brighton, Sumner. Combination of being very ropey, or destroyed houses, bad land, or a combination of both (New Brighton). Sumner more because the roads will destroy your car in no time, and traffic is painful.

Probably best off in West/North. Merivale, Fendalton, and it's surrounds are nice. Good land, nice areas, relaxed, but near enough town etc.

You'll like Christchurch. It's a very English place - lot of Ex-Pats here, and although the quake has made many suffer, it has made it a vibrant, exciting place to live - new shops, restaurants and bars open daily, as does stuff to do - and because of the money being pumped into the rebuild, they tend to be decent things, loads to do, lots locally (skiing, beach, alps), international airport, climate warm but not TOO warm, city spreadout, so all facilities without negatives. Easily the place to live in NZ for me - quakes or no quakes!

[mylesdw]

The traffic around Chch is a nightmare these days and it looks like it could be years before it's sorted so consider your journey to work when choosing an area to live. The school system is also in some turmoil with a long list scheduled for closure or merger - again do your homework.

Food is by far our biggest monthly cost. Don't bring the Renault, just not worth the aggro. If you're bringing a container, just fill it up! I had loads of stuff left over from doing up our house in the UK that I didn't bring, woodscrews, pipe fittings etc but when I found the price of stuff I wished I had.

Lots of folk have moved out of Chch since the quakes. Rangiora for example was very popular with immigrants before the quakes and is still growing like mad.