New Zealand - Prices down but....

ILW

Why is the land so expensive? The country is massive and mainly intouched.

Strings

ILW wrote: »

Why is the land so expensive? The country is massive and mainly intouched.

It depends entirely on what you call expensive.

Obviously there are local and national planning laws which prevent farm land from being subdivided and made into housing.
If you do get permission to subdivide farm land then you will need to pay all manner of costs to provide the infrastructure.
Otherwise like anything, good land will always be at a premium

bendix

ILW wrote: »

Why is the land so expensive? The country is massive and mainly intouched.

NZ massive? It most certainly isn't.

You also need to differentiate between habitable and inhabitable land - don't forget that vast swathes of the south island and big chunks of the middle of the north island are mountainous regions or covered in rainforests.

As with every country, there is cheap land and expensive land. If you want to buy a small plot overlooking Auckland Harbour, with a place to moor your boat, then be prepared to pay millions. If, on the other hand, you want to buy twenty acres on the edge of dodgy little south island satellite towns, then it will be very very cheap.

Strings

New Zealand on the whole is more expensive than here.
Food and clothing in particular and don’t even get me started on long haul travel

As a comparison – London to Auckland travelling April next year costs £778 return
Some time but from AKL TO LHR = $3285

Or in ££ = 1551.

So twice the price

As for food, my wife and I spend about £100 per week, to buy the same in NZ, will cost us $350, nearly double what we pay now


hmmmm

nembot

That said Strings, the New Zealand airline probably won't of gone bust in the meantime

Thrugelmir

Recall a coversation I had flying back from Sydney a few years back in the January. Was chatting to a couple that that emigrated from Cheltenham the previous February. During their time there it had rained almost continuously for 10 months. They couldn't wait to get back to England for a holiday!

Strings

nembot wrote: »

That said Strings, the New Zealand airline probably won't of gone bust in the meantime

That was with Qantas haha

bendix

Strings wrote: »

That was with Qantas haha

Actually, Air NZ did need to be rescued a few years ago. It needed massive NZ Government funding. Sound familiar.

Qantas have never had any problems, but their Australian rivals - Ansett - went spectacularly bust around 8 years ago. It happened overnight.

bendix

Strings wrote: »

New Zealand on the whole is more expensive than here.
Food and clothing in particular and don’t even get me started on long haul travel

As a comparison – London to Auckland travelling April next year costs £778 return
Some time but from AKL TO LHR = $3285

Or in ££ = 1551.

So twice the price

As for food, my wife and I spend about £100 per week, to buy the same in NZ, will cost us $350, nearly double what we pay now


hmmmm

It's not quite as simple as that, though. NZ seems very expensive at the moment to a Brit because the Kiwi dollar is unnaturally high at around 2.14 to the £. The historical average is around 3 to the £, and I recall when I moved over there in the early 90s it was around 3.3 to the £ which made it seem remarkably cheap.

Never mind Strings. Your misfortune is my gain. Virtually all my cash savings are in NZ, so I'm happy with the exchange rate ;-)

Strings

bendix wrote: »

It's not quite as simple as that, though. NZ seems very expensive at the moment to a Brit because the Kiwi dollar is unnaturally high at around 2.14 to the £. The historical average is around 3 to the £, and I recall when I moved over there in the early 90s it was around 3.3 to the £ which made it seem remarkably cheap.

Never mind Strings. Your misfortune is my gain. Virtually all my cash savings are in NZ, so I'm happy with the exchange rate ;-)

Regardless of the exchange rate, if you look at the histroical rate, it is still expensive compared to the pound. Plus wages are lower when comparing to the exchange (for me anyway)

We have got some money in New Zealand but equally the same amount here, so yeah will have to wait for a wee while before exchanging.