What is the Overall Average Cost of Living in New Zealand?
Questions many people may ask is where is the most expensive place to live in New Zealand. If someone were to ask any Kiwi living or wanting to move to Auckland; they would likely take an educated guess and say Auckland would be the most expensive.
When you look at the statistics of our three biggest cities in New Zealand, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington; you then go into detail by employment rate, average income and average property price. Looking at statistics below you can see that Auckland outweighs the other cities by large amount.
Statistics for living in Auckland show that as of September 2019, the average house price is $820,000, the average household income is about $95,561, and employment rate is at about 68.3%.
Statistics for living in Wellington show that as of September 2019, the average house price is $636,600, the average household income is $98,692 and the employment rate is 71.9%.
Statistics for living in Christchurch show that as of September 2019, the average house price $442,500, the average household income is $90,284 and employment rate is 66.1%.
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Why is Auckland The Most Expensive City in New Zealand
There are many factors that determine why a city is the most expensive to live in; some of the reasons being:
- Price of food and entertainment.
- House prices and rental cost.
- Annual income and employment rate.
Auckland has a population of 1.657 million more than three times the size of Wellington which is New Zealand’s second biggest city.
This population size will obviously create more opportunity for jobs; however, the large sum of people that are looking for jobs at the same time will outweigh the employment opportunities. Therefore, the employment rate is lowered along with the average annual income.
Despite Auckland job opportunities fighting against its large population size; the average house price in Auckland outweighs the next two biggest cities Wellington and Christchurch. Outweighing Wellington by nearly $200,000 and Christchurch by nearly $400,000.
If the average annual household income for these 3 cities is only within $10,000 of each other that doesn’t mean that much when the house prices are so vastly different.
As a result, this factor will also point more toward the fact that Auckland is the most expensive city to live in, in New Zealand.
Housing Prices in Main Cities:
Generally, the houses in or that are very close to the CBD (Central Business District) are more expensive than anywhere else around the city. There are many reasons to why this is the case; some of the reasons are:
- It is very close and accessible to where people would work.
- It is usually in zone for many schools, so there will be more education opportunity.
- It is also generally where all the action is which; this could mean bars, nightlife, stores, events and many other things that are based in the CBD.
Wellington’s CBD is the most expensive area to live in Wellington.
Auckland’s city CBD is the second most expensive area however, North Shore an area of Auckland is the most expensive but North Shore is very well-established some could even call it Auckland’s north CBD.
A News Source for New Zealand’s Economy
A news source that provides economical information on New Zealand is called Wealth Morning.
They go into depth about what is happening in the economy in New Zealand and around the world, some areas that they have goes specifically into housing and the cost of living.
They even have their own category on NZ housing where you can find all the latest information relevant to property and how it could potentially benefit you.
