KEY POINTS:
Dying is getting dearer, with the cost of burial plots and "digging fees" rising anywhere from 2 to 47 per cent at council-owned cemeteries nationwide, a Herald on Sunday survey has found.
Demand and, in some areas, fast-disappearing space are making cemeteries immune to the market swings that affect other types of property.
Cemetery managers and councils say the rises are not to make a profit. Higher prices reflect everything from diminishing space pushing up values in sought-after areas, to cemetery redevelopment and wage increases to make up for under-budgeting. Other factors include inflation and higher prices being demanded by headstone makers and grave diggers.
Whereas getting buried in Hamilton cost $1865 last year, today you could expect to fork out $2743, a 47 per cent increase. In Wellington it now costs 30 per cent more to bury a loved one. A burial before October 1 cost $1400, it's now priced at $1805.
A council review two years ago saw a 25 per cent maintenance fee added to Queenstown burials and cremations, raising the cost by $300 to $1480. In Manukau and North Shore cities, expect to pay up to $3500 and $5000 respectively for the best spots.
The Auckland city catchment area was the only place surveyed not to have raised prices in the past two years - standard burials cost $1534 and have done since 2001. But this does not bode well for Aucklanders unlucky enough to be burying loved ones after the last review - six years ago prices went up 30 per cent.
Private cemeteries are also raising the prices of burial plots.
The Herald on Sunday has learned of an elderly Auckland couple who decided around two years ago to sell a pre-purchased double plot at a private Auckland cemetery. The cemetery paid them $2500. Two weeks ago, when the couple had a change of heart about deciding to be buried in the South Island (too cold for eternal rest apparently), they bought the same plot back for $4500.
At the country's biggest graveyard, Waitakere City's Waikumete Cemetery, an 'eco burial' (tree only, no headstone) now costs $2350, and a plot with upright headstone in the best spot will set you back $4150. As with most cemeteries, there is an extra charge for a weekend burial - $250 for Saturday mornings, $350 for Saturday afternoons and $600 on a Sunday. Burial of oversized caskets attracts a $250 surcharge and it pays to keep eulogies short - Waikumete charges an extra $250 for every half hour you are running late.
Over the Harbour Bridge, at the North Shore Memorial Park, plots ranged from $1800 to $5000, plus a one-off $400 maintenance fee and $200 digging fee, manager Craig Andrew said. An ashes plot was cheaper - between $400 and $800, with a $300 maintenance and $200 digging fee. Prices had gone up between 5 and 10 per cent over the past two years, he said.
Andrew said North Shore had plenty of room for new burials - the cemetery would last another 40 years, "depending on business trends".
Manager at Manukau Memorial Gardens, Noelene Mudgway, said it cost $2845 for a standard burial plot at the lawn cemetery, including digging and maintenance, while plots in the decorated area, popular with Pacific Island families, cost $343. Plots for ashes varied widely in price, from $400 to $2000, and fees had gone up in July, at a rate of 3-4 per cent, she said.
Health and safety requirements had nudged up costs in recent years, and buying new land for future use was "not cheap".
The cemetery had about 20-25 years left before it reached capacity, far longer than Waikaraka Park in Auckland City, which council parks adviser Graham Mudgon said had only 10 years of "life" left.
Donna Kelly, administrator for R and R Caretakers, which is contracted to Waikaraka, said a pricing review was overdue. An ageing population would further exacerbate the issue.
A spokeswoman for privately owned Purewa Cemetery in Auckland's Meadowbank said the cemetery no longer allowed the public to reserve plots, "unless they already have immediate family in there or the person is terminally ill".
A plot at Purewa plus digging fee cost $5445, and prices had risen 12 per cent in the past year.
President of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand, Michael Hope, said while prices had been rising, New Zealand's cemetery and crematorium industry was not a "money spinner" like it was overseas.
He was shown around a Melbourne cemetery favoured by Asian families where prime 6m x 6m family plots sold for $248,000.
Plots in Dunedin, where he was based, cost $2500, and increased each year at about the rate of inflation.
Hope said cremation was "far more popular", with 75 per cent of Kiwis opting for it.
It was also cheaper - a standard cremation cost $6000-7000, whereas a burial cost $7000-$10,000, but he said people's choices were not usually driven by price.
