Kiwis moving abroad: Is the grass really greener in the UK and Australia? - The Front Page

More Kiwis are moving abroad. Photo / 123RF

More and more Kiwis are heading overseas to see if the grass is really greener on the other side.

Most are heading to Australia, with the latest figures showing 27,000 moved in 2023, and thousands are still flocking to Britain for their OE.

People are gambling on getting better pay and conditions overseas, and escaping New Zealand’s high cost of living, but are things really better overseas?

NZ Herald reporter Ben Leahy told The Front Page that when it comes to house prices, London tops the list.

“It’s almost a beast unto itself. But, I’m sorry to say, New Zealand house prices are clearly the next highest – which is sort of hard to stomach.”

The average property value in London sits at about $1.62 million, but Auckland is second highest at $1.27m and Sydney is just behind on $1.25m.

“For Kiwis heading to London for their OE, typical weekly rent is $1000 in the latest figures we had. By comparison, Auckland is about $636.

“When you take London out of the picture, it’s fairly even between all three countries,” he said.

A major drawcard for heading overseas is the attractive salaries, something Leahy said could lend to the phrase “the grass is greener on the other side” of the Tasman.

One Hamilton man Leahy spoke to moved to Melbourne, where his maths teacher salary jumped $31,000 “just by catching a flight”.

“Then you look at some of the police campaigns ... Last year, the Northern Territory Police launched a very high-profile campaign to get Kiwi cops and were offering salaries up to $60,000 higher than here.

“I was speaking to a police officer from South Auckland and he thought there were up to 80 police from his area that had headed over to Australia in the last six months.”

When it comes to jobs in Britain, though, things get a bit stickier.

“Clint Heine, who runs the Kiwis in London Facebook group, called it a paradise for tradies at the moment. Being a nanny is also a tried and true job for Kiwis moving across to the UK and there is great money in it,” Leahy said.

“Other jobs are not so easy. If you’re looking to be a receptionist or administrator, there is lots of competition. He said in Auckland you might face a couple of thousand people looking for the same job, whereas it can be millions in London.”

British wages lag behind Kiwi pay. The typical UK salary is about $15,000 less per year than wages here.

Another reason Kiwis may up and leave New Zealand is the general cost of living challenges, Leahy said.

“One person who just moved from the Herald to London has said kiwifruit is cheaper in London, as well as dairy, which is kind of hard to understand.

“We found Australia is also a bit cheaper – but the cost is less pronounced. And when it comes to petrol, Australia is the cheapest, then NZ, then the UK.”

While Stats NZ estimates 27,000 more people left New Zealand for Australia last year, the department doesn’t have data on how many Kiwis left for Britain.

The UK’s Office of National Statistics estimated 79,000 New Zealand-born people were living in Great Britain in June 2021.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about how New Zealand differs from the UK and Australia, and whether there are greener pastures.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the NZ Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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