Kiwis moving to Australia: Incomes, house prices and interest rates compared

Queenstown couple Kent Hoffman, 23, and Bridget Jane, 25, couldn't imagine saving enough to buy a house so they've moved to Melbourne for better wages. Photo / Supplied

As the cost of living crisis drags on, Kiwis are relocating to Australia in droves - about 2000 of us per month are moving there. Ben Leahy has run the numbers, comparing New Zealand and Australian incomes, house prices, rents and expenses - and speaks to those testing their fortunes in the “Lucky Country”.

Kiwi couple Bridget Jane and Kent Hoffman looked like they had a bright future ahead of them in Queenstown.

As a builder Hoffman, 23, is in line to one day take over his dad’s business.

Yet in March, the couple packed everything up and moved to Melbourne, chasing higher wages and cheaper rents.

They plan to marry next year but believed it impossible to save for their own house while staying in Queenstown, where 25-year-old beauty therapist Jane has heard of people paying rents as high as $1200 for one-bedroom studios.

“We couldn’t live in Queenstown, the hourly wage just wouldn’t compete with rent prices,” she said.

Now the pair are thriving in Melbourne - among thousands of Kiwis who have also left New Zealand to try their luck finding greener pastures.

The Herald last talked to Kiwis living in Australia in November, when we asked them why they made the move.

And, six months later, the rush across the Tasman seems even more intense.

According to the latest Stats NZ data, 24,200 more people left New Zealand for Australia in the year to September 2023, well above the typical net migration loss of 3000 a year from 2014 to 2019.

Australia’s biggest lure is simple - higher salaries.

Analysis by the Herald shows Australia’s average household incomes outstrips New Zealand’s in all but two states.

Australia also potentially offers a better chance to step foot on the property ladder with lower interest rates and more housing choices.

Greater choice means every major Australian city (except surging Sydney) boasts a cheaper average house price than Auckland, Wellington or Tauranga.

And then there’s the daily cost of living. The Herald once again looked at a snapshot of Woolworths online shopping and found four out of six supermarket items chosen at random were cheaper across the ditch.

Aussies are saving about 40c on 2L of Woolworths-branded milk - one of the most common items in shopping carts - with prices at $3.80 in NZ and $3.36 (A$3.10) across the Ditch.

T-bone steaks, Woolworths-branded 500g tasty cheese, and tomatoes were all also cheaper in Australia.

Only Woolworths-branded 500g margarine tubs and royal gala apples were cheaper in New Zealand.

Yet Australia isn’t all sunshine and smiles - rental prices are generally higher there, especially in glamorous locations such as Sydney.

And, putting money aside, all Kiwis who’ve spoken with the Herald say they miss the Kiwi way of life - with the distance from whānau, friends and our culture tugging on heartstrings.

‘Salaries anything from 10-50% higher’

Melbourne-based Kiwi Daiman McIntyre made the move to Australia 25 years ago at the start of his career, but says it didn’t take him long to double his income.

He’s since started the Facebook page Kiwis Moving to Melbourne (Original) where those thinking about moving across the ditch pepper those who have already done it with questions.

These can range from advice on how to get jobs and rental properties, to what is the best suburb to live in, how good are the schools, and even recommendations where the best pie shops are located.

“To be honest, the driver to move over here is always better income,” McIntyre said about those posting on his page.

As a mortgage broker at Ruahine Finance helping Kiwis buy homes in Australia, he said he also often gets to see their incomes when helping them apply for loans to the banks.

People in professional occupations, especially, can “see anything from a 10% to maybe 50% income difference between New Zealand and Australia”, he said.

Kiwis are typically well-regarded in Australia as being more willing to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, meaning most do well for themselves, McIntyre said.

Those who return home early, usually do so for health emergencies or to support whānau, he said.

Adelaide-based migration agent Erin Morunga told the Herald back in November that Australia’s move to tighten skilled visa eligibility rules for foreign workers had increased demand for Kiwis.

Many Aussie employers had subsequently begun to headhunt skilled Kiwis - especially police, prison officers and nurses - to make up for the shortfall, she said.

One of the most eye-catching campaigns was run by Northern Territory police.

It posted advertisements in the Herald last year offering Kiwi cops the chance to make up to $147,114 (A$136,000) in their first year on the job in Oz, while also collecting seven weeks of annual leave.

The New Zealand Police website shows first-year officers here can earn $75,063, rising to $82,773 for an officer with five years of experience.

Bridget Jane, 25, and Kent Hoffman, 23, Melbourne, Victoria

Kent Hoffman and Bridget Jane landed on their feet in Melbourne. Photo / Supplied

Jane and Hoffman were “incredibly lucky” to land on their feet in Melbourne, especially as they jetted from Queenstown without jobs lined up.

Jane, a beauty therapist, posted a blurb about herself and her work experience on a Melbourne Facebook page.

Soon after, a Melbourne-based Kiwi, who owned a beauty salon in the city centre, replied, and Jane was offered the job, just three weeks after touching down in Oz.

The pay is “so much better” than back home, Jane said.

She’s already doing a wider range of therapies than she did back home, while the “opportunity to become a manager” has already been raised.

Still, she’s expected to work harder: “It’s definitely more demanding... there’s no messing around, it’s go, go, go all the time”.

Hoffman started as a maintenance man at a chicken farm - a “terrible” job he quit after a week.

But then connections back in Queenstown helped him line up a job with a Kiwi builder in Melbourne.

It’s a job Hoffman loves - so much so, his brother has flown from Queenstown to join him.

And while finding rentals can be hard in Melbourne, the couple got lucky there as well.

Jane prepared a “rental resume” about her and Hoffman that helped them beat out 15 other couples to secure the first rental they applied for.

It costs $460 a week for a new two-bedroom home in Point Cook in Melbourne’s west.

However, that’s a long way from the city centre, making for a long commute for Jane and not the most exciting nightlife.

Other costs are similar, with petrol being cheaper in Australia, while buying a car is a lot more expensive, adding up to a big cost for the couple, who both bought cars for their jobs.

Overall, the goal is to stay in Australia a minimum of five years, before moving back home.

Hopefully that will be enough time to gain new life and work experiences and save a deposit so they can potentially return to the Hoffman’s family business and buy their own house in the Queenstown area.

But with Queenstown house prices being among the most expensive in New Zealand, sometimes the financial challenge still seems impossible but then on other days, the opportunities Melbourne offers “does make it feel doable”, Jane said.