While a UK move is a rite-of-passage for many young Kiwis, Herald analysis shows that average salaries are lower while rents are higher - particularly on the sought-after streets of London.
But venture outside of the capital and the comparisons get far more interesting, with major cities offering cheaper living costs than New Zealand centres.
Rotorua might be beloved for its “RotoVegas” tourist attractions, but it’s not exactly a mecca if you’re a librarian and a musician.
That’s why Danielle and Lee McKenzie upped sticks two years ago and moved to the United Kingdom, hunting for better job opportunities.
Since then musician Lee, 32, hasbeen belting out Beatles covers and original tunes at beer festivals and pubs in the northern city of Sheffield with its 500,000-plus population, while also setting up an online business.
Danielle, 32, has risen to become a manager for three local libraries, while also living within a short drive of some of the world’s most famous academic institutions, including the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.
The couple decided to move after the Covid-19 pandemic dried up Lee’s music work and New Zealand’s small size left them with few options, Danielle said.
“With my job, there was no potential for growth ... no promotion opportunities,” she said of New Zealand’s limited number of libraries.
Having now hot-footed it out of the country, they’ve joined an exodus of tens of thousands of Kiwis seeking greener pastures.
However, the UK’s Office of National Statistics estimated 79,000 New Zealand-born people were residing in Great Britain in June 2021.
The UK has also long been a rite-of-passage for young Kiwis on OEs and a magnetic lure for high-paid bankers, lawyers, and executives.
Yet London has also been battling a cost-of-living crisis post-Brexit and post-pandemic.
And crucially, UK wages lag behind Kiwi salaries. The typical UK salary is about $15,000 less per year than wages here.
Analysis by the Herald and anecdotes from expat Kiwis suggest the UK capital’s cost of living has no comparison with anywhere in New Zealand.
Kiwis moving to the city have reported spending months looking for employment amid a shortage of jobs, while electricity, fuel and rental prices have shot up.
The average weekly rent in London of $1022 is $359 more than in Tauranga, New Zealand’s most expensive city.
Yet when looking beyond the English capital, the UK appears more affordable.
Renting in top-tier UK cities, such as Bristol and Edinburgh, is similarly priced to Auckland and Tauranga, while moving to the north and west of Britain in Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool can be cheaper than rentals in many Kiwi cities.
And shopping at the supermarket appears easier on the pocket in the UK - at least at some outlets.
The Herald took asnapshot of Woolworths’ online shopping and compared that to the cheapest UK supermarket prices.
We found Brits paid less for six out of seven supermarket items chosen at random.
That includes currently buying a single tomato for about 50c compared to about $2.06 in New Zealand, while royal gala apples, 500g tubs of margarine, and 2 litres of milk are also cheaper in the UK.
Brits can also pay about $3 less for a 500g block of cheese, and 12 free-range medium eggs can be found for $4.92 in the UK compared to $9.50 here.
Only T-bone steak was cheaper in New Zealand.
And for those keen to settle longer-term, house prices also look favourable in the UK, other than in London - a property market popular with the world’s rich and famous.
New Zealand’s typical house price at $931,438 is almost $400,000 higher than the average UK value.
New Zealand banks are also typically charging higher mortgage interest rates.
‘Paradise’ for tradies and nannies
Clint Heine, 48, runs the Kiwis in London Facebook group and said while there were challenges setting up in the UK, it also offered great opportunities.
Kiwi Clint Heine says the UK is a great place to move for Kiwis looking to reinvent or progress their careers or to just have fun, given that all of Europe lies at their feet.
He followed the OE path in 2003, visiting India and Southeast Asia before landing in the UK and never looked back.
He’s since started the Kiwis in London Facebook group and said he was seeing “new arrivals coming from New Zealand every week, every day”.
“There are opportunities for people to completely just change their career options and do something different just to make money,” he said.
He called the UK a “paradise” for tradies, while nannies can still bank good cash.
“Live-in care, the money is ridiculous, usually a thousand pounds a week,” Heine, 48, said.
However, other jobs like marketing or administration can be a lot harder to land.
He warned Kiwis to make sure they’ve got money saved for short-term rentals and upfront rental payments and to “set their expectations” for the increased competition for jobs.
“A lot of people go, ‘Oh, I’ll go to London and work in reception’ - it’s not really like that,” he said.
“You’re not competing against the 10 or 20 thousands that you might be competing against in Auckland, you’re competing against millions of people.”
It can lead to some “soul-destroying” rejections, yet opportunities not possible in New Zealand sit on the opposite side of that coin, he said.
And to add to that, Kiwis and Aussies are typically well-regarded by employers, he said.
Danielle and Lee McKenzie, both 32, Sheffield, Yorkshire
Danielle McKenzie, 32, moved to the UK with husband Lee from Rotorua in 2022, and said she feels Britain has a lot more jobs on offer.
Librarian Danielle and her husband had been keen to move to the Sheffield area and so it took her a “little while to find the right job”.
Yet she had choice along the way, having been offered a number of other jobs before the right one popped up.
“I feel like there are a lot more jobs available,” she said, pointing to the scale of the UK.
New Zealand has only a small collection of universities across the country and handful of libraries in her native Bay of Plenty, she said.
By contrast, she landed a job managing three of the 15 libraries run by the Rotherham district, which is the “next town over”, she said.
“The scope of it is just crazy,” she said.
And despite working only 30 hours across four days, she said she still earns almost as much as she did in New Zealand, while the job comes with retirement savings and better benefits.
Living in Sheffield - one of the cheapest major UK cities in which to rent - Danielle and Lee are paying lower rent for a two-bedroom townhouse than they did in Rotorua.
UK groceries are also cheaper, including kiwifruit and dairy.
“New Zealand is a dairy-producing country, why is it so expensive?” she said.
Although Danielle misses the Bay of Plenty beaches she grew up next to, she said she and her husband are spending a lot of time outside exploring areas like the nearby Peak District National Park.
For the main part, they don’t expect to return home soon with Danielle looking to secure a UK Ancestry visa to stay longer.
“I feel like we’re in what we call a growth mindset,” she said.
“We’re looking to get busy and earn some money and get ahead, but also still enjoy life.”
