Cost of living in Oceania

We have been living in Melbourne for 7 month now, and we are quite enjoying it.

We are a family of 4, and we are renting a nice house, in popular suburb (Mount Waverley S/E) for 400 $ a week. I have seen cheaper places, for around 220 a week.
Now it is not like the UK where you have to pay extras (Bin's etc)

Internet broadband, is again very different. We pay 56$ per month. It is not the basic stuff.
As for Petrol, coming from Europe, I think it is cheap; Australians have been used to cheaper prices. You need to buy your petrol on a Tuesday, it is much cheaper. Still have no idea why. It just is like this.
Personally, I think food is reasonable, we eat every day (he-he), and even dining out is good value, comparing to the UK again.

I take the train every day to work. The cost is under 10 $ for a daily, zone 1 + 2.  It is also possible you buy a weekly/monthly. The weekly for Zone 1 + 2 is approximatively 45 $.
Just be careful to live reasonably close to work, because public transport in Melbourne is slow. I take the train and tram, live 20km away, takes me 1 hour.

Mobile phone calls and sms are expensive comparing to the UK. I am not really using mine much, so I am not to sure, but I think it is 20cents per sms.

Education: Primary and secondary schools seems free, I think you have to pay for University.

Coming from Europe I find second hand vehicles exorbitant. Please check this website for more info http://www.redbookasiapacific.com/au/vehicle/index.php

If you are Resident, you can get free healthcare, they call free "bulk billed" Doctors (he-he), dentist are reasonably expensive. Not to sure for the rest.

Housing, compare to what you earn can be quite expensive to buy. Of course you will need to do some window shopping first.

The beer in a pub is about 5 $, but you can buy it for 2 $ in liquor stores.

Melbourne is beautiful, peoples are quite open. Cooler than Sydney and Brisbane. This summer we had between 20 and 42 degrees. Having a pool in your house is quite unusual in Melbourne. We bought an air conditioner because we nearly fainted just before Christmas with 42. Christmas day we had the heater on (16 degrees in the middle of summer). Melbourne's weather is a bit like a lucky packet, you not really sure what weather you will have the next week.

There are jobs in Melbourne at the moment. It took us 2 month to find a normal job. Took me 3 weeks to find contract/temp work. I have heard that there are jobs galore in Brisbane. We just took a chance and moved to Melbourne without jobs. A bit scary when I looked back.

We were quite prepared, it has been our 4th move to a different country, and I think we were quite prepared. Still, it has been difficult. I think the older you get the more difficult it is to make new friends. We are getting there.

In short. Loving it.

Francine

any question please feel free to ask me

Well, in fair Adelaide, South Australia the costs go as follows

(im a local and I'm single, all of the prices are in AUD)

> accommodation prices
from 150 for either a one bedroom flat or a room in a 3 wayshare, all the way up to $1200 a week for a penthouse or a place down at glenelg on the foreshore.

> public transportation fares (tube, bus etc ...)
we've got buses, trains and a singular tram route but be prepared to wait if you decide to travel on a weekend or public holiday when the amount of actual transport is cut to crap, an adult 10 trip multi will cost about $26 but each trip is valid for 2 hours and can be used on any of the three different systems.

> food prices(per month, how much does it cost you?)
Food can vary depending where you shop, if you go with the supermarket chains it can go up to $300 a month, if you go to the central markets it can top out at $200

> health prices (for those who need medical insurance)
All Australian health care is theoretically centralized such that there aren't too big a difference between different institutions. if you can find a doctor who still bulk bills you're lucky, otherwise costs can go from $40 to $120

> education prices (if you need to pay)
All education requires some payment, public schooling isn't too bad at only a few hundred dollars for the year, if you go private, such as St. Peters or Prince Alfred College the cost is more like $5000 a term if not more.

university you do have to pay for, from the background I have been doing to further my own education it varies at adelaide university from $4500 for some of the base degrees up to $15 000 for law, medicine etc.

> energy prices (oil, electricity)
my last electricity bill for the quarter was $200,
petrol prices vary alot, at the moment they are hovering around $1.21/litre

> common bills (Internet, television, telephone, mobile phone)
my dial up is costing me $26 for no limit, for ADSL you're looking at prices from $30 a month up to $75 for no caps.

a landline phone, reasonably cheap for me but i only use it for getting online.

the mobile phone cost $0.48 per 30 second blocks and $0.24 for sms's....yeah, it's steep.

> prices of a good menu in a traditional restaurant
depends on the location around adelaide but ranges from $8 at the lower end up to $28 for silver service.

> prices of a beer and of a coffee in a regular pub
beers are from $4 for a pint of pale when its on special, a good coffee such as a latte will cost you about $3.90.

Lets hope that people actually come to the one capital city in Australia that is NEVER mentioned....anywhere.

We are in Brisbane, ex Manchester.  We have started a website called [no free ads please contact julien] because when we moved a few years back, there was no information for us, and we just did the old 'suck it and see'. The site offers advice to people relocating to Brisbane from anywhere in the world.

There is a charge for the service, but it does offer general info about the city (i.e. transport and sight seeing advice and links), and also more detailed info on housing and employment to assist in making decisions about what areas might be more suitable for those new to the city. 

We've included all the info that we felt we could have used when we moved over.

If we can offer any other adivce, give us an email at [no free ads please contact julien]

New Zealand - Auckland www.emigratingnz.com

Very expensive on local wages!

Housing 600 pw for a family home in a suburb $120 pw for a flat or home share 4 sharing average accom

Public Transport - limited to bus and ferry - average spend on getting from North Shore to CBD $8 one way $4 bus $4 ferry can be reduced with tickets

Food - between $300 and $250 we are family of 5 - 3 girls under 4. Formula is about $20 a can. The food is top quality though an no need to pay for Organic stuff, it all more or less is already!

Health - Seems expensive - once you have residency a trip to the GP is about $30 and the dentist about $120 for check up and hygene. Fillings about $300 to have our twins privately cost about $2000

Education is costly some state scholls are great. Kindy is about $30 a morning but private Pre School about "$900 per term for 3 mornings

Uni average Student debt on the loan is $30,000 lovely way to start your working life!!

Gas - $1.75 a litre and rising

Electricity $120pm Gas $50pm

Phone extortionate at about $100 and we hardly use because of skype etc. Mobile about $49.99 broadband is the worst in the world (slowest) is costs $49.99 but is metered so get v expensive if you exceed your GB allowance.

Sky TV 99.99pm for the full package

Restaurant about $60 a head for a anniversary dinner. 25 for brunch. Coffee 3.50

New Zealand - Auckland

Very expensive on local wages!

Housing 600 pw for a family home in a suburb $120 pw for a flat or home share 4 sharing average accom

Public Transport - limited to bus and ferry - average spend on getting from North Shore to CBD $8 one way $4 bus $4 ferry can be reduced with tickets

Food - between $300 and $250 we are family of 5 - 3 girls under 4. Formula is about $20 a can. The food is top quality though an no need to pay for Organic stuff, it all more or less is already!

Health - Seems expensive - once you have residency a trip to the GP is about $30 and the dentist about $120 for check up and hygene. Fillings about $300 to have our twins privately cost about $2000

Education is costly some state scholls are great. Kindy is about $30 a morning but private Pre School about "$900 per term for 3 mornings

Uni average Student debt on the loan is $30,000 lovely way to start your working life!!

Gas - $1.75 a litre and rising

Electricity $120pm Gas $50pm

Phone extortionate at about $100 and we hardly use because of skype etc. Mobile about $49.99 broadband is the worst in the world (slowest) is costs $49.99 but is metered so get v expensive if you exceed your GB allowance.

Sky TV 99.99pm for the full package

Restaurant about $60 a head for a anniversary dinner. 25 for brunch. Coffee 3.50

Hello Jonathang,

I am maybe interested in living in New Zealand next year.
Thanks for all the prices you gave, it will help a lot. Two years you've sent this.. are you still in NZ? if yes, Have the prices increased ?
You said the prices are very expensive if you compare the local wages.... Do you know the average or minimum wage there ?
Do you know if Auckland is a lot of more expensive than the others cities in NZ (Wellington, Christchurch ...)?
Thanks for your answer...

Manon