Cost of living for a Family in Vanuatu. Moving from NZ

Hello James W and welcome on board

You may gather some infos when browsing through threads in our ''Cost of living in Vanuatu'' section of the forum.

Please do not forget to share some expat related infos when you get there with us.

Kenjee
Expat.com Team

Cost of living is quite high here.
Rent can vary from about 80,000vt to 400,000vt a month depending on the house and suburb.
Electricity is very expensive, about 3 times the cost of power in Australia.
Gas is about 4500vt for an 11kg bottle (hot water and cooking).
Internet starts from about 11,000vt a month unlimited (2mbs up/ 1mbs down). 
No idea about daycare etc
Diary and imported fruit and veg are expensive and milk is longlife (220vt a litre), most imported food attracts an import duty. Local beef and veg are very cheap.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply!
Do you Skype home on your internet connection?  I wont be popular with my parents and inlaws if they cant even Skype their grandchildren!
Also is there anything you would recommend bringing with you if you were to move to Vanuatu right now?
thanks again,

James and Sandy

Yes we Skype, both on our fast connection at home and the slower connection at work

Lol there are lots of things I would bring if I was moving here now but most of them would be food products like cheese and deli goods

But seriously, I'm not sure how to answer that question.  Maybe I would have brought twice as many clothes, it is permanently summer here and there aren't a lot of places to buy the sort of clothes I like.

Hi James and sandy
You can get unlimited broadband from Telsat for 110,00vatu per month,that's about $120aud
Child care is a bit iffy,there are some expat run places but I Believe you could hire a local housekeeper who has kids,they will take them to the village for a totally fantastic time.
The people of Vanuatu are the closest you will get to finding angels
Do you know EFATE very well?
If possible find accommodation which has copper wired Internet or phone line.
Broadband does drop out and is extremely busy on evenings and holidays.
I use Viber and it has worked quite well given the fore mentioned periods
Food cost are really not to bad,but it depends on what you eat of course.
Meat is very cheap,breakfast cereals ridiculously priced.
Best info is check use by dates on all non perishables as the stay on the shelf literally forever.
Fresh Vegies are really cheap so best is buy from the Big Supermarkets every month and the local Mammas road stalls for fruit and veg
Hope this helps
Take tools and summer clothes
Regards
Kevin

Thanks Kevin,

All the info helps.  Is that your dog? Did you bring him from Auz?  We are looking at taking our dog from NZ with us, couldn't leave him behind regardless of the cost - Do you have any experiences to share regarding moving pets?
I'll keep in mind the use by dates! Nothing worse than paying over the hill for something stale!
The info on copper lines is good - I'll be working in Port Vila but I assume we could live anywhere on Efate, is that about right? Can I commute from anywhere on the island?  I want my family to be shacked up somewhere pleasant, any suggestions?

James and Sandy

Hi Guys
Yeah that's our beagle Charli, she's in Aust with us, eventually we will move over for 9 months of the year .
We bought a house in Mele with the view to eventually retire there.
Still fixing the place up for renting short term now that previous owner/tenants have gone, we were lucky we have 3br,pool,beach 200mtrs,and 2acres of land 10mins from airport.
My experience regarding dogs is via the previous owners of our property in Mele. They took their dogs over then decided to abandon them after 3 years because of cost & quarantine time to bring them back to Aus.I was horrified and so have asked a lot of questions.
Commuting on Efate is a bit of fun as the roads are really poor. Many expats live to the south of the island in expat dominated areas, we find Mele to be a great mix as we have Ni-Van and ex pat friends. Socialization of children is an individual choice but we have found kids who predominately mix among only other expats kids are a bit snobbish, while those exposed to two cultures are more friendly and well adjusted. Vanuatu is a whole other world far removed from what we are used too.
If you are to work in Port Vila I advise seeking accommodation within 20 minutes from there, that would rule out West Efate as well as the Havannah areas, even the ETON beach area would be a bit difficult.
You may wish to contact MARGARET at C&K Realty for suggestions, most real estate do not rent for less than 6 month periods. Rent varies greatly from $250-$500 per week, we were charging our previous tenant 120,000vatu/month that's about $375 aud per week to give you some idea.
One piece of advice that may save your sanity....All the expat tradesmen as well as locals  work on island time....so have a date to get something done, then add 3 weeks to actually get it done. Time is a flowing thing over there so 10minutes can be 2 hours. Do not plan to get stuff done by a date...just go with it. You will love the place the people and eventually the life style.

keep well

regards
Kevin

Bringing pets here to Vanuatu is very easy.  There is some paperwork to be done including getting an import permit and a tax exemption from the relevant authorities here and you will need to book the government vet to meet your pet at the airport for an inspection but there is no quarantine so that makes the process much simpler.
I would personally use a pet courier company as they can then handle the paperwork for you.  We brought our dog and cat over and the cost was about $2500AU for the dog and about $1700AU for the cat.

I have a friend that brought her animals here and then took them back to NZ when she left, she will have better advice for you from an NZ perspective, I will let her know you are looking for advice.

In regards to commuting, you can drive around this entire island in 2 1/2 hours and outside of the town the ring road is actually pretty good (yes there are odd spots that aren't great but nothing major) but we have found that there are few rentals outside they major suburbs anyway.

Samsonlab - not sure where you got the cost of Telsats internet?  The cheapest unlimited package I can find is 21500 per month.  Wantok has an unlimited package at 11000 per month though.

We use Wantok (4G) at home (high speed) and TVL (copper/phoneline) at work (low speed) and they cost roughly the same.