About Graham Burger (CA)Graham emigrated from Cape Town, South Africa in 2003 with his wife and four children, three of which have since married and produced four gorgeous "kiwi" grandkids. He and his family settled on the beautiful North Shore of Auckland, a popular growth area among many migrant groups. See my Blog "The New Zealand Immigration Experience".
Graham is a qualified Chartered Accountant registered with NZICA (Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand) and has worked in finance for companies in varied industries since 1987. He registered as a Licensed Immigration Adviser in 2013 and is busy building a boutique firm to provide a personal service. As both a CA and a LIA, Graham is uniquely placed to assist with Investor & Entrepreneur Visas. Now that their kids have grown, Graham and his wife have again taken up motorcycling and are drinking in the overwhelming beauty of Auckland and parts of the North Island with the aim of soon touring the majestic South Island. [update - I did a week in the South Island on my motorbike in March '15 - check out my blog]. |
Compare AucklandUse this handy website to check out Auckland prices and incomes against other global and NZ cities, using up to date data from contributors living in those cities.
About New Zealand & AucklandiChristchurch (Cantebury) Rebuild & Auckland Super City
With the Christchurch rebuild gaining momentum and the pending approval by the Government and Auckland Council for massive investment in the Auckland road and rail infrastructure, job opportunities will open to skilled trades and professionals who are in high demand. Net inflow of migrants remains high with reports of the highest gain in 10 years, along with this website post from Immigration NZ that skilled migrant workers are still needed. Australian economy is still booming After "two decades of uninterrupted economic growth"*, the Australian economy continues to boom off a strong mining sector and commodity prices and growth in China, leading many New Zealanders to "cross the ditch" to pursue lucrative employment opportunities in both skilled and unskilled roles. This, and the fact that New Zealand cictizens are free to live and work in Australia, is good news for potential migrants to New Zealand as the net outflow of skills and talent creates a local demand which ensures the government needs to maintain a healthy immigration policy to achieve its planned economic growth for New Zealand and to sustain existing infrastructure maintenance. * The Economist 2012 Auckland and New Zealand rank globally New Zealand is a premier migration destination and Auckland regularly ranks on the "World's Most Liveable City" list at 2012 rankings as well as 1st for Ease of Starting a Business and Protecting Investors, 2nd for Registering Property and 3rd for Ease of Doing Business and Getting Credit on the 2014 World Bank Groups "Doing Business" Ranking Report. Housing prices in Auckland Much is made in the media of the expensive housing costs in Auckland and some other parts of New Zealand which usually mirror many of the same stories in Australian media about Sydney and other large cities like Melbourne. This is a concern to many new migrants who travel across without bringing much capital to try buy property early on and many find themselves, along with locals, in a rental trap where rentals are so expensive they cannot save for the 20% deposit the Reserve Bank recently imposed for some crazy reason. This is sadly a common trend worldwide as can be viewed on this handy map of house prices to annual earnings index where you can see it is not limited to Auckland. Having said this, I have two young married kids who have, in the last 2 years, managed to enter the Auckland housing market in a lovely area on the North Shore of Auckland. Prices in their area were a little below average due to a bit longer travel time in peak hour traffic but they work on the North Shore so have no issue. They are both within a 3 minute drive to a stunning beach and love the area. One good aspect about New Zealand is that salaries in some of the bigger cities outside Auckland are similar or only slightly below the Auckland ones whereas house prices can be significantly below Auckland. It is surprising that more businesses and migrants have not found their way outside of Auckland. Seek and Trade Me is a good web site to check for salaries in different fields and areas and Trade Me is also excellent for checking rentals and selling prices of houses. |