This is the chapter where the Bay of Plenty asks something of you. The lifestyle is excellent. The housing is expensive for a city this size, and pretending otherwise would not help you.
Why we don’t print prices
We used to print a weekly rent and a monthly budget table here. We have taken them out. A figure that was true when a page was written is misleading a year later, and a candidate who plans a move around a stale number is worse off than one who plans around none.
What does not go stale is the shape of a month, and the judgement about which lines will surprise you. For today’s actual numbers use the calculators at the foot of the page, and use them to compare the Bay of Plenty against the city you are leaving. That is the only comparison that decides anything.
Why housing costs what it does here
Three decades of people choosing this coastline — retirees selling in Auckland, families moving out of the big cities, investors following the growth — have pushed Tauranga’s house prices and rents close to Auckland levels on a city a fifth of the size. Local wages have not followed at the same pace, which is why Tauranga regularly appears among the least affordable places in New Zealand relative to household income.
Clinical pay is set nationally, so you arrive on the same salary you would earn in Christchurch or Palmerston North, into a more expensive housing market. That is the trade. What you are buying is sunshine, a beach you use daily and a city that is pleasant to live in — and it is a real thing to buy. Just go in knowing the price.
The good news is that the region is bigger than Tauranga. Move west to Katikati or Ōmokoroa, inland to Te Puke, or east to Whakatāne and Ōhope, and the numbers relax substantially — in the eastern bay, dramatically so.
Renting, by area
The proportions, for one person on a mid-range budget. Proportions move slowly; prices move every quarter. Rent is nearly sixty per cent of it — which is why the area you choose here matters more than any other line in this chapter.
Clinical pay is national, so this is the same salary you would earn in Christchurch or Palmerston North — against a larger rent line. A car sits on top of all of it.
Indicative prices that change over time. If you’re running a car — and here you will be — add fuel, insurance, registration and servicing on top.
The costs people forget
Work out your own numbers
How pay, tax, IRD numbers, KiwiSaver and sending money home work is national, and covered in Money, tax & banking.
On a clinical salary you will live well here and rent comfortably. Buying in Tauranga, the Mount or Pāpāmoa on one income is hard — most people rent first, then either stretch or look west and east. If home ownership within two years is the point of the move, read Why the Bay of Plenty again before you commit.