Dunedin is the cheapest main centre in New Zealand to live in, and the gap is not marginal. Because Health New Zealand pays national agreement rates, the salary on your contract is the same one you would earn in Auckland — it simply buys considerably more here.
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 Dunedin against the city you are leaving. That is the only comparison that decides anything.
The three numbers that matter
What things cost
The proportions, for one person on a mid-range budget. Proportions move slowly; prices move every quarter. Rent is just over half of it — against the smallest main-centre rent line in the country.
Power and water is the line that catches people out here rather than the rent — old villas and a real winter, not a pricing problem. Budget for it and Dunedin stays the cheapest main centre by a wide margin.
Indicative figures that change over time. Use them as a shape, not a quote.
The winter power bill
This deserves its own heading because it catches almost everybody. A poorly insulated older house in Dunedin can cost two or three times as much to heat in July as it does to run in February. The same house, properly insulated with an efficient heat pump, costs a fraction of that.
The Healthy Homes standards have raised the floor for rentals considerably, which helps. But if you are buying, treat insulation, double glazing and heating as part of the purchase price rather than a later project. It is the best money you will spend here.
The student effect
Twenty thousand students distort the rental market. Demand peaks sharply in late January and February as the academic year begins, and slumps from November. Family homes in the hill and coastal suburbs are less affected than flats near the university — but if you can time your search for December, you will have more choice and less competition.
Tax, KiwiSaver, banking and sending money home are national topics, covered in Money, tax & banking.
The bill that catches people out
Heating is the Dunedin budget line that surprises people, and it has almost nothing to do with how cold the city is. Dunedin winters are cooler than the North Island but not extreme; the issue is the housing stock.
The city has a large inventory of Victorian and Edwardian villas — beautiful, generously proportioned, and frequently built with single glazing, no wall insulation and high ceilings. A house like that costs several times more to keep warm than a modern equivalent, and the difference shows up on every winter bill for as long as you live there.
The practical advice: when you view a property, ask when it was last insulated, whether it is double glazed, and what the heating is. A well-upgraded villa is a wonderful thing to live in. An un-upgraded one is the single most common regret we hear from people who move here.
Three costs people forget
- Flights home. Dunedin Airport has domestic and limited trans-Tasman connections; long-haul means Auckland, Christchurch or Sydney. Add half a day each way.
- Heating. The single biggest local budget line. An old villa without insulation can cost several times what a modern house does to keep warm.
- Adult dental is private, as everywhere in New Zealand. Register early rather than in an emergency.
The same national salary against the lowest housing costs in the country — provided you spend some of the difference on keeping the house warm.
These are live and updated continuously. Put the city you are leaving in the other box.
- Numbeo cost-of-living calculator — the most complete comparison tool, and the one most clinicians already use. Crowd-sourced, so treat it as a ballpark.
- Expatistan — the same idea with a cleaner side-by-side. Worth running as a sanity check when Numbeo looks off.
- Tenancy Services market rent — official bond-lodgement data by area, and the most reliable rent figure in New Zealand.
- Stats NZ — official and slower, and the one to trust on the direction of travel.
If what you find differs from what we say here, tell us and we will correct it.