Same salary as Auckland, meaningfully lower rent — and one bill that will surprise you in July.
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 Wellington against the city you are leaving. That is the only comparison that decides anything.
Because clinical pay sits on national collective agreements, your gross salary here is identical to Auckland’s. Housing costs less. That gap is the quiet financial case for Wellington, and it doesn’t appear on any job advertisement.
What a month costs
Indicative New Zealand dollars per month as at July 2026, for a household living moderately. Your own numbers will differ — treat this as a shape to sanity-check against, not a quote.
Rent is over half of it. Everything else put together is smaller than the roof over your head — which is exactly why the Wellington rent gap matters more than any other line here.
Bar widths are proportions of the month, not amounts. In summer the power line roughly halves, and the whole month eases with it.
Excludes tax, KiwiSaver, student loan repayments, a deposit and flights home. Money, tax & banking works out what lands in your account.
The one bill that catches everyone out
Your power bill in July can be two or three times what it was in February. This isn’t a New Zealand pricing quirk — it’s what happens when a poorly insulated timber house meets a cold, damp winter and a heat pump running most of the day.
People arriving in summer sign a lease based on a February bill, then get a July one and think something has gone wrong. Nothing has. Budget for the winter figure from the start and treat the summer months as the discount.
Column heights are to scale, using the midpoint of each range. A well-insulated house narrows the gap considerably — which is the whole argument for the checklist below.
- Prioritise insulation and double glazing when you choose a house, above almost every other feature. It’s worth more than a second bathroom.
- Ask for the Healthy Homes compliance statement on any rental — landlords must meet minimum heating and insulation standards.
- Buy a dehumidifier in your first month. It costs less to run than heating damp air, and it protects your belongings from mould.
- Compare retailers properly — the market is competitive and switching is easy. Powerswitch is the free comparison tool people use.
- Heat the room you’re in and shut the door. Whole-house heating is rare and expensive here.
Setting up costs
Unfurnished here can mean empty — no fridge, no washing machine, sometimes no curtains. Budget for the first fortnight properly.
Bars are to scale against each other, so you can see where the money goes before you’ve bought a kettle.
Then a car, if you need one — reliable is affordable here, thanks to the used Japanese import market. It sits off this scale because it dwarfs everything else on it. See Driving & licences.
Cheaper than Auckland, and where it shows
Where it shows
- RentThe big one. A three-bedroom house in a good Wellington suburb costs meaningfully less than the Auckland equivalent, on identical pay.
- CommutingShorter distances, less fuel, and the option to run one car instead of two.
- Parking & tollsNo motorway tolls, and if you walk to work the whole line disappears.
Where it doesn’t
- Power in winterThe one line where Wellington costs more than Auckland, and the one people forget.
- FlightsEvery long-haul trip carries a connection through Auckland or Sydney. Budget for it.
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.