Keitah Tuleitu with husband Patrick, daughters Elaena, 11, and Ella-Jay, 3, and pooch Breezy. Keitah moved to Sydney in 2016 and found the higher wages a boon before a curveball hit the family last year.
A Herald cost-of-living analysis shows Australian cities are generally a lot more affordable than ours. But as a Kiwi family living there tell Ben Leahy, it’s not all rosy.
Fat Aussie pay packs are still luring thousands of Kiwis across the Ditch each month, despite Australia’s higher house and rent prices and warnings that its economy is not all rosy.
New Zealand last year suffered its highest net loss of citizens (30,000) to Australia in more than a decade, with June 2025 Stats NZ data showing tens of thousands of Kiwis are still leaving.
Wages appear to be at the heart of the exodus, according to an exclusive Herald cost-of-living analysis.
Houses in Australia’s major cities are on average 12% more expensive to buy and 22% more to rent than in major New Zealand metro centres, yet offsetting that is 38% higher wages.
It means houses in major Aussie cities cost about 6.5 times the typical salary compared with eight times in New Zealand.
Even Sydney comes out ahead of Auckland, with its houses at 8.5 times the price of typical city salaries compared to 9.2 times in the City of Sails.
And there are other pain points for New Zealanders. The Herald estimates Kiwis pay around $839 or 42% more at the pump each year for every 14,000km driven.
Yet it isn’t all good news in Oz.
Sydney resident and former Aucklander Keitah Tuleitu’s family were hit hard by a curveball last year.
Having lived in Australia for seven years, they earlier told the Herald they had been feeling comfortable and planning to buy a house in 2024.
Instead, they spent much of the year raiding their savings.
“I would say 2024’s been a struggle because my husband did lose work for a period of time,” Tuleitu said when the Herald checked back in this week.
It’s a reality check that backs warnings from property commentator Nick Goodall of analysts Cotality for Kiwis to look beyond headlines about salaries.
Goodall cautions that the big salary advantages from industries like mining can create the impression that every job is better paid in Australia and advises people to look closely at opportunities and hidden costs when pursuing their chosen professions.
The exodus has worried many New Zealand commentators. The Herald’s business editor at large, Liam Dann, has been warning of a brain drain as New Zealand’s young, trained and educated people move to Australia.
While new migrants from other countries are replacing many of the Kiwis who go to Australia, experts believe this creates a churn in jobs as people come and go and the most experienced are lost.
Looking deeper into Australia’s affordability advantage, some cities stand out as potentially better opportunities for Kiwis than others.
Mining hotspot Darwin emerges as the ultimate financial sweet spot, boasting the highest salaries at $173,000 (NZD) yet the cheapest house prices at just $588,000, according to Australian National University income data and Cotality house prices.
At the other extreme, Dunedin residents earn barely half what their Darwin counterparts make – resulting in a staggering $93,000 income gap between the highest and lowest-paid cities.
Tauranga delivers another shock.
Its $690 weekly rents now exceed Melbourne’s $670 – a regional New Zealand city outpricing one of Australia’s largest metropolises.
The city salary pecking order tells a harsh story for New Zealand.
All five top-earning cities sit across the Ditch, while New Zealand’s best, Wellington, manages only sixth place, according to ANU and Infometrics’ NZ income data.
Comparing public servant hotspots, Canberra’s residents typically earn $154,000 compared with Wellington’s $134,500 – a $20,000 gap between the two capital cities.
Adelaide leads the property growth with 7.8% in annual house price gains, while Wellington has suffered the steepest decline at minus 6.2%.
New Zealand’s Christchurch and Dunedin offer the cheapest rents in either country at $550 weekly – but Infometrics income data shows residents earn just $90,000 and $80,500 respectively.
Cotality’s Goodall said Kiwis are being drawn not only by better wages but also by a more optimistic feeling in Australia about the economy.
Australia has weathered the downturn better than New Zealand, where unemployment has risen faster as house prices have stayed flat, he said.
Kiwis have repeatedly listed higher salaries and strong economic prospects as the top attractions when talking to the Herald.
Maths teacher Liam McMahon told in 2023 how he scored an instant $31,000 pay rise just by moving to Melbourne from Hamilton.
Architect Kyle Anaru started “accumulating savings straight away” after moving to the Sunshine Coast in 2023, while beauty therapist Bridget Jane told last year how she and her fiance left Queenstown on the hunt for salaries that better matched house prices.
But Goodall’s “not all rosy” warning has also shone through in Herald conversations.
Anaru was among Kiwis saying how hard it could be to find rentals, while Jane had to live far from Melbourne’s centre for affordable rent and talked about a more high-pressure working environment in Australia.
Teacher McMahon was also among many missing “family, friends and Hamilton day trips”, while others miss New Zealand’s culture.
Tuleitu, meanwhile, highlighted how the highs and lows can come in both countries.
In 2023, she told the Herald how higher Sydney salaries had meant her family were living “comfortably” while still donating to their church.
It was in contrast to the struggle her parents had gone through in New Zealand, she said at the time.
However, their recent struggles had forced them to “pick” at their savings and reset their goals.
Nevertheless, with most of her family having joined her in Australia, she has become an Aussie citizen and says she isn’t coming home any time soon.