The 2008 Mercer Cost of Living study for various cities in the world has been released. Contrary to constant propaganda, New Zealand cities are far more affordable than Australian cities.
Auckland was at 78 and Wellington was 93rd most expensive. Sydney, however, was 15th most expensive, Melbourne 36th, Perth 53rd and Brisbane was 57th.
In an excellent cover story in the July issue of Metro magazine, Jan Corbett details “The Great Aussie Con: Why you’re better off in Auckland”. Turns out, there are plenty of reasons.
The myth that things are better in Australia is constantly promoted by the New Zealand National Party, which has political reasons for making New Zealanders think the country is in the toilet and only the Nats can save them. Yeah, well, surveys like Mercer’s and the article in Metro show that’s not necessarily so.
3 comments:
Interestingly, because of the weak dollar., US cities are comparatively more affordable than they used to be: http://tinyurl.com/699vjw or http://www.arcamax.com/businessnews/s-383019-285982
Awesome! I saw this too, and had planned to comment on it in my blog as well. Since I'm home now with excellent internet service again, maybe sometime in the next week!
Roger: I read about US cities being more affordable in worldwide rankings, but for some reason, I saw stories about NZ before anywhere else; that doesn't happen too often. Anyway, it's fascinating how cities' rankings can change a lot from year to year.
D: I read about this in the NZ Herald first, and with their typical negativity headlined it to say that the cost of living in Auckland had skyrocketed. To their credit, they pointed out how Australian cities are much more expensive to live in and admitted that it was contrary to what people usually hear—naturally, they didn't tell people that the Herald was one of the leaders in promoting the myth of Australia being more affordable.
Post a Comment