Me, I love where I live. Over here Dunedin is one of NZd's major cities, but given that London has many times the entire population of New Zealand I expect we would probably only qualify as a middling town over there (I expect it would bore you to tears Flops) but where we live we are out of the city itself, tucked in amoungst the hills & bush, right next to the sea & surrounded by the sounds of birds (see, I told you it would drive you potty flops
) but only 20mins drive from the city & with NO traffic jams; To me that's perfect.
I grew up in Alexandra (amoungst other places... we used to move around a bit) & you couldn't pay me enough to live there again. Absolutely nothing to do & everyone knows everything about you & everything you ever did *shudder*.
Dunedin is largely a university town (luckily one of the most respected in the country) & so has a very mobile population which gives it a life that a place of this size might otherwise lack.
But even so, house prices here were VERY low until about 3-4 years ago. back then my house (2 br) was probably worth about $50-60K (given that a £ is still roughly 2 & a half times the NZ dollar that wouldn't buy a garden shed over there
) Then overseas buyers, particularly British & American, noticed how cheap houses were over here & started buying up properties & house prices started to climb. I bought my place for $150K & 2 months later it was worth 200K & climbing. Prices skyrocketed like nothing we had ever seen before over here. Now you can pay 1/2 a mill for places that would've fetched 90K 5 years ago. But, as you pointed out exmoor, although our cost of living is still relatively low, incomes, & Job opportunities, are also very low. The 'Brain Drain' is still a major problem here as more & more of our graduates head over seas to try & find work & decent wages.
My ex brings in $40K teaching 3rd year graphics at the university computer science dpt. One of his students has just recently been the center of a battle between Dreamworks & Pixar & the annual wages they are offering would buy out every house in the bay I live in
every year (no, I'm really not exaggerating). That sort of income just doesn't exist in New Zealand. Especially if you work in Comp sci or IT.
Me, I'm just glad that I bought this place when I did. There is no way that I could afford it now. But all in all the change in house prices over such a short period of time has been a major shock to our country. Up until now no one really noticed NZ at all. Even if people had heard of it most just thought it was a state of Australia or the like
Now it's "welcome to the real world" & things aren't going back.
One thing I'm sad about though. Huge Numbers of NZd's High country sheep stations have been bought up by American buyers who have a very different cultural attitude to property than us. Here the high country has always been regarded as an essential part of our heritage. The 'country code' is bred into us from before we can walk & even if we never go there we all know that we can. It's ours. All of ours. The owners are only ever caretakers for future generations. In this day & age this attitude probably makes no sense to any of you. Maybe it's an aspect of Maori culture that has become a part of NZ culture as a whole, who knows.
As a teenager my sister & I would borrow a couple of stock horses from Earnscleugh Station & would ride all over the hills. So long as we shut the gates & left the stock alone there was never any restrictions.
Now the stiles are gone, many of the gates have "No tresspassing" signs on & even if there aren't any signs, hikers, riders & people driving out for a 'sunday picnic' are being ordered off the land. Occasionally at gunpoint.
Access to the hills and mountains was always such an ingrained part of our way of life that it was never protected by law.
& now these same farmers are trying to get "The queens chain" law revoked as well. Denying us access to our beaches & waterways. And although their numbers aren't large votewise (the average station is measured in miles, not acres so there isn't a massive number of them) They are the people with the money & the govt is listening
.
Sorry, didn't mean to go on. I should go
