Salaries vs mortgage costs: These are some of the most affordable places to live and work in NZ
Wednesday, 3 December 2025
Ray White real estate agent Paula Standeven has been doing well selling homes to Aucklanders.
In the past few months, she’s sold numerous properties to families who couldn’t be happier with their new homes.
The thing that makes this interesting is that Standeven is based in Christchurch.
“It’s rare that we list a house these days that doesn’t have interest from Auckland or Wellington,” says Standeven.
“Affordability, accessibility, and lifestyle are all pulling people toward this region.”
Many of her buyers also comment on the escape from the gridlock that often typifies a daily Auckland commute.
“Christchurch’s infrastructure is ready to welcome people,” she says.
“I’ve been living here all my life, and I don’t think it’s ever been this good for the city.”
This marks a major turnaround for a city that has endured a tough 15 years in reaffirming its identity and desirability as a place to stay.
The vibrancy and enthusiasm being built into Christchurch are resonating with those in the traditional centres who are looking to make a change – and the good news is this change doesn’t necessarily have to mean a trip to Australia.
But are things really cheaper in Christchurch? And what other regions offer a decent standard of living at a lower or similar cost?
It’s all about the money
Christchurch is one city high on the list of destinations that more New Zealanders are looking to call home, but it isn’t the only one with an appealing mix of more affordable housing and decent job prospects.
The latest jobs data from recruitment app Zeil suggests that in several regions, salaries are keeping pace with house prices.
This means that while your salary might stay the same or be similar when moving to the regions, the cost of housing will be lower.
The data on this is compelling.
Across more than 52,000 jobs listed on the platform over the past 12 months, the median maximum salary in regional centres sits between $65,000 and $75,000, while median house prices in many of those regions remain under $700,000.
Salaries are higher in Auckland, but so are house prices.
The median maximum salary in our largest city is currently $92,000, but the median house price is still around $978,000.
Michael Vincent, the director of mortgage operations at Lighthouse Financial, tells me the cost-of-living pressures mean that many families are looking at what they can do to lessen the pressure on their finances.
This has led many to Australia in pursuit of higher salaries, but Vincent says it might also pay to look at how a local move could change your balance sheet.
He points to the difference between servicing a mortgage in Auckland and servicing one in the regions.
A median Southland home ($525,000) with a typical 20% deposit and 6.5% mortgage rate costs approximately $2,655 per month to service, while the same mortgage assumptions put the monthly repayment at around $4,945 in Auckland.
“If you've got a relatively high-paying job that’s somewhat digital, you can keep that job most of the time with very little impact to your salary and shift,' he says.
That’s a best-case scenario, but you could still end up better off if you were to rely on the local job market.
Crunching the numbers
The level of financial comfort you feel will often come down to your debt-to-income ratio, a simple calculation that compares how much money you have coming in each month versus how much you’ll have going out.
The biggest debt most of us carry is tied to our home, which means our largest expense will generally be our home.
A helpful comparison, therefore, lies in the ratio between your monthly earnings and the cost of covering your mortgage.
The money you are left with can then be put toward all your other expenses, including food, clothing, childcare, transportation and everything else.
When we do this across the regions, we start to get a better sense of affordability based on how much money a single-income earner would have left.
For the sake of simplicity, all references used are to gross monthly income (before tax or KiwiSaver deductions) and are simply designed to provide a guide of how they compare to an estimated monthly mortgage (EMM).
In order of affordability, this is how the regions included in the research ranked:
Southland offers the highest surplus of $3,238 monthly. This results from a gross income of $5,893 and the region's low estimated mortgage payment of $2,655.
Taranaki has the second-highest remaining cash flow at $2,963, based on a $5,777 income against a $2,814 estimated mortgage.
Auckland generates a surplus of $2,722. Although the estimated mortgage is the highest at $4,945, the region's top gross income of $7,667 secures this position.
In Waikato, residents are left with a surplus of $2,685 after covering the $3,565 estimated mortgage from a $6,250 gross income.
Canterbury provides a consistent, middle-range surplus of $2,502, calculated from a $6,067 income and a $3,565 estimated mortgage.
The Bay of Plenty has the tightest monthly budget, leaving only $2,298 remaining, as the $6,117 income struggles against a high estimated mortgage of $3,819.
Zeil marketing manager Caitlin Langlands explains that while these numbers are based on regional salary figures, workers who can do their jobs online are in a good position to negotiate for remote work.
'Over 40% of our job searches on Zeil are all for remote, so that's a really big trend,' she says, explaining that the trend of remote work is not yet going away.
While these indicators also focus largely on media salaries and media house prices, Langlands says it pays to also consider the job market and the growth in available opportunities.
“MBIE figures show that Auckland’s job market is essentially flat, while Canterbury has surged 14% year-on-year, while other regions are up 5%.”
West Coast opportunity
Another region with growing enthusiasm is the West Coast, which has seen an influx of workers looking to join the mining industry.
The latest Stats NZ data shows the West Coast leading New Zealand in employment growth, up 2.3% (354 jobs) in the year to September, while the country as a whole slipped backwards.
Job applications are battling to keep up with the number of jobs being posted, says Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne.
“Vacancies are staying open longer, simply because there aren’t enough skilled people to fill them.”
Whenever there is competition for workers, salaries tend to increase.
Trade Me’s salary data shows employers competing hard for talent, giving the West Coast the country’s second-highest average advertised salary at $75,666, sitting just behind Wellington and well above the national average of $72,820.
Milne says several mineral projects will see decent jobs offered in the region for a number of years.
Endura Mining’s Snowy River gold project currently employs 80 staff and 25 contractors but expects to grow to more than 250 jobs by late 2026.
The fishhook in the promise
Those looking to escape the traffic and live a quieter life will find the move to regional New Zealand appealing, but it doesn’t come without its challenges.
Regional life can be quite isolating for those used to the bustle of the city. And it’s also worth noting that regional economies can be quite fragile to economic or political changes, particularly when they are focused on primary industries.
Losing your job in a smaller town can also leave you vulnerable to opportunities available, which will simply be fewer when there aren’t as many people or businesses.
You need to stay wide-eyed, rational and remember that moving to a smaller town certainly isn’t a fool-proof plan to longer-term financial prosperity. It largely depends on the opportunity, the growth in the area and your expectations.
That said, it would certainly be nice not to get caught in the gridlock of people rushing madly to eat average meatballs and buy flatpack furniture. A quiet stroll to a nearby beach sounds appealing when contrasted to that.