Wednesday 8 December 2010

Cost of Living Comparison...

Do you think life here in BCN is more expensive that, let's say, the largest cities in AUS or NZ?

According to http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Spain&city1=Barcelona&country2=Australia&city2=Sydney cost of living in BCN and Wellington is similar but life is Sydney is more expensive




Do you agree with this comparison Barcelona-Sydney?. I'm not so sure that some of the data are correct...
Anyway, I suppose that life in small towns differs a lot from this numbers... Don't you think?

Joan

7 comments:

  1. Melbourne and Barcelona are more or less the same for me (talking about prices). There was a huge difference when I was living in London, for instance.

    Mark ;);)

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  2. As a Catalan visiting Australia just in hollidays and from my experience, eating out in Cairns and Darwin is cheaper than in BCN, but it's more expensive in Sydney than here. The rest of my experience is in small towns that's difficult to compare to BCN.

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  3. My experience:

    As the majority of things have two sides; and the cost of living in a country is no an exception. It could be a good idea that people who are living in Catalonia take care with the thinking: as euro is stronger than dollar, Catalonian citizen with catalan salaries will be improve their cost of living in New Zealand.
    Nowadays, if you are not living in New Zealand it is not easy country to keep a good level of life.

    I was in New Zealand two years ago an we were travelling for 2 months with my family. We visited all North Island and also whole South Island. The cost of living in both island was the same and we also realized that basic product as bread, milk, pasta…had the higher price than in Barcelona and sometimes much more expensive than here.
    In those days, we met “kiwi” people and we had the chance to talk about their salaries which were about 600-700 NZD a week to workers with basic skills. So you can have some small idea about cost of living.

    However help from the Government to Education, Healthcare and quality of live was very plenty.

    In conclusion, is you want to keep a good level of life in New Zealand like a citizen, you will be able to get it because there are a good balance between income per capita and your rights, benefices.

    Pere

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  4. The one thing that catches my attention is the average prices of renting. I have to say that I do not agree with the average prices listed here.


    A 1 bedroom apartment in the center of Barcelona for €533 a month would be nice, however I really don’t believe this is a realistic price of renting here in Barcelona. I find the city very expensive for renting!


    This site listed below describes a very different cost of living in Australia.
    http://www.expatforum.com/articles/cost-of-living/cost-of-living-in-australia.html


    Here are the national figures from the Australian bureau of statistics. Maybe you can find something interesting. (For example wine production has fallen in Australia!)
    http://www.abs.gov.au/


    It is true that you need to keep in mind that Sydney is the most expensive city in Australia. Perth is often seen as a better location due to much lower property prices. Don’t forget that although prices, particularly in supermarkets are much higher than here, the average income is higher and young people are able to buy there 1st property in their 20’s unlike here.

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  5. I have been living in small provincial towns in New Zealand so due to economies of scale, living costs are higher and wages are lower compared to in the cities.
    So from my perspective living in small town New Zealand, food, clothing, university education, motor vehicles and electronic goods are much more expensive than compared to Spain.

    New Zealand has the 11th lowest unemployment rate of the 33 OECD countries and is below the average OECD rate of 8.5%.

    Indexes Difference Between Australia & New Zealand;

    Consumer Prices in New Zealand are 15.33% lower than in Australia
    Consumer Prices Including Rent in New Zealand are 22.59% lower than in Australia
    Rent Prices in New Zealand are 38.00% lower than in Australia
    Restaurant Prices in New Zealand are 8.33% lower than in Australia
    Groceries Prices in New Zealand are 26.25% lower than in Australia
    Local Purchasing Power in New Zealand is 22.56% lower than in Australia


    International Cost of Living Comparison – Global Trends;

    The ongoing impact of the credit crisis, slowing global economies, falling house prices, global stock market and exchange rate volatility, together with the US dollar strengthening against most currencies are all factors contributing to a major change in the global cost of living rankings.
    Indexes Difference

    The International Cost of Living Comparison comprises indexes for each of 276 global locations. The indexes are calculated using the prices for specific quantities of the same goods and services in each location, based on expatriate spending patterns across 13 broad categories (Basket Groups).

    The latest international cost of living ranking, together with the overall cost of living index is as follows:

    Rank Location (Overall Cost of Living Index New York=100)
    29 Australia, Sydney (106. 52)
    47 Spain, Madrid (100. 26)
    137 New Zealand, Auckland (80. 71)

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  6. Just a comment Paul, maybe wine production has fallen in Australia because of the economic crisis in other Western countries. We'll drink more water untill good times come back...

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  7. All the big cities are expensive! But the best things in life tend to free such as the beaches. The beaches in Sydney are better, the surf is great but there are no sharks in Barcelona.

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