I visited Christ Church several yrs ago. Someone was showing me the hillside homes outside the city that would sell here for a couple million, that were selling for maybe $175,000 NZ dollars.

As a matter of fact, I had a hard time getting a hotel room that week because there was a big tourist industry convention in Christ Church that week. They were trying to drum up more vacation dollars in NZ.

>Mike,
>
> don't have to tell you why everything that isn't produced natively is expensive in NZ -- shipping costs. When I was there the advertised prices for new cars knocked me on my a**.
>
>Yes- the huge disparity is reduced, but new cars are still relatively expensive. That's true of all small markets, I guess- there are fewer than 4 million people in NZ.
>
>Other stuff is a bargain, though. If you sell your house in any sizeable city in the US, you could come here and purchase a mansion anywhere except Auckland.