When recruiting international talent, any potential employee will want to discuss the cost of relocating to New Zealand. Moving to a new job in a new country incurs significant expenses, like airfares, shipping and temporary accommodation - and candidates will naturally want to know how you can assist. Offering a relocation budget is essential in today’s competitive market if you want to be successful in attracting international talent to your company.
Determining a Reasonable Relocation Budget
At Mobile Relocation, we collaborate with Kiwi businesses and organizations hiring thousands of expats and migrants.
Our Annual Report on Relocation Costs and Budgets, recently released to our corporate clients, highlights the latest trends in relocation expenses.
Here are the typical components covered by relocation budgets:
Transporting personal effects to New Zealand
One-way airfares to New Zealand
Temporary accommodation upon arrival in New Zealand
Understanding and Updating Relocation Costs
If your business is considering implementing a relocation budget for the first time, it’s essential to understand the actual costs involved. For those with existing policies, it’s crucial to ensure your baseline costings remain accurate to stay competitive.
Since our 2023 report, we’ve observed a slight overall decrease in costs. Below, we detail the trends for each expense category:
Shipping Costs
While prices have eased slightly across most routes, the anticipated post-COVID decrease has not materialised due to the crisis in the Red Sea.
Global shipping has been disrupted, with ships avoiding the Suez Canal and taking longer routes around Africa, increasing travel times and, consequently, shipping costs.
Travel Costs
Airfare prices have eased as supply and competition on all routes have increased.
Temporary Accommodation Costs
The price of temporary accommodation has decreased for several reasons.
An economic slowdown has led to reduced domestic travel, resulting in lower demand for Airbnb accommodation.
Although our data focuses on Auckland, a similar downward trend is observed in Wellington.
Total costs and policy trends
Depending on the employee’s family size (single, couple, or with children) and country of origin, total relocation costs currently range from NZ$15,000 to NZ$48,000.
Employers rarely fully fund relocation costs, with the exception being C-suite international hires. Most offer relocation budgets based on a proportion of actual costs.
As the economy has slowed, and the extreme shortages of talent that occurred post-COVID have eased with record immigration in 2023, employers are reviewing how they support international hires.
A notable change over the past year is the increase in employers establishing more formal relocation policies.. This helps better manage costs and budgets, ensuring consistency across international hiring, secondments, and transfers throughout the organisation.
We can help with reviewing your policy and provide advice to ensure it is beneficial for both the candidate and your organisation.
For more information contact Bridget Romanes.
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Mobile Relocation has a range of settlement support services to suit your candidates and your business - from baseline support to meet Immigration New Zealand’s AEWV Accreditation requirements (Kiwi Launch Pad) through to personalised programmes to support your most valued international employees.
Bridget is a New Zealander who has lived and worked as a diplomat in Singapore and India. After experiencing all facets of the relocation experience, she founded Mobile to work with private individuals moving to NZ and leading local and international businesses bringing in offshore talent.