Expat New Zealand News

Latest 10 news items tagged New Zealand

15 Jul at 6 PM 2020

Expats help revitalize New Zealand’s real estate sector

New Zealand’s real estate market is still defying worldwide doom and gloom. Whilst realtors across the world are predicting massive drops in property valuation, New Zealand’s real estate prices are still on the up on last year’s figures. Whilst this is excellent news for those Kiwi expats who rented out their properties when they left, for those now returning to the home country to escape the coronavirus pandemic it’s a disaster. A June survey by a well-known Kiwi real estate agency noted median house prices across both...
13 Jul at 6 PM 2020

Japan to allow expats trapped overseas to return in August

Expats and students trapped outside Japan will be allowed to re-enter in August. Expat residents and students who left Japan before April 3 and are now stranded overseas will be allowed to re-enter in August. In a majority of world countries, sudden governmental reactions to the grim reality of the coronavirus have left literally millions of travellers, expats and students locked out of their countries of residence and unable to get back to their home countries. Japan is no exception, with some 90,000 still stranded all over the...
18 Jun at 6 PM 2020

UAE now banking on air bridges to stimulate its economy

The United Arab Emirates is now planning to establish air bridges between the emirates and a number of European countries. With more than one eye on tourism as well as business travellers, the UAE is now in the planning stages for air bridges linking its airports with their counterparts in Europe. Should negotiations go well, both residents and expats should be able to travel without the fear of two-week quarantine periods. Australia and New Zealand were the first two countries which saw the value of this arrangement, and Cyprus is...
11 Jun at 6 PM 2020

British expats looking to secure home country property

It seems the effects of the pandemic on British expats overseas are causing increased interest in the purchase of property back in the home country. According to a survey conducted by a leading UK real estate company, increasing numbers of UK expatriate professionals are expressing interest in buying property in the home country. The majority seem to be buying in order to have a base back home to which they can retreat should economic conditions go against them. Many also seem to have realised the value of having a home to go back to...
27 May at 6 PM 2020

Survey shows most expat Brits don’t ever want to return

Results of a recent survey have revealed just under two thirds of expat Britons have no intention of ever returning to the home country. Some six out of every ten respondents to the survey said they’d never repatriate to the UK, with another eleven per cent saying they’d at least consider doing so. Only 27 per cent said they’d maybe come back as some time in the future. It seems that, in spite of the global coronavirus pandemic as well as the increasing worldwide social, political and economic tensions, living overseas is the...
22 Apr at 6 PM 2020

Embassies advising expats to go home rather than risk infection

Now that the coronavirus has reached the Gulf States and Indonesia, governments are having a more difficult time getting expats to follow emergency laws. Oman’s huge expat community comprises Western expat professionals and Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi blue collar workers in the private sector. Whilst expat professionals are either working from home or have returned to their home countries for the duration of the pandemic, those from the Indian sub-continent are living in shared houses being used as dormitories, putting them at...
27 Mar at 6 PM 2020

UK Foreign Office washing its hands over Brit expats trapped overseas

As country after country closes its borders and bans new arrivals, an increasing number of British expats and tourists find themselves stranded overseas and running out of funds. One MP and former Conservative cabinet member is now claiming British expats and tourists are now trapped by lockdowns in many world countries, unable to stay, unable to leave and desperately needing state aid in order to return home. MP Caroline Noakes was scathing about British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s message to stranded Brits urging them to come...
26 Mar at 6 PM 2020

New Zealand in early lockdown to avoid spike in numbers infected

New Zealand is now shut down for everything except essential services for at least four weeks. According to the country’s Prime Minister, the trajectory of victims of the virus made a shutdown the only sensible course of action. At the time of her announcement, she said, the number of cases had reached 102 and was set to rise still more unless harsh measures were taken. Her action, she believes, is crucial in the war against the virus, and will be loosened region by region should infection numbers subside. A four-week closure is...
16 Mar at 6 PM 2020

Fight to end Brit expat frozen pensions gets tougher as campaign ramps up

Brit expat retirees in Commonwealth countries to remain on frozen pensions whilst those in the EU will get uprates. As British retirees living in EU member states post-Brexit sigh with relief at the news their state pensions will be uprated, their equivalents in Commonwealth countries are being denied parity yet again. The British government’s press release on last Monday’s Commonwealth Day hit a sour note with its hollow message of a ‘common future’ coupled with its ignoring of the financial plight of retired Britons in...
13 Jan at 6 PM 2020

Expats in UAE sewing protective gear for rescued Oz koalas

Expat communities all across the UAE are getting together and sewing blankets and pouches on behalf of the Australian Animal Rescue Craft Guild. The Australia-based Guild is a volunteer-organised association formed to focus on animal rescue efforts, and is now mobilised in a desperate attempt to save as many species as possible from becoming extinct due to the devastating series of wildfires in south and south-western Australia. Dubai-based Kiwi expat Philly Johnson is leading the teams making mittens for koala paws, pouches for...