Taranaki has come out on top as the best New Zealand region to live and work in. The region was found to have the best ratio of wage growth and house price growth in the country.
Analysis by the Weekend Herald shows that Taranaki’s median weekly earnings grew 19.88 per cent in the four years from June 2013 to June 2017, helping wage increases keep up with growing house prices. In comparison, house prices grew 20.3 per cent to $285,967 in the same period.
The region in New Zealand which performed the worst in the analysis was Auckland where wages increased by just 14.51 per cent compared to house price growth of 63.45 per cent in the same period.
After Auckland, the regions with the greatest gap between house price growth and median wage growth were Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Northland.
These figures highlight the trend in economic progress which favours those with assets.
Despite New Zealand’s unemployment rate of just 4.8 per cent, wages remain nearly static across the country. Assets such as houses however continue to soar in value making it difficult for those looking to grow wealth off their wages alone.
Using the more traditional measures of economy and comparing wage increases against the consumer price index, Taranaki has actually been one of the worst performing regions in New Zealand for the last four years.
The ASB Regional Economic Scorecard measures region’s performance based on employment, wages, house prices, retail sales, new car sales and construction. The scorecard placed Taranaki near the bottom of its rankings.
