Taking Furniture VS Buying New

[ag28com]

We are considering whether to take all of our furniture with us, or buy new in NZ. We have the main white kitchen white goods, fridge, freezer, diswasher, washing machine, plus gas cooker. In addition we only have our beds and a three piece suite, dining table & chairs, and a desk, so are nowhere near filling a full container.

Bearing in mind that ita takes up to 3 months to get furniture to NZ, plus all the expense and hassle, would it really be worth taking so little, and would it work out better to buy all new in NZ, especially as we are going to need to rent somewhere furnished for a few months?

What are people's thoughts and experiences on this?

[MotherBear]

Hi ag28com! Welcome to the forum.

There is some feeling that shipping anything you can lay your hands on is a good thing, as replacing household items in NZ can be quite expensive (particularly white goods), unless you get lucky and find some bargains. Even things you feel you may not need in NZ are useful, as there is a healthy secondhand market there, so you could even make some money. If you haven?t enough things to fill either a 20ft. or 40ft. container, I believe you can share with someone else. They spilt the container up so you each have your own space and, of course, it?s cheaper doing it that way as the cost is shared.

With shipping household items, there are a few other points to consider. If you haven?t got PR by the time you arrive you may well have to pay GST (tax) to import into the country. Have a read through this earlier topic on the forum, which includes a link to the customs site.
http://www.movetonz.org/forum/viewto...39989d88163fe3

Perhaps you already are aware of this, but there?s the matter of stringent cleaning of certain items where nasty beasties could be imported into NZ on the back of your belongings. The wicker items problem mentioned in this link isn?t quite as damning as it sounds and, in some cases, wicker will be allowed in if certain precautions are taken.
http://www.movetonz.org/forum/viewto...ight=furniture

At the end of the day, it would be up to you whether you can afford to buy a houseful of new stuff in NZ or whether you want to bite the bullet and ship what you already have. I?ll leave it to those who have already made the decision to supply you with their comments.

Good luck.

[saraian]

Hio ag28com

Well our experience was to buy all new. We had nothing worth taken really. An old suite, beds, computer and table and white goods etc. So we opted for the buying new. it has cost alot but we think it was better than the expense and hassle of moving old stuff. Our friends moved everything and got a really big container. personal choice really. I think if you have very little like us it's not worth the move. But if you have just bought all new then i would definetly consider moving it all. hope this helps.

[nessie]

Hi ag28com


My view is bring everything. You do not get a great deal of money back selling stuff in the uk and it is quite expensive to replace a lot of things here. Ours cost ?3800 to ship (full 20ft container) and took 6 weeks and 3 days door to door - not bad really.

[MotherBear]

Glad to see you arrived safely Nessie. Hope you are settling well.

[moggy]

We are taking anything that is worth anything - leaving the crappy white MFI chest of drawers, thedog chewed stool etc. We are also taking two motorbikes, the garden furniture and even the garden Swing and my extremely heavy wood lathe!. We have been told we will get the lot in a 20 ft container.

We are planning on shipping everything out a couple of weeks before we leaving, hoping that it will arrive just as we have bought a house, so we don't have to pay storage at the other end and also don't have the hassle of having to lug stuff around with us.

You don't even have to share half a container, you can just ship by volume (ie per box)

btw your gas cooker may not be of any use to bring. Very few properties have mains gas and a mains gas cooker needs to have its jets converted before it will run on bottle gas, if you can't get hold of a set of conversion jets (try and do it in the UK before you leave) then it will be worthless in NZ.