Relocating for a job within New Zealand: the questions to ask before you say yes

Relocation assistance and what to negotiate

Relocation help is common for roles that are hard to fill, and it is often negotiable even when the offer does not mention it. It can cover removal costs, travel for you and your family, temporary accommodation while you find somewhere to live, and the costs of selling or buying a home.

How it is paid matters. Inland Revenue treats employer payments towards eligible relocation costs as tax-free, up to the actual cost, where the move is needed because the new workplace is not within a reasonable daily travelling distance of your home. Only eligible costs, up to what they actually cost, are tax-free, so a flat lump sum larger than your actual costs is taxed on the difference, so ask whether the employer reimburses receipts or pays a set amount.

Ask too whether you would have to repay it if you leave within a set time, and whether that applies if the employer ends the job during a trial period. Get the answer written into the offer. Our guide to job offers and employment agreements explains how to check the clauses before you sign.

Rent and commute changes against the pay

A higher salary in a dearer city can leave you no better off. Compare the pay after tax, then take off the change in your biggest costs.

Say you earn $80,000 now and are offered $90,000 elsewhere. At 2026/27 rates, on tax code M, with ACC at 1.75%, KiwiSaver at 3.5% and no student loan, that is about $65,698 a year after tax against $59,523, or about $6,175 more. If rent for the kind of place you would live in costs $100 a week more, that is $5,200 a year, and the move leaves you about $975 a year ahead before anything else changes.

Then add the commute. A longer drive, parking in a city centre or a new public transport route can each cost thousands a year. Our article on the true cost of commuting shows how to count it. The Offer Comparer works out the take-home side of two offers, including employer KiwiSaver, a bonus, health insurance and a vehicle, with no account needed; take the rent and commute off yourself.

Partner, schools and the two-income problem

For many households, the hardest part of a move is the second income. If your partner has to find new work, count the months they might be without it, and whether work in their field exists in the new city. A move that adds $6,000 to one income and removes $20,000 from the other for six months is a loss for the first year.

Children add their own questions: school zones, whether the schools you would want have places, childcare waiting lists, and the effect of a move on a child in a critical year at school. Family support matters too. Leaving grandparents who help with childcare can cost a household more than any rent difference.

These questions are for your own decision rather than the salary negotiation. Some employers will help, for example with a later start date so a partner can work notice or a child can finish the school year.

Trial periods and moving risk

A trial period of up to 90 days can be part of an offer from any employer, provided you have not worked for that employer before and the trial is agreed in writing before you start. If the agreement is not signed before your first day, the trial period is not valid, and trial periods are not allowed for people on an Accredited Employer Work Visa.

A trial matters more when you are moving. If the employer ends the job during the trial, you have usually already moved, signed a lease and perhaps sold a house. It is reasonable to ask whether the employer would drop the trial for a role that needs you to relocate, or at least agree that any relocation assistance does not have to be repaid if the job ends during it.

Scoring the move on what matters most to you

Once the money is worked out, the rest of the decision is about what you value. Write down the factors that matter to your household, such as pay, the work, security, commute, being near family and schools, and decide how much each one counts. Then score the current situation and the new offer against them.

What Matters Most, one of the free tools in jobtracker.co.nz, does the work side of this: you mark each of twelve set factors, such as pay, job security and commute and location, as critical, important, nice to have or not fussed, and each job you track is scored out of 100 on your priorities. Family, schools and a partner's work are yours to weigh alongside it.

Weigh the move before you pack