Companies booked up with Kiwis on move overseas
International moving companies are booked up for months, with Kiwis and migrants heading off for better opportunities as the pandemic eases.
At a time of year that is usually quiet, those in the industry say their workload is increasing, and so are inquiries.
Companies are being contacted by nurses, doctors, teachers, former police officers and professionals such as accountants who are keen to relocate for employment opportunities and better pay.
Crown Relocations North Island household goods manager Roy Townhill said inquiries were up 35% on any year, even before the pandemic.
He described the jump as ‘‘unexpected’’ and something they ‘‘couldn’t quite understand’’.
Townhill said he was seeing a ‘‘50-50’’ mixture of people returning to their countries of origin, some of whom were unable to obtain working visas or citizenship, others wanting to be near family, friends and loved ones and New Zealanders wanting to venture overseas for work transfers and opportunities.
Of every 100 international inquiries, he said, 60 would be to Australia, 20 to the UK, and just under 10% for the Americas, followed by Canada and France.
New Zealand Van Lines South Island regional manager Nathan Baker said he was seeing a lot of traffic, both inbound and outbound.
Storage facilities were filling up as competition for shipping space was tight, and costs were fluctuating.
‘‘Shipping anywhere in the world at the moment is a nightmare,’’ Baker said.
‘‘Backlogs, shipping companies have dropped a lot of routes for economic reasons which date back to the lockdowns last year in China, the blockage of the canal – all of these things have a huge impact.’’
After suppression in the international moving market for several years, Kiwis now had more certainty and are putting plans into place.
Baker said the European market was ‘‘buoyant’’ – ‘‘summer attracts people home, so we get an increase in workload because people want to move back to the UK or Europe’’.
Other destinations were the United States, Australia, and
Canada, the latter of which had grown in popularity recently.
Those looking to venture abroad will be paying more than ever – increases in the past few years were ‘‘humongous’’.
Baker said the cost of a 40-foot container to Australia, for example, had almost doubled from what it was three years ago – from $10,000 to $15,000 to $20,000 depending on where it was to be delivered.
Costs were also susceptible to rises and falls.
Baker said those moving abroad would likely be back as per Kiwi tradition. Relocating internationally was sometimes a case of the grass appearing greener.
‘‘If you’ve struggled through lockdown, you’ve had relatively standard wages and the cost of living is going up, you look abroad and you look at the good things about moving . . . (but) no matter where you go in the world you’re going to face the same issues,’’ he said. ‘‘Governments everywhere, no matter what colour you wear, are struggling because of rampant inflation.’’
Baker advised those looking to relocate to book early.
Townhill said some customers had been turned away as they were unable to meet their requested deadlines because of capacity limits and storage shortages.
He said costs had tripled since 2020.
Space available to Australia was very generous, but very limited to the Americas and Europe. Customers were now selling off the majority of their furniture, whiteware and televisions, and only shipping sentimental pieces.
This meant the overall volume of goods might decrease, even though the numbers of people relocating was rising, because the industry was seeing a smaller volume per customer.