Oh, Port Moresby – all you want from me is lots of money
05 November 2017
JORDAN DEAN
PORT MORESBY - The price of everything is inflated in Port Moresby. Talk about skyscraper rentals, overvalued properties and a cunning mobile service provider that rips off customers.
Even the PMV buses shorten their routes or charge double fares at peak hour.
Suffice to say, Port Moresby is amongst the most expensive cities in the world in which to live.
The cost of living will be a surprise to a lot of people in Papua New Guinea because Moresby prices are not the same as in the rest of the nation.
Goods and services are slightly cheaper in provincial towns and rural areas. The markets in Kokopo, Goroka, Mt Hagen, Alotau, Vanimo and other towns have prices that are a fraction of what we pay for vegetables here in Port Moresby. I’ve seen it for myself.
Whenever I visit Lae, I willingly pay excess baggage on the plane to bring back a 50kg bag of broccoli and cauliflower. You can buy K100 of vegetables and fruit from Lae market, enough to last you a fortnight.
A three-bedroom house rents for around K3,000 a month in Alotau but that is K3,000 a week in Port Moresby.
You can build a two-bedroom house for K50,000 in Moresby and sell it for half a million kina.
Airfares from Port Moresby to Cairns or Brisbane are lower than to Lorengau or Buka.
Similarly, a taxi ride in Alotau costs K5 but it will cost you K20 for the same distance in Port Moresby. Oh, and I got five of my favourite green apples (buai) for just 20 toea in Kokopo. Here in POM they cost me a fortune.
I saw an advertisement for a used Nissan Sunny selling for K30,000. A quick Google search and calculation shows that I could import it for less than K15,000 (inclusive of freight and customs). That’s a 100% mark-up! Do people know about depreciation and book value?
The other day, I bought a K3 flex card. The Chinese man that owned the shop charged me an extra 20 toea, maybe as value added tax.
When I entered the voucher number, my credits disappeared instantly. So I bought another K3 flex card with the 20 toea tax included. Again, my precious credits vanished. Furious, I purchased another K3 flex.
This time, I was lucky enough to subscribe for a lousy bundle that had only 10MB data, 10MB Facebook and 12 minutes of free-call.
While only a few people become overnight millionaires through corruption, it’s survival of the fittest for most us living in this artificial economy.
If you earn less than a thousand kina a fortnight, just don’t think of living here.
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