Moving to Tahiti: a little piece of the world in Oceania?

Moving to Tahiti, French Polynesia—what an idea, right? And yet, many people seriously consider it. For many, Tahiti feels like a dream: a paradise island lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That may be true… but it is also much more than that! For me, this Tahitian experience began in 2015, when I was still working on the island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know if you’re thinking about moving to Tahiti. This article, originally written in French, was updated in June 2019, and I’ve refreshed the practical information where it can be updated reliably.

At the time I first wrote this article (January 2018), I had been living in French Polynesia since 2015. I thought it was finally time to write my first article about living in French Polynesia.

This article is for people who want to leave their country to live in French Polynesia, especially if most of the costs will be coming out of their own pocket. The goal here is not to talk about a trip to French Polynesia, even though I would really recommend coming to experience this idyllic way of life before settling in Tahiti. Think of it more as a practical guide for future arrivals in the South Pacific. Tahiti is not just tiare flowers, white sandy beaches, coconut trees, palm trees, coral reefs, rays, sharks, overwater bungalows, and lush vegetation. Above all, the aim is to help you prepare for life in this small tropical paradise, and for the costs that come with it.

For those who want to move to Tahiti, I’ll simply start at the beginning: how do you settle on the island? What do you need to do, and above all, how much does it cost to live in the sun? To go further and learn even more about life in French Polynesia, I invite you to read my newer article. In it, I go back over all the questions I’ve received by email and try to answer them in a clear summary!

I already covered this in a full article about how to get to Tahiti without spending too much. This will probably be one of your biggest expenses if you have decided to come and live in Tahiti. As a rough guide, plan on around €1,200 to €2,000, depending on the season, route, baggage, and how early you book.

Air traffic has changed quite a bit in recent years, and French Bee now offers some of the lowest fares from Paris. You can sometimes find Paris–Papeete flights from around €850 to €1,300 depending on the period and availability. All flights from Paris to Papeete include at least one stopover or technical stop.

This article was originally written in French, for French readers. If you live in Europe, the cheapest flights will often be from Paris anyway. For Americans or Canadians, you can use the Skyscanner website to compare airfares and find the best prices.

When it comes to moving to Tahiti, there are basically two kinds of people:

• Those who, like me, arrive with two 23 kg suitcases, which is more or less your whole life packed into luggage! Well, that’s not entirely true, since I also sent two 30 kg parcels by post, and it cost me an arm and a leg (€250 each). Looking back, it was a pretty bad idea,
• Those who want to bring personal belongings with them (decorations, books, and so on) and have a crate shipped over. In that case, you’ll need to contact shipping companies directly (AGS, PHOCEA, etc.). Prices are often around €400 to €500 per m³. Be sure to check the customs rules if you choose this option.

If you’re planning to move to Tahiti, you will obviously need to start looking for a place to live. Personally, I recommend booking temporary accommodation for the first two weeks after you arrive. That way, you can land with a little less stress and give yourself some time to find your “real” place. Count roughly €40 to €60 per night, depending on what you choose. It’s worth noting that Airbnb works very well in Papeete, and it will usually be much cheaper than staying in a hotel.

Once you arrive, you have two options: look for a place yourself or go through a real estate agency. Everyone has their own preference, but the second option will very often cost you half a month’s rent in agency fees.

When it comes to accommodation, there is something for almost every taste in Tahiti: beautiful places, older places, large or small homes, furnished or unfurnished—basically like in any other city. The main thing is to define your budget based on how many of you there are (alone, as a couple, with children?) and where you’ll be working. This could be the subject of another article if needed, with advice on where to live in Tahiti. Living in Papeete is very different from living outside the city (Punaauia or Mahina), and even more different from living on the peninsula.

If you go through an agency, the initial bill can be pretty steep: half a month’s rent in agency fees, one month’s deposit cashed, and the first month’s rent, all due more or less at the same time. In my case, it came to €2,500, which is a serious amount of money! Also note that most homes here are usually fully equipped. If they are not, the rent is often cheaper, but you’ll need to plan a large enough budget to furnish the place at least minimally.

This is another thing you’ll need to think about if you want to move to Tahiti, an idyllic Polynesian island. Here again, there are two schools of thought: those with a limited budget who don’t want to spend too much on a car, and those who, like me, don’t want to risk ending up at the garage every week.

Car prices are very high here compared with what you might find elsewhere. A car in “good condition” that is not too old costs around €5,000 to €6,000 (600,000 to 800,000 XPF). You can find cheaper, but it’s at your own risk, especially since there is no mandatory vehicle inspection here (so you’d better know what you’re looking at…).

A scooter or 125 cc will cost less, starting around €1,500 to €2,000.

In any case, you will probably need to buy some form of transport to get around Tahiti. Public transport does exist, but it remains limited compared with what many people are used to in mainland France, especially if you need flexibility.

When you arrive, you will most likely rent a car for a week or two. That’s what many people do. You can look here to plan it.

When calculating your budget to move to French Polynesia, and to Tahiti in particular, you also need to factor in your first home subscriptions and meter openings. I’m thinking in particular of water, electricity, Internet, landline, mobile phone, and so on. Count roughly €400 to €500 in the first month just for these initial subscriptions.

And yes, moving to Tahiti is a wonderful thing, but you will still need to buy the basics when you arrive. I’m especially thinking of kitchen essentials, small appliances, and your first grocery shop. You can easily plan between €500 and €1,000 for those first necessities, depending on your accommodation and your ability not to overspend.

When you arrive in Tahiti, you should generally think about:

If you are interested in knowing more about the administrative steps involved in moving to Tahiti, I could easily write a full article to guide future arrivals. Anyone interested? If we make a quick summary of the budget needed to move to Tahiti, I would advise planning around the following, based on my own move:

In short, it’s a lot of money to plan for. Of course, this is an estimate based on my own experience here, so it can be adjusted downward quite a bit if you’re alone, if you buy a scooter instead of a car, depending on the price of your home, and so on. If you have any questions, leave me a comment at the bottom of the article.

Now we get to the heart of the matter, because living in Tahiti or French Polynesia will cost you a lot of money. That is a reality you need to accept. Coming here with nothing, without a job, is quite a gamble, and you should be prepared for financial pressure.

In this article, I’ll only talk about the cost of living on the island of Tahiti, since that is where I lived. Rents are generally cheaper on the other islands, but the rest (food, alcohol, and so on) is often even more expensive than in Tahiti.

It is difficult to give a precise idea here because prices vary a lot, especially depending on where the apartment or house is located.

To put it simply, prices start to drop once you go beyond Punaauia (west coast) or Mahina (east coast). Between these two areas, prices are fairly standard, and since you are quite likely to work in that part of the island, I’ll mainly talk about this sector. Here are some rough price ranges:

For apartments, prices vary a lot depending on the standard of the building (swimming pool, caretaker, residence or not, parking, etc.) and the location. These are general estimates, but overall they are realistic. The best time to find accommodation in Tahiti is from June to August, before the arrival of teachers. After September, many places are already taken.

In your plan to move to Tahiti, the food and general shopping budget is definitely something to factor in. People often say that everything costs more or less 40% more than in France, and that is not far from the truth.

For your information, for two adults and a baby, eating more or less as we would in France while still paying attention to what we buy and to prices (otherwise we would go broke), we spent on average between 20,000 and 25,000 XPF per week, which is roughly €160 to €220 per week, not including baby essentials (diapers, etc.). In total, that comes to about €600 to €800 per month. Round that up to almost €1,000 per month if you include almost everything, depending on how you consume.

I try to cook my lunch to avoid spending too much. Otherwise, you are looking at a sandwich for around 400 to 600 XPF (€3.50 to €5), or a dish for around 1,000 XPF (€8).

As a general rule, if you don’t want to break the bank, you’ll need to limit products imported from France (yogurt, cheese, alcohol), which are generally very expensive. Four brand-name yogurts can cost €16 in French Polynesia. Tomatoes, whether local or imported (and not always great), can cost between €6 and €8 per kilo.

At the time, it was very simple: a subscription through the local operator OPT cost about 2,900 XPF, or €24. It was mandatory for Internet with Vini by ADSL. Today, Internet offers have evolved quite a bit, especially with fiber, so check the current offers before budgeting this line.

There are several mobile options, including Vini and Vodafone. Different plans exist, and compared with France, it still feels expensive. The examples below were what we were looking at at the time:

For details of all the Vini packages, it’s here.

You can also choose combined mobile + home Internet packages.

We’re talking about extremely expensive electricity, can you imagine? Your bill will mainly depend on three things:

For reference, for an all-electric two-bedroom apartment without air conditioning, I paid about 12,000 XPF/month (€100). I then moved in 2018, and I only paid 7,000 XPF/month (€50), who knows why? Be careful when choosing your electricity plan based on your usage when you open the meter! For a house with air conditioning, count roughly €150 to €200/month.

Strangely enough, this is one of the only things that doesn’t cost much in Tahiti! For reference, in Papeete I paid 62.5 XPF per m³ of water (about €0.50/m³). The bill came every three months, for about 4,000 to 4,500 XPF, or roughly €35.

All these pictures were shot in Tahiti, that’s not so bad, isn’t it?

It all depends on where you live and what you drive. Gasoline is roughly in the same price range as in France. Since we only had one car and I walked to work, I spent on average 7,000 to 8,000 XPF per month (€70 to €80). If you have two cars, you can more or less double that. If you drive to work, the fuel budget goes up again.

Some ideas:

Of course, prices vary here too. A few rough figures:

Since my wife gave birth here, I became quite familiar with gynecologists, pediatricians, and the like! A few rough prices:

Everything is reimbursed at 70% if you are registered with the CPS.

Of course, these are not essential when you live in Tahiti, but this is usually where it starts to hurt:

If you have already blown half your budget on leisure, you can easily blow the other half on vacations or weekends in the other islands. A few rough prices:

This is a pretty big topic here, and working in Tahiti is not that simple. You’ll notice that I often talk about Tahiti because, it has to be said, the job market outside Tahiti is still quite limited. It is more or less the same as trying to find work on many French islands. That said, you can still find opportunities on other relatively developed islands, such as Raiatea or Bora Bora, for example.

Here are a few key points, in no particular order, that may help those who want to settle in Tahiti for work:

• The majority of expatriates from France work in the territorial civil service or the state civil service (on secondment from mainland France). I’m not a public service specialist at all, but it seems to me that if you’re already in it, you need to apply for a transfer or secondment to French Polynesia, as you would for other overseas territories. I’ll let you check with your HR department back home! They are mostly teachers, military personnel, and people in administrative positions. There are quite a few category A staff here…
• For people working in the private sector and looking for a job (as was the case for me), it is much less straightforward. Personally, I sent my resume to local companies in my field, hoping for a reply and eventually an interview. In general, I recommend applying to any job offer that matches your field (read the job description carefully).
• Depending on the sector, new job offers can be rare, and you will need to be patient! However, some sectors hire more than others. To name only the main ones: nursing, tourism-related jobs, hotels and restaurants, medical/paramedical work, team management, booking agents, chefs, care assistants, and so on,
• As a general rule, don’t hesitate to send a speculative application (resume and cover letter) and follow up a few weeks later if you haven’t had a response,
• In general, don’t expect an open-ended contract right from the start. Offers are very often fixed-term contracts of three to six months at first,
• You also shouldn’t hesitate to search all the websites related to employment in Polynesia, as well as Facebook groups.

This is a huge topic, and I’ll try to approach it simply here. Living in Tahiti is expensive—that is a reality you cannot forget. The salary you need will obviously vary a lot depending on your lifestyle, how well you adapt to the territory, your leisure activities (like snorkeling), and so on. Still, a few useful things to know:

• You should know that there is no personal income tax here in the same way as in mainland France (good news!). Salaries are instead subject to local contributions such as the CST. In practice, your monthly net salary is much closer to what you actually keep at the end of the year than in France,
• Base salaries can vary widely between the private and public sectors,
• For the exact same job, the average salary is often much higher in Polynesia than in France,
• In the territory, the standard working week is 39 hours, not 35.

Alone, life is also expensive in Tahiti. If you add up all the bills you need to pay (as seen above), it quickly becomes a significant amount of money. On average, you can very quickly reach 150,000 XPF just for bills (€1,300), without restaurants, leisure activities, or anything extra.

I would say that the bare minimum for one person would be 200,000 XPF (€1,700). To enjoy life a little more, 250,000 XPF. With 300,000 XPF (€2,500) alone, you’ll have more than enough.

In general, I would say that for a couple, a bare minimum of €2,000 to €2,200 is necessary (240,000 to 260,000 XPF). With that, you’ll be able to pay the bills (rent, water, electricity, etc.), but forget about leisure activities and weekend getaways to the islands. I’m not even talking about putting money aside to travel outside French Polynesia.

If you plan around €3,000 (360,000 XPF), you should be fine: a few activities, restaurants, and weekends on the island of Moorea.

From €4,000 per month, I think you’re comfortable, and you can afford a little more.

I would advise aiming for at least €4,000/month (about 500,000 XPF). If you want to visit other islands and go on weekend getaways, it is better to plan for around €5,000 (600,000 XPF).

These are only estimates, based on what I saw there, and for expatriates who are used to living “à la française.” You can, of course, spend less than that. Everyone has their own way of doing things.

So, I hope this article will help you take the plunge and go live in Tahiti, and that it will encourage you to start discovering French Polynesia. I also hope I’ve helped answer the question: how do you move to Tahiti?

If you are looking for more precise information about French Polynesia, and want to dream a little, I invite you to go and see all the other articles I wrote about French Polynesia.

If you have specific questions about our move and your future plan to live in Tahiti, I am well placed to answer them, having lived there myself. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment at the bottom of this article. I’ll be happy to help!

See you soon,

Sylvain

Written by Sylvain PONS

From 2015 to 2021, French Polynesia was our home, with Mélanie and our children. I'm happy to share my experience and advice to help you organize an unforgettable stay in French Polynesia, based on my in-depth knowledge of the territory.

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