When I lived in Dunedin a few years ago I was truly shocked at the state of the houses. I don't think I've ever seen a house in the Netherlands without central heating; but I've never seen a house with central heating in Dunedin, and Dunedin is quite a bit colder than the Netherlands. Isolation and even double glazing seems almost non-existent and wooden houses are the norm.

Don't get me wrong, I really loved living there, and I'd move back in an instant (but work visas are very hard at the moment), but Kiwi houses are the worst and many decades behind Europe.