Best cities to live in Papua New Guinea

Hi Julien

I currently reside in Lae.

In my opinion, Lae is the best place to settle down in especially if you have a family. I would say that the quality of life is very good in Lae. I am basing my opinion purely on the financial aspect.

I have spent some time in Port Moresby and during that short span of time I saw a significant difference in food prices. For example, a packet of milk in any Lae Supermarket would normally cost me K3.50 whereas the same packet of milk in POM cost me K6.75 and that was the same for a couple of other items in the supermarket (huge price difference). I will admit that I did not visit a lot of supermarkets in POM but friends who reside in POM have said that the price range in other supermarkets would generally be the same.

You have fresh vegetables every day at the Lae Market and the vegetables are very cheap. You have all your pantry and freezer needs at every supermarket you visit and for affordable prices too. Now the only issue would be fresh seafood. Unlike POM, you will rarely find fresh seafood or a large variety of seafood but they do sell frozen seafood in the supermarkets. There is a new fish market in the same vicinity as the Lae Yacht Club but I have not bought fish from that outlet so I cannot testify to the quality of their products although a friend of mine is a chef at a hotel in Lae, he buys fish from there, so it must be good?

In terms of housing, Lae has several good quality apartments to choose from and all are within the town boundaries so you wouldn't have to drive too far to the supermarket or schools. Rent in Lae for good apartments would be approximately K9,000 to K11,000 per month. If you compare this to POM, the difference would be substantial. Rent in POM for very good apartments could potentially cost you K15000 - K20,000 per month or more. That is if you live in apartments near the city. If you live further away then the rent might be cheaper but then you'd probably have to travel quite a distance. I gathered this information from friends who reside in POM and also from the newspaper ads.

I thought I should add that POM has more recreational venues than Lae. POM has the big malls, cinemas, posh nightclubs, fancy restaurants and many other venues to keep entertained and Lae has nothing that can compare. There is the Yacht Club and Golf Club, several restaurants, an eco park at Unitech and the recently opened Botanical Gardens, two night clubs (which I haven't been to) and Pokies venues scattered across town otherwise nothing else.

Papua New Guinea has a lot of job opportunities. There is always work available from any region in the country. I have only experienced living in POM and Lae (2 years now) and I hope that through that experience I have been of help to you.