Balmoral School teacher Joans Widjaja is one of the many experienced teachers having to leave Auckland in search of a more affordable lifestyle.

Teachers are leaving Auckland in search of a cheaper lifestyle.

Skyrocketing property prices and steep living costs could soon lead to a shortage of experienced teachers in the city's primary schools.

The latest Auckland Primary Principals' Association school staffing survey shows 52 per cent of teachers who resigned in 2015 are leaving Auckland.

The association's president Frances Nelson says teachers' salaries simply cannot match the cost of living.

"We're on a pathway that is quite scary at the moment," she says.

"A lot of teachers tell us they are leaving because they can't afford to stay and raise a family. They can get a cheaper house somewhere else."

A significant experience gap is emerging as schools try to replace staff members, Nelson says.

Of the 157 principals surveyed, one third feel they will struggle to make appropriate appointments for 2016.

"What we're seeing is that about 80 per cent of the applicants are graduate teachers who will need to go into graduate programmes.

"We've got huge numbers of provisionally registered teachers but schools can only take a certain number with their resources."

Balmoral School teacher Jonas Widjaja has seen four of his colleagues leave central Auckland for a more affordable lifestyle.

The 33-year-old has been teaching in Auckland for more than five years and will be leaving the city in December.

"After about two years in Auckland, with two young kids, we just realised we were going backwards pretty quickly," he says.

"We had to look for other opportunities for the family. We want to get up the property ladder but if we stay here we never will"

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Widjaja looked at property in the Bay of Plenty and Whangarei before deciding to move to Australia.

"You can get paid around $15,000 to $20,000 more with the same level of experience and it generally costs less to live.

"There's definitely a lot of movement from Auckland, especially in terms of those with the experience that I've got."

Nelson says more needs to be done to retain experienced teaching staff.

"No matter where you teach the salary is the same.

"We have begun talking to the [Ministry of Education] and NZEI about the costs of living, transport and how we can mitigate that."