ADAVIDH

Brisbane has several beaches...Margate Beach, Wynnum and (albeit artificial) Southbank. Granted, they are not like the beaches on the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Sydney but I wouldn't say they are much worse than Melbourne beaches in my opinion. It takes roughly the same amount of time to get to the Brisbane beaches as it does to the Sydney beaches if you use the respective CBDs as a starting point.

I'm from Wolverhampton and my partner is from Leicester so that's pretty Midlands! Feel free to get in touch. Been here for 20 years so can hopefully impart some useful knowledge!

Thanks The Pom Queen, Eera and the other either useful or kind posts. Being told to 'deal with it' is not very helpful and I really do not understand why people waste their time posting such comments. I'd have thought it was obvious I was 'dealing with it' by having discussed with neighbours, the landlord, the council and raising it on a public forum to see if there was another avenue I could pursue. For the record, I've lived in far closer proximity to neighbours than I do in Noosa and not had any issues. Also, I contacted the council could not help. They said they do not have a policy regarding Air BnBs. I noticed a newspaper article last week about some proposed legislation concerning Air BnBs and limiting the number of days landlords can rent out properties and taxing the landlords more heavily. That would suggest others are experiencing similar issues. I've not actually had any problems for the past couple of months which is probably a combination of it being cooler (so the guests are not staying outside) and the Air BnB ad that was changed to introduce a 10pm curfew has put off those people who wish to party and disturb several neighbours at 2am. This is my last post on the topic and so I will move on and deal with other things in my life!

I live in Noosa Heads. I'm not too sure what your definition of large housing estates is but I'd say Noosa Heads is simply a collection of large housing estates (with no housing commission (aka council estates in the UK) to the best of my knowledge) that you would find anywhere. Four out of the five neighbours are great. We assumed that living away from the main tourist drags and in a retirees paradise, we would be less likely to be subjected to this. We did all the due diligence we could although we bought before the rise of Airbnb. Things change though. The landlords do all the maintenance and cleaning themselves so they may tire of this and go back to permanent rentals or sell the place which could mean the problem solves itself. Alternatively, we move into the hinterland which is tempting as it's a lovely part of the world.

Hi all, Thanks for the replies. I definitely appreciate them so please don't think that my counterarguments are showing lack of gratitude. To answer the points raised: 1. The landlords told us to confront the guests. When we met them they said we have to play a part to remedy any situations. I have their mobile and I texted around 10.30pm at night after confronting the guests. I did actually record the conversation although it was not required as the landlords accepted our complaints (as 2 other neighbours made the same complaint). This was prior to the landlord mentioning the fine in the Airbnb ad. The landlords live about 30 minutes away so I understand their perspective that to quickly fix the situation then we need to directly confront the guests. If we just record the noise and the guests only stay for 1 or 2 nights then we have to put up with any noise until we can meet up with the landlords. 2. Noise insulation isn't really an option. We're on the Sunshine Coast where for at least 6/7 months of the year you have your windows open , including throughout the night unless aircon is used. 3. Collie, you raise a good point about moving inside. I do not believe the landlords are specific about that so I may suggest that if we have further issues. It's a fine line we have to tread as we want to work with them. The landlords specify a curfew of 10pm in the house rules. Unfortunately I FIFO to Sydney (not for much longer I hope) so I'm only there at weekends so I don't get to enjoy those times when the property is vacant. Interestingly, the landlords told us that the property only has to be occupied for 60% of the time in order for it to make the same amount of money as having a permanent tenant there. That said, the landlords have to do all the cleaning themselves. There is therefore hope that they do not achieve 60% and/or they tire of cleaning it so frequently. The permanent tenant with the noisy dog was very quiet until a bitter divorce.

Hi all, We live at the back of an Air BnB property. It can sleep up to 10 people and has a pool and balcony that is 6 or so metres from our living areas and main bedroom. Whenever anyone is on the balcony or in the backyard, we can hear most of what they say if we are in the living areas or main bedroom. We can also hear them from our front bedrooms to a lesser extent. We finally met with the landlords a few weeks ago, along with our next door neighbour who can also hear the Air BnB. They were receptive to our concerns that, unlike normal neighbours who may be noisy every so often, the Air BnBers are far more likely to be noisy every night of their stay. They imposed a curfew of 10pm and mention in their ad that they will fine the guests $200 if a legitimate complaint is made against them. This means the onus is very much on us to confront the Air BnBers and ask them to keep the noise down. In fairness, they probably do not realise how much the noise carries but it's a struggle to be polite and ask people to be quieter when you're trying to get to sleep on a Friday night after working all week. Calling the police is ineffective as there are few patrols over the weekends so they are busy elsewhere. I was told by the police that they are under no obligation to even attend the property. Prior to the landlords setting it up as an Air BnB, it had a man whose dog would bark during the night. The council were a toothless tiger. Despite a signed petition from 5 neighbours and threats of fines, nothing changed until he moved out. Prior to him, the previous tenant subletted to backpackers who partied until the wee hours. The council do not have an Air BnB policy. We feel like we live next to a hotel which we would have never chosen to do. I've read councils in other countries taking action such as limiting the number of days a property can be rented out or issuing licences. My question is if anyone had any suggestions on how to deal with this. I accept that this is to be expected when you live in a holiday location. There are other Air BnBs on the street (next door but one in fact) but they have never bothered us. It could be that they charge a lot more and have minimum stays of one week (although I'm not convinced there's a correlation between how much someone has paid for a place to stay and how much noise and/or consideration they show) or it could just be that the distance is great enough that we cannot really hear them.

I'm an Australian citizen and my partner received a 309 partner visa in July 2014. We moved back to Australia in October 2014. In August 2016 he was granted subclass 100. As it's a 2 in 1 visa, I'm a bit confused when he can apply for citizenship. Is it 4 years from entering the country or 4 years from being granted the 100 visa? Best regards Adavidh

I'm curious to know why you think being a permanent resident (PR) as opposed to an Australian citizen would make any difference to your starting salary. I didn't experience that and I've not heard of anyone else receiving a lower salary in the institutional financial software space because they were a PR. As robfromdublin says, software development is not restricted to Sydney and Melbourne. Even for institutional financial software development, which is mainly in Sydney and Melbourne, there are companies operating in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Wollongong (and I'm sure there are other places). My personal experience is that the salaries/contract rates are generally lower than in the UK in the institutional finance software but there is no real difference between the salaries/rates in Sydney and Melbourne (and, in some cases, Brisbane).

I think you can still get bargains in Tewantin and it's definitely more of a locals place. It has really good access to the North Shore which is really good for camping, driving on the beach or walking to Mount Seewah (a nice 28km return!). I go to Sunshine Beach most weekends and am a member of the surf club (not for surfing, just a discount on all drink!)

Evening coasttocoast. TheStantons and I (partner stuck in Sydney due to Jetstar!) have already met and we are planning to meet on Sunday again for a small bushwalk. Maybe you'd like to join us? If so, PM me and we'll see what we can organise.

Hi Jacquiandpaul, We moved to Noosa Heads about 2 years ago. Happy to share any info on the area with you. We hardly notice the tourists now as you just choose the places where they don't go i.e. anywhere outside of Main Beach/Hastings Street.

I've looked at the NS&I website and its the same place that does the premium bonds. The only other bonds they offer AFAIK are income bonds at 1% so not much better than cash.

$30 per month in custodial fees. The rates started at around 3%. They are corporate bonds issued by the likes of Barclays, Tescos and other UK companies. I've yet to receive all the info from them. I'll check out NS&I so thanks for that.

So I have discovered a way to purchase GBP-denominated bonds. An Australian company called FIIG securities can do this on your behalf. There are monthly fees and you need to prove you hold assets greater than $2.5 million.

Thanks MTut. I don't want to rely on UK relatives. The offshore bank accounts don't seem to offer anything better than the onshore ones. I agree about investing in shares directly hence I mentioned mutual funds/unit trusts or fixed income i.e. low risk investments that beat the interest rates. Natwest don't appear to offer any investment service unless you are UK resident. I've made an assumption that the GBP/AUD FX rate will improve at some point in the next 2/3 years. While interest rates are better here than the UK, my calculations show that it's better financially for me to wait for a better exchange rate than bring the cash over now. Still thinking!