"Jerrabomberrra. He felt you get a lot more for your money here and as it is in NSW and not ACT first time buyers get help from the government."
There are differences between living in NSW and ACT and it cancause you some pain.
-ACT and NSW school holidays are different and can cause you problems if you have chidren in both systems
- They have different age cut offs for school years e.g. both my children would start school a year earlier in NSW.
- The first home buyers grant is availiable in both states, but you need to meet the residency (permanent) and I think income?
- Stamp duty concession for first home buyers is also availiable. In NSW this concesion is greater i.e. houses upto $500000 (ish) pay minimal stamp duty ($500ish) whereas in the ACT it is $350000, you also need to meet the residency and income requirements - we qualified on the under $350000( we bought land) but not on the income, so had to pay stamp duty at full rate.
"Jerrabomberrra. He felt you get a lot more for your money here and as it is in NSW and not ACT first time buyers get help from the government."
There are differences between living in NSW and ACT and it cancause you some pain.
-ACT and NSW school holidays are different and can cause you problems if you have chidren in both systems
- They have different age cut offs for school years e.g. both my children would start school a year earlier in NSW.
- The first home buyers grant is availiable in both states, but you need to meet the residency (permanent) and I think income?
- Stamp duty concession for first home buyers is also availiable. In NSW this concesion is greater i.e. houses upto $500000 (ish) pay minimal stamp duty ($500ish) whereas in the ACT it is $350000, you also need to meet the residency and income requirements - we qualified on the under $350000( we bought land) but not on the income, so had to pay stamp duty at full rate.
HTH
K
Good points - another disadvantage to Jerrabomberra is if down the track you want to enrol in an ACT school then you are at the bottom of the pile for preferences and may well not get a school that you want to enrol in. I didnt think the NSW holidays were different - Vic is definitely out of step but within a day or two I think NSW are the same. You may want to also look into airport extensions and whether that will impact Jerrabomberra (airport extension is a topic of conversation at the moment and gaining momentum as the impact on the closer suburbs is being highlighted)
Good points - another disadvantage to Jerrabomberra is if down the track you want to enrol in an ACT school then you are at the bottom of the pile for preferences and may well not get a school that you want to enrol in. I didnt think the NSW holidays were different - Vic is definitely out of step but within a day or two I think NSW are the same. You may want to also look into airport extensions and whether that will impact Jerrabomberra (airport extension is a topic of conversation at the moment and gaining momentum as the impact on the closer suburbs is being highlighted)
When my hubby visited Jerrabomberra he spoke to a few of the Airforce personel who had bought there and they all seemed happy enough, no one mentioned an airport extention. So thanks for that tip! we will look into it. We will have permanent recidency within a few months as my OH is joining the Australian RAF. We have had details sent to us about a house to rent in Nicholls, it looks ok and my OH felt it was a nice area to live. He returns from his trip this evening , so hopfully we will make some decisions about schools etc soon. Thanks again for all your advice
Shula
That fee ia def the perm resident fee based on the fact I am looking at $10000 for the pre-reception class next year. I hope that they clarify soon. Good luck with the visas. We arrived in April and the weather was still lovely and to be honest I had the best winter of my life!
Re the airport, I am never quite sure which part it is going to affect - there are all sorts of arguments going on over it and it is by no means a fait accompli! I just know that DH was out leafleting against the proposals for a 24 hour hub there. I always thought that Jerrabomberra was actually under the flight path from the South - arrivals come in on it about 50% of the time. Most take offs seem to go out to the North. I guess they must be quite high when they fly over though.
Nicholls is up in Gungahlin, it is one of the older Gungahlin suburbs and is beginning to look more established than the building sites just a bit further out. There is a new road - the Gungahlin Drive Extension which is supposed to make life easier for people commuting into town. I guess it will be about 20km from The Canberra Hospital give or take a km or 2. The homes there have all been built within the past 8 - 10 years and have all the mod cons especially the Defence Housing ones if that is what you are being offered.
Good point about the airport, hadnt even thought of that one, but that is the only reason my dh said we should not move there. DH modelled aircraft / airport noise for a living in the UK. It also reminds me the other day I went to get my new kitchen in Qbean and a few went overhead and made me stop and think how noise it is, especially with single glazing standard here.
The new road is great knocks a good 20mins off the journey, but you still have to deal with some road works in the next year before it is a very fast route from North to South. For ease you probably want to live in Weston Creek / Woden / T'nong for the hospital and the school.
Thanks for the warning on the school fees. I will check that out right now. I did contact the enrolment department at CGS, I saw there was a particular fee for my son's year, and also further down a larger fee for 'late entry students', so I did check with her what we'd be paying, she said it'd be $14,800 pro rata, the late entry fee is for Years 11 and 12. Even though she hasn't said anything about it depending what visa we are on, I will get clarification on that. I will update on here when I have an answer.
A get together would be great. When we get our visa, I'll let you know when we'll be arriving - hopefully in enough time to see some sunshine before winter :)
As promised, this is the reply I got off CGS:
"It would be good to know the classification of your visa and then I can check with the Dept of Immigration to see if Rhys is to be classified as a Full Fee Paying Overseas Student. The FFPOS fee is $20040 per annum."
That is based on year 8. And as I mentioned previously, just because you are on a temp visa, does not automatically make you liable for school fees - which is frustrating as we won't know until we have got our visa through - another thing to look forward to....
CGS has always been very quick in replying to my emails - that's another good thing about the school.
