Phil & Vikki

With the way that mortgages are going up, would not be surprised if things on the whole get worse before they get better. Sydney seems to be having issues at the moment, but not sure if that is all across the country, but would think it is. Hopefully mortgages do not go up much more as if they do owners will be forced to sell up as they cannot afford the repayments. This will in turn lower the amount of rental property available.

From some of the posts that we have read in the past our understanding was that the three year rule had been scrapped now. Every student had to pay the same fees to go to uni these days and there was no special reduced rate for local students as apposed to international students. That may be wrong and we hope it is, as we are moving back and want our kids to go to uni if the choose to, without high costs. If the three years rule has been scrapped then you could go at any time.

Thanks for the replies and likes. Yes we believe that it is all about where is best for our family at this moment in time. Not hate or love the place, but where is going to work best. The hope is that with keeping the place we will have the option to return in the future, if we decide that the UK is not the right place for us all then.
Been thinking about it for a bit now but only booked the flights a couple of weeks ago. So now we have the mad rush in doing the place up. Late nights with a roller in our hand lol.

Well after closer to 8 (than 7 years) in Sydney, our Australian journey has come to an end, at least for now.  We say journey and not dream, as we do not see this as the end (full stop), we see it as something we need to do at this current time. We have decided that our life would be better in the UK, by family and friends.

 Just over a year ago, our eldest son decided he wanted to go back to the UK to live with grandparents. This was so that he could start high school with the rest of the year.  We let him decide and fully supported he decision. This worked out really well and he has done great in school and scouts too. The overall idea behind this move was that we know the path our life as a family was going to take, so if we had him settled, that would be one pressure off the whole move back.  

The last few months have been a whirlwind and so busy. We have now booked the flights, notices have been given and are being worked and we are doing up our apartment like crazy as we intend to rent it out. With only weeks to go it is starting to feel real lol.

We have our place back in the UK which we will be moving back into until we get our feet back on the ground and then go from there. It is not ideal as it is only a three bed detached and we need four bedrooms. However, it is paid off and rent free.  So we will have to make do for the moment J

We have decided to keep our Sydney apartment (just a few stops from the cbd) and will rent it out. We are currently doing it up now like crazy to get it ready to be rented out. With the downturn in the property market and may be wanting to come back in a few years, we have decided to keep it for now and see how renting goes.  We have been able to save a years’ worth of rent to cover any time when it is not rented out. However, if things get too bad we will sell it on. It was a hard decision to keep and rent our apartment, as if we sold it; we would be able to get a very, very nice place in Kidderminster. However, we are trying to look at this long term.

Our daughter will say bye to her old school on Tuesday, we fly on the Wednesday and she starts her new school the following Tuesday. No long 6 weeks holiday for her this year, as she will miss it in Australia and just miss it in the UK.  She will be going to the same scout troop that her brother goes to and she is looking forward to starting both school and scouts. Our little boy will be going to the same day care that his elder brother and sister went to a few days a week. Then when we have jobs, he will go full-time.  Phil will return back to Australia to sort out the final things and then come back to the UK in the near future.

The only issues/concerns that we have are the fact that we are returning to no jobs, but hopefully we will be able to get something soon enough. We are going to use all our contacts and see how we get on. It would be nice to have a rest though for a few weeks.

We have the shippers coming in next week and currently we are in sorting out “junk” that we do not want to pay to have rubbish shipped back again. Last weekend we spent Sunday sorting out boxes in the garage and throwing away things that we no longer needed or used. It feels good to do that now and then.

We are not leaving because we “do not love Australia any more” we are leaving because it is right for us as a family now, right time and right situation. True, we wish we had a month or two more to get things totally sorted so we all could stay in the UK, but sometimes it does not work out like that.  By no means do we “hate Australia”, in fact we are both leaving very good jobs and a great apartment that had doubled in value in the last 5 years. We like Australia very much and may return when the time is right, but we want to be in the UK now with aging family and friends we have known since we were young.  We all see this as a big adventure and we are looking forward to it, possibly more so our eldest who is already there. True, it is a lot of pressure, but we see it as a new chapter.

Sorry for it being long, but we just wanted to let anyone know (who is going back home) that this sort of thing does not always need to be seen as a downer, but it can also be an exciting opportunity. Hope that it helps a few with their move.

I’ve done nothing but sweat since I got back at the end of June! [emoji23] It’s due to cool down from tomorrow. I’ll be back on here in February whinging about the cold/wind/snow/rain! 
Have a safe trip!

Cheers. We have heard that it has been a good summer. Shame to not be there enjoying the long summer evenings in a country beer garden.

We ae moving back to the UK in a few weeks and yes there are certainly things that we are going to miss about Sydney. One of the main this is what we class as real Asian food. Yes it is nice in the UK but for some reason it seems to be more authentic here. We will miss our life and our place. We will not miss the heat and the sweating so much, but we will be leaving g with four days memories. Australia had been good to us and our third child was born here. All our kids have both UK and Australian passports, so they can come back when they want. We would like to come back at some point but for now we need to go home. The one thing that we will not miss is the long flight back to the UK every Christmas. With a new born that is a real bit of a pain.

Actually I think the choice in this case is stay with the father or move back with the mother.

Actually, there is no suggestion that the father will break the family up and that the mother will come back alone. The original post says that the father is easy either way, in regards to staying or returning. Not that he will stay here alone. That is how we read the post anyway.

Totally agree with the comments above. At the age of 20 you can say OK if you will not go back then you stay here on your own. Let's see how much shine friends and the life here has when she is unable to pay rent or buy food.

We have a son born in Oz and we are moving back in a few weeks. We do not see any issues. He, like the rest of us has a UK and Australia passport. So for us settings g things up and getting him all set in the UK should be easy. Things like family allowance can be a bit of a pain if they only have an Australia passport.

Like already said your 20 year old daughter will leave at some point. Now though she has two choices if you do go. Stay on her own or come back with her family.

We are in the pretty much the same position. Wife and the kids are going back in three weeks time and at that time we will get the shippers in and get most of the stuff. I will be staying back for a month or two to get things finished on our place ready for renting. During this time I will need tool's and clothed, etc.
Have you got that many tools being left over to warrant a cube? We are going to look at a few boxes of things to go later. This is working out at a few hundred dollars.

On 16/07/2018 at 09:18, s713 said:

Totally, I'd have killed to have been there this last month.

We are moving back Apr/May next year. Knowing my luck, I'll have to wait another 42 years for a great summer (wow, that's 2060).

We are planning a trip back the end of next month, so we may just of missed it. Shame, but the weather will still be nice. Wife and kids will stay in our house and I will return for a bit to finish wrapping things up. Then I will return before Xmas

Australia has been a good home to me, I've had two babies through excellent Medicare and got married here, unfortunately this is not where my heart is and it was affecting my health.
How I wish I had a house back in the UK to move back to - I really should have.  The move to Australia was so quick my feet didn't touch the ground and in good old hindsight - we should have got my husband a passport since he had had ILR for a few years.  Stupid, but then who knew all the rules would suddenly change.

That is the one thing that we are glad about. When we left the UK we were in a position not to have to sell our place, so we kept it. It has not been easy renting out but now when returning back to the UK to a 3 bed house with no mortgage or rent to pay. We are glad we didn't sell.

Oh yes in the past it did get you a fair bit, but now your penny does not go far at all. We had high expectations when we got here only to have them cut down after a few months of every Saturday looking around places that our money would get us. The funny thing is that if you do not buy it, someone else will here in Sydney. Places that before we would not let our dog stay in (if we had one) we were thinking that may be with a coat of paint we may be abe to live there.

That is one thing I do not see Sydney crashing the same way as what Perth did. However, there are clear signs that the market is slowing down.

When we got here we did notice how far behind the place was generally. They do not tell you that on the shows and at the expos lol.

well Phil and Vikki , back to kiddy is it ? [emoji2].
my daughter has just bought a flat in Stourbridge , she likes it out there .
great train service for you in kiddy ...jewellery quarter ....worcester ...into brum ...touchwood in Solihull ....i think the Stourbridge or kiddy train goes direct to marylebone station in London
hope the weather holds ....stunning at the moment .
except the grass is starting to turn a nice straw colour
best of luck [emoji106]
 

Yep back to good old Kiddy. The time away has also made us realise that England is not as bad as people make it out to be and that we had a good life there before we left. Stourbridge is a nice pace close enough to the big smoke and to the countryside.

When we moved we wanted something new. A new challenge. To a certain amount we were "fooled" by TV programs and expos about how good life was down under. The fact that you could sell your semi in the UK and buy a 4 bed detached house here (with pool). However, we soon found that was not the case and in places like Sydney, your money does not go far at all.

We are coming back for now due to family issues and the want of again something better. We do not hate Australia and in fact with keeping our place here and renting it out, we may look at returning later down the like. We do have a greater appreciation of the UK and what it has to offer though.

We have decided too that we are making the move back home to the west midlands. We have been in Sydney now for just over 7 year's and feel the time is right for a move. Yes we are excited and keep on talking about the tings we will do. However, there is a fair bit of worry too lol. It is hard to say when we will all be back as we are doing it in stages but hope to be back as a family by Christmas. The eldest son is already back and settled in school and scouts. My wife and two other kids are going back in August so our 9 yer old daughter can start school. We have already got her into a school near our house. I will be finishing things off here to get our appartment ready to rent and then will return to the UK.

When we left the UK we decided not to sell our house. Our three bed house with no mortgage. Now we are returning to it was are so grateful we didn't seel so many years ago.

12 minutes ago, Parley said:

Yes you could.

You can declare which country you are a resident of, but I think you would have to makes sure it is the majority of the year so over 6 months.

Cool, it seems like a u month trip is on the cards, if we ever decide to sell Lol.

4 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

True, but the poster said they weren't selling in case they decided to "ping pong".    Which means that if they decide NOT to ping pong, they might want to sell it. And they need to be aware that if they do that after May 2019, they'll be stung for double the capital gain because the rules will have changed by then.

Also said that we had a place here that the kids could use. 

So if you get taxed double as not a resident, could you not return here for a period of time to be a resident again and then sell??

42 minutes ago, Parley said:

No capital gains applies if you aren't selling so a moot point.

would be great to own a property in both countries if you can afford to travel back and forth.

Totally agree and that is our plan.

Not too sure if we will be able to travel much but it is nice to think that we will have a holiday home in Sydney.

With returning back to the UK we now realise that we made the right decission (when leaving) and not selling our UK house. We rented it out and as it is all paid for we can move back and not worry about rent or mortgage.

Keeping it was the right decission for us and hopefully keeping the place in Sydney will be the right decission long term. Like you say we do not want to sell so no capital gains tax.

23 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I hope your accountant is aware of the changes in the law affecting how non-residents are charged for capital gains.

one would hope so as that is what we are paying for and the face tbat he assists a portfolio load of expats.

We are returning back to the UK later this year and have decided to rent our place out. We have a three bed, two bathroom and two car garage in Sydney, 5 stops on the train to the CBD. So with the market the way it is currently, we have not made a loss, in fact we have doubled our money. We have decided to rent it out, as that way we have the option of coming back if we ever want to (ping pong Poms we think it is called) and we have something the kids can use as they all have Australian passports. If we sell it, we know that we will never be able to get back onto the Sydney property ladder again with our age. So the time and effort we spent getting the passports in the first place will be waster as we would not have the option (financially) to come back for any long amount of time.

We have known that we are going to do this for a bit now, so we have saved enough to cover one year’s rent. However, our agent does say that we will have no troubles in renting.

We have a place in the UK that we rented out, while in Australia. We have not had any problems with the renters. Before we left we did all the big jobs and put a good coat of paint on. This was good as there were not too many jobs that anyone could moan about. We had to replace a carpet and do a little bit of painting, but that is it. If you leave the place in a good state, hopefully you will get someone good in there who will look after it.

 

With the tax, check it out with your accountant. We spoke with ours and he advised us to get an evaluation on the day we leave. This will then be used to calculate any capital gains tax after that evaluation, not the amount you have made on the place while a resident. This quote needs to be from an authorised person though who can provide you with official documentation. Any income from the rent will be off-set by mortgage costs.

We are returning this year and have noticed that the price of property has gone up. We are in a lucky position as we did not sell our house when we left the UK nearly 8 years ago and will be moving back into that as a stop gap. It is mortgage free, so that will take some of the pressure off having to find rent.

On deciding that we were going to return back to the UK, we drew a big sigh of relief knowing that we had not initially sold our three bed detached house in a small country town.

Wit the reports that the economy is starting to move in the right direction and post Brexit, there does seem to be a good mood in the air. This will all result in property prices starting to climb. As it seems you have already found out 200k will not get much and it does not seem that it will get the lovely detached property without the neighbours. 

We realise that our old house in  the UK will be too small for a family of five, but it will have to do until we have the jobs and the funds to get a mortgage and buy something bigger. Hopefully the UK market will not go up like the Sydney market, as we want to buy a bigger place before we are too old :-)

If we were to sell in Aus and bring the money back with us that we have made out of our three bed property in Sydney we would be able to go even bigger in the UK (5 / 6 bed) place. So the chose is keep the place in Sydney for the kids and have another mortgage or sell and get the big house we want.

Whilst reading your post the question has to arise if you are using the lump sum to fund a new house, how are you going to live? Have you been topping up your NI contributions so you can have a UK pension and how would you stand with the NHS?

That is a good point raised, that due to the visa that you are on, it does not seem like it will be a move out here forever. That could be something to look forward to and then just try to enjoy the time that you have out here.

 

After reading your original post there does seem to be something a bit more deep rooted going on here, than just living in Aus. For example there appears to be so many references to “him and me” (essentially we’re following his dream, after his son moved out here, we see hubby’s son and hubby loves it””. As you say you both agreed we’d try to emigrate if you could” so that must have been a joint decision at the time.

 

For a lot of people the move out here is one of them things that you do not fully appreciate how big a thing it is until you try it. People can tell you how homesick you will be and how worried you will be about aging parents and family, but until you are here you cannot fully appreciate it. The dream of the beach life, the sun, and heat and so on, often prevents people from fully looking at the down side to being so far away from the ones we know and love. We moved out here and after nearly seven years we have realised that it is not for us. We have both talked about it and at no point have we ever blamed the situation on the other person.

 

You asked at the end of your post “What to do”. First of all (if you have not already) you both need to further talk about the options as the one to work in both places does not seem like it will work long term, be this financially or from a marriage aspect. The fact that you now go back so often is a good thing and gives you something to look forward to. Hopefully the money will allow that level of travel to continue.

Our understanding is that if it is vacant and you can get the meter readings, you can give them to the utility providers (phone & water) and should be able to take over the bills. If it is empty now who is paying the bills, the agents? When our place was empty the tenants gave the last meter readings and then it went back into our name until renter out again. Think the internet/phone may be different as there will need to be someone there to let them in to connect.

 

At least with the place empty and not getting any rental income, you will only have a bit of income to declare on your Oz tax this year then, that is one good thing.

Have you been renting it out and if so are there anyone in it at the moment?