desreb

I’m biased towards the bearish side on the market. We visited Newport last year, and were told at prices had come off 10% at that point. At the time there wasn’t really a consensus that it was anything other than a temporary blip, but in a year sentiment has gone from that, to whether it’s a major correction or even a crash. I get the impression prices are off further than anyone likes to admit. You have all these measures to prevent people admitting actual sale prices - auctions passing through, houses selling under private treaty before auction, prices being quoted in a range, official stats having a lag due to moving average values. I read Propertychat forums a lot, and they point out that the Corelogic figures are a 12 month moving average trend, so if they say prices are 10% below peak, that means they were that perhaps six months ago, and it sounds like things have steepened downwards since then. I for one intend to sit things out for another year. That will allow time for the moving average stats to be fully digested, for investors and new buyers to have come to terms with things and start to have made their moves, for the federal election and any initial market response to a Labour win, and also mean less distance to fall from whatever prices are by then, to the long term average in relation to wages growth - if we assume that’s a fairly hard floor unless things really go pear shaped. D

Hi all, We’ve been in country for a few days now, and spent today on viewings. There’s nothing at all in Bilgola, it’s just a very static community, and the intake area (Aussie version of catchment area) is very small. However - we read in the NSW schools guide that the schools have discretion. They must accept pupils from the marked area but they can optionally accept pupils from the area outside. Hence we could potentially live in Newport and go to school in Bilgola, if the school accepted it. We spoke to the school, and they said that they pretty much don’t have capacity for anyone outside their mandated area. However - they said that some people do rent AirBnBs for the enrolment day, and then move out after! This to me seems quite surprising - not just that the school recommends a way to circumvent their process, but also that you could get an artefact to demonstrate residence from an AirBnB. Normally this would be a tenancy agreement or utility bill, none of which you’d get from an AirBnB. Does anyone have any info on how this works? It’s something I guess we could do, but it seems like it wouldn’t work. D

That’s true, but you get a carbon copy sheet with a faded line that says “clothing” per box, rather than something like this:

Well, they came, they saw, they bubble-wrapped. 130 boxes of various sizes. So far, they missed a few minor items, but they also mistakenly took the kids’ clothes! We had several hold-all’s in a bedroom, and they took that one. Admittedly that was the least-bad one to take - nothing a trip to Primark can’t fix quite quickly - but it goes to show. I just kept going around with a roll of masking tape and a marker writing “SHIP ” or “LEAVE” on everything. Sometimes more than once. I kept checking, and if there was any doubt, I’d put another sticker on to remove that doubt. Masking tape and markers. Top tip. I’ll do that a day earlier next time. The thing is, they had three guys for a 3 bed house, and towards the end you could see they were tired and thinking about rush hour and home. In those circumstances you’d expect them to make rush decisions, or the wrong ones. Paying the extra for a better-resourced team can be worth it. The guys were here from 0830-1800. We also had much of the Ikea furniture go to ebay that day as well, but I arranged the pickups for the afternoon, when there was more space in the house, so it worked quite well. It was chaos though - the guys did an excellent job considering. Next time we’ll box things ourselves and accept the insurance liability. I use an app called “Sortly” and it’s been really good for keeping track of what’s in which box in both Australia and our loft here.

Whoa! That’s like £300 a year! I don’t want it that much :-) I did keep my old number with O2 the entire 6 years I was in Oz previously, on prepay, and it only cost me around £20 a year through ad-hoc top ups - so it’s not too bad. It used to cost me when I came back to the UK and I burnt through the prepay data, but there’s often some “unlimited” package for a certain amount per day. D

Definitely being constantly armed with extra wide masking tape and a permanent marker, writing TAKE and LEAVE on everything, is worth it. Both for them and for us!

Thanks, that’s interesting. So probably they’ll issue the second on a 0T, and then PAYE will inform HMRC that i received a second untaxed payment, and I’ll need to declare that on my UK SA for that year? D

Yeah, they come in 3 hours and we’re in a mess. I have a priority list of things to sort out, where everything is P1! My wife booked the Airbnb from the same day as the shipping, but I’m regretting it now. We really should have given ourselves 2 clear days with our luggage in the transit house whilst we prepared our old house with the possessions for shipping. We do still have 5 days before we fly out, but today will not be fun. D

Asda has a good deal, but as you say with Tesco, the interest in this service may wax and wane with a non-Telco provider. I’m thinking I should stick with the main telcos as it’s their main job.

Thanks, that’s really good feedback. I did consider using a roaming UK SIM in Oz for calls home, so really useful to see there’s a theshold.

Actually, this was another interesting thing. I was on Telstra until recently on one card, but damaged the SIM card. Could I get a replacement? No. Not without physically and personally walking into a Telstra shop with ID, in Australia. This was two months ago. I would be locked out of setting up new payees on the WestPac app until I came back. Stupidly, although Telstra won’t give you a new SIM, they will let you move to another provider. So I bought an Optus SIM from a UK eBay seller, activated it, ported my number across, and was back getting SMSs to my number in 15 minutes. All part of living a two-country life. Btw, I will look at Aldi mobile! I didn’t realise they were on Telstra.

Sorry, I should clarify - I do have Australian SIMs - both Optus. We’ve had them for 8 years and will move back onto them when we move back. That’s a case in point - I used them in the UK for logins for ATO, DHS, WestPac, Ubank - all send you an SMS to login, to an Aussie number only. Hence we kept them, turned them on when needed, and paid for an SMS or three. I had to pay $70 for them to get the prepay package that expires in 6 months - Optus call it Long Expiry. With $10 top up i would have lost the number in a month. I’m basically looking for a UK “low cost, rare use” contract to do the same when I move to Oz. Ideally one that doesn’t get annoyed that I only use it rarely, and “abroad”, and cuts me off. Many thanks, D

One tip - I found that with BBC iPlayer, I could use the iPad app to start a download over a VPN. Once the download had started, I could turn off the VPN and it would continue downloading without issue, and often much faster because of the lack of VPN. Plus play without buffering of course.

We’re moving to Oz permanently, but will likely keep UK mobiles for whenever we go back to UK, and for those tailing-off services like text codes for HMRC, some services we used to use, etc. Does anyone have any recommendations? I see many only need you to send a text or call once every 6 months to keep active. ASDA seems to keep your number for a year (but lock it after 6 months and drop your credit after 9). Three seems to allow “Go Roam” which gives free SMS receiving when in Oz, but will block your account after two months continuously abroad, which would count them out. Many thanks, D

Thanks Alan. If I can’t defer travel, then would it be an option to receive the commission on my AU payroll? Or would that likely cause other issues due to income being earned in one jurisdiction but paid in another? Many thanks, D

We’re moving to Sydney next week, and starting to panic about house rentals. Basically, we’ve set our heart on Newport/Bilgola, and Bilgola Plateau primary. We’ve targeted the area since we visited a while ago and loved it, and since I work from home, the distance from the city isn’t too concerning. We intend to rent for a year to find our feet and familiarise ourselves, and then buy. However - there are just no rentals turning up there. I guess it’s to be expected - settled community, too far out of the city for much of a transient population, not much new build for investment properties to rent out... But it leaves us in a situation where we visited the area and school last year, met the head teacher, had a tour, thought it was great - but may not actually get into the catchment area before the start of the school year as there are barely one or two new properties on the rental market every week. We do have our heart set there, and I wonder if anyone can offer any tips for getting into the catchment area? I know in London people do things like rent a flat for a year, get their kid in, then move out. I guess we could do a similar thing. We do intend to buy in that area and be part of that community, but unfortunately the moral justification isn’t enough in itself, and we have limited time. Any tips would be welcome. Also, for proof of address, is it simply a case of presenting a utility bill for the property, or do you have to provide something more substantial? Many thanks, D

Our shippers are coming Thursday, and will (in fact insist) on boxing everything themselves. One thing my control freakness can’t handle is not being able to photo the contents of each box - we’ll do an inventory of what’s in the house before we go, I guess. Has anyone else done anything to address this (assuming you don’t box it all yourself!) Many thanks, D

Well, our shippers arrive Thursday. I’m having a search around, and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good “to go” final checklist for preparing for shipping. I’m coming up with things like cleaning furniture, making sure stuff and organised is tidy so it ends up put in the same box when shipped, putting stuff to take as baggage in a “do not ship” box, etc. But is there a decent checklist I can refer to? Many thanks! D

Well, to be fair, I didn’t get one. All self-funded, since it’s my choice. But you can certainly argue that NOT receiving a pay rise, is a pay cut. Why are they giving you a pay cut to move? Do they want you to move to a local company that pays market rate? ;-)

Well, I argued for a 20% uplift, and my company gave me 30%, so that was a nice outcome.

Hi, I'm due to move from the UK to Australia around Christmas. As part of the move, my company is closing my employment contract in the UK on 31st December, and commencing my Australian one (same company) on 1st January. Hence I'll get a P45 referencing 31st December. However - I'm in sales and get commission, which is paid a month in arrears, with typically a large amount of it in December. My company said they'll pay my commission in a special January 31st payslip, and issue me a second P45 right after that. So, once I land in Australia, I'll get a GBP salary payment into my UK bank account, which I assume will be declared to the HMRC under PAYE, and which I'll need to declare on my first Australian tax return after July next year, and I assume pay tax at the prevailing rate. I expect to handle it as a split tax year between the UK and Australia. My question is - is it better to receive that payment in my UK or Australian payslips - assuming I can choose? The higher-rate income tax rates are pretty similar, I'm a part-year resident in each, and the amount is the same, just whether it's in one currency or another. The payment relates to work in the UK, due under my UK contract, so I assume its natural home is in the UK. It seems there's little difference in which country's payslip I receive it in, but i thought I'd check.

Actually, to expand on that - the exchange rate is 1.8, so 2.1 is only an uplift of 15% or so.

So it's lower?

Thanks! You've triggered my memory from before. I remember this figure being banded about quite a while ago.

Thanks all. I've decided to buy over there, maybe secondhand as I'm a newbie to a decent roadbike. I was thinking of an eBike for day-to-day errands to handle the Avalon slopes, but I've decided a more sensible approach is a decent road bike and then a scooter for errands. D