runslikeafish

I've taken an acoustic guitar as baggage in a fairly cheap (guitar shaped) guitar case to Aus with a cheap airline - no damage. I've also shipped an electric and a good acoustic that were wrapped like new born babies and the acoustic had a couple of minor dings which annoyed the heck out of me. When I think about how it was packed it would have taken a bit of effort to ding it. I think if I was travelling now with my best guitar I'd use a top quality case for sure.

Mrs runslikeafish and I might be around Salamanca tomorrow, if we are we'll say hi and have a quick beer. Post where the meet is and I'll hopefully duck in. ...I can thoroughly recommend Maldini's by the way!

I'd absolutely recommend setting up a bank account in Aus before you leave. You can do it pretty easily over the Internet. I know NAB, ANZ and Commonwealth all let you do that. As well as being able to transfer money to the account (and I agree that you MUST use a currency broker) you can go into the bank on day 1 and pick up EFTPOS (debit/credit) cards and withdraw/deposit cash as necessary. You should also get a helpful clerk who will explain to you what people mean when they say "cheque, savings or credit?" when you pay for something... ​Good luck.

Us too. Great isn't it?

When it comes to actually moving you will have an amazing amount of things to do. I would get as far ahead on planning your move as you can. Evan planning what you're going to ship, selling the things your not shipping and cleaning/packing the things you are shipping where you can. Also, start getting your house ready to sell/let. We certainly found that in the last few weeks there was nowhere near enough time to do everything we needed to, so get ahead of yourself if you can! I did a short blog post on it a little while ago that you may find helpful. ​Good luck

Of course only you can decide but I was 40 when I moved and it's been absolutely fantastic. Our circumstances are obviously really different but we came over with A LOT less than 250,000 and financially we're miles better off now. I like the earlier comment about better to regret something you've done than something you've not done. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Just about to mention this! Details here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/nr-landlords.htm . Note that each owner (e.g. husband and wife) need to complete their own form.

Great thread! Just one other point, it is possible to get a 95% mortgage on an investment property here. It's even possible to go up to 97% at the moment by adding in fees (including LMI) to the loan. In practice this may mean that you're borrowing around 94% of the value of the property and adding fees but that doesn't really matter. You either have to find the money for the deposit or the fees... Needless to say, if you do borrow 95% then the LMI is larger than if you borrow 90% but not prohibitively so.

Just to pick up on one point in this thread, lenders may take into account your UK financial situation. Not necessarily credit history per se but certainly income and expenditure based in the UK. So our UK property's mortgage and rental income were taken into account on our recent mortgage application and I had to prove both. Also, there is no way I'd be going directly to NAB or any other bank come to that. Using a good finance/mortgage broker makes the process easier as well as giving you access to a large range of lender's products. A good finance broker will know, or find, the best deals for your circumstances. I think I've said to use a finance broker a lot so just wanted to point out that I'm not a finance broker and don't get commission! :wink:

I absolutely agree with some of the points here: 1/ make sure you meet the lender's acceptance criteria (and be prepared to provide a lot of documentation) 2/ use a mortgage/finance broker Regarding that latter point, I have found a mix of standards with finance brokers here, as with everything I suppose, so be prepared to shop around. Asking for recommendations would be a good starting point. A good finance broker will guide you through the whole process and explain the different fees and grants etc. ​Good luck!

Has anyone managed to successfully buy a UK Investment property from Aus - whether to move into in a few years time or not? I think it's worth considering at the moment with the Aus $ and comparatively depressed UK housing market. I agree that is does seem like a minefield so I'd be interested to know if anyone has actually managed it.

Beautiful winter evening...

So how are all the new arrivals finding the start of winter? This week has seen the first frost of the year where I live in Sandy Bay and a work colleague tells me it was 2 degrees on Monday morning. Personally I love the cool crisp days, you get some beautiful skies and it's still really warm in the sun. I remember last May having a 27 degree day so I am expecting some variation! ​I work with a few people who fly in from Queensland and they don't cope too well with the temperatures

We certainly expect to stay here for ever - and if we do move I seriously doubt it would be back to the UK. Nothing particularly against the UK but it would feel like we've wasted everything that we've done. Plus we've lived there all our lives prior to the last 18 months so why not try something new? One thing that a couple of people mentioned; not calling the UK "home" I think has an impact on how likely you are to think about moving back. Just a thought.

Firstly I would say to definitely ship. The cost of replacing your furniture will far outweigh the cost of shipping. Also, if you do move back to the UK in 18 months, what are you going to do with all your Australian furniture? Whilst garage sales are pretty popular here, you'd have to be pretty lucky to sell a house full of furniture! Just on the mortgage front, your existing mortgage may well not let you rent your place out but you can go to a mortgage broker who should be able to find a buy to let mortgage for you. I let mine out without too much difficulty and by using a letting agent I am comfortable that everything is fine even though I'm on the other side of the world. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

One other thing to note is that (in the UK at least) all the admin is done online which makes life quicker and easier.

I remember being extremely underwhelmed at the "welcome" from passport control It must have been a long day

Agree with all of this. Ours was very quick (except for the drive to Birmingham from Cornwall!) and non-invasive. Good luck!

My only experience so far has been phoning in the morning and an appointment the same day. Another thing to bear in mind here is you can "shop around" for your GP if you want to.

I'm also in Sandy Bay and my Internet connection is fine (Telstra)

For me Blackmans Bay would win hands down. I've had a few conversations with builders recently and they've mostly said that building isn't really cost effective at the moment - i.e. you could buy a property cheaper than it would cost you to build the same property. Good luck

I just did a quick google of "printing Hobart" and loads came up. Not every job is advertised on Seek - have a look at CareerOne too and perhaps speak to an employment agent? Good luck

A few job sites to check: http://www.careerone.com.au/ http://www.seek.com.au/ http://www.jobs.tas.gov.au/

Nice one Violethaze! Welcome to Tassie!

Just to reiterate what a couple of others have said: I can only speak for Hobart but I feel safer there at night than I did even in Cornwall. We're often out in Salamanca of an evening and I've never seen any trouble there. There is crime around of course but in my (limited admittedly) experience it tends to be centered around particular areas. I certainly wouldn't say there's a problem with antisocial behavior - quite the opposite in my experience.