fensaddler

Great, I'm not rich, and I'm certainly not an oligarch. My 'property' (ho, ho, a semi in the Black Country) hasn't risen in value in ten years, except for what I have spent on improving it (in fact, it would have fallen in value if I hadn't extended it), but as soon as the market does turn up, the bastards nick what little I've got. Been a money pit from start to finish. Thank you Britain. So since this is aimed at oligarchs, I don't suppose they might consider an exemption for mere mortals whose houses are worth diddly squat? Glad I've got a good accountant.

This is where you just need to adapt and accept that Australia is not the UK - let go, don't try and bring the UK with you, and pick up the threads here. As others have said, the generic stuff you can get cheaply anywhere, but the unique stuff, which most schools have, is limited in supply and expensive. It is at least good quality. And don't assume the sports gear is generic either...

Agreed. I speak as a Blackcountryman, and the curry here is not a patch on proper balti. The best curry here is the stuff I mek meself.

FWIW we had never been here, and knew no one here. We had not harboured a long term ambition to come to Australia, and the lifestyle factors (surfing, beaches, barbies, sunshine) that attract so many were not big factors for us (though it is nice to have a summer pretty much guaranteed, and not to have to endure the short winter days of the northern hemisphere). It was a rational decision, albeit a risk. And it has worked for us (in Melbourne). So to the OP, there is every chance it will work out for you - be positive, put yourselves out there, take a few risks, kiss a few frogs, don't dwell on what you've lost, but celebrate what you've gained. And accept that one of the things that makes it worth doing is that everything is a challenge.

I speak as an Englishman, and I think haggis is great.

For most people, most of the time, a decision to migrate is a mixture of push and pull issues - stuff that is giving you a reason to leave, and stuff that is giving you a reason to choose where you are going. All I can advise is to ask what the push is - it doesn't sound like there is too much, and the pull sounds like a dream painted by TV programmes. The TV image, as most of the posters will tell you here, is nothing like the reality. For most people, once they have got over the honeymoon period, the advantages of one place over another are not that huge - you gain and you lose, and the balance can be very fine. For us, on the positives, my career is probably in better shape, our daughter is in a better place in terms of schooling and peer influences, we probably have more friends (but less family), and we live in a city we love (for so many reasons). On the downside, of course, we lost close contact with family and friends in the UK, we no longer own the house we live in (and the stretch to buy one here is considerable), and our stability is (still) at the whim of government. I commute further and I have a longer working day, whilst my OH has not found a permanent job. And there are lots of small things - not being able to go and watch your football team for example, and not being able to listen to Radio 4 in the bathroom and in the car. I know only what I've read on your post, but I sense there is little push for you, and the pull sounds to be too much about a dream rather than a hard nosed reality. I fear you will miss what you have left, and find that what you came for is not really here. Of course, Oz has given us lots of things we could not have expected or planned for, so that may also happen to you - but I'm not sure that is enough to take the step you are taking, particularly with the situation around your OH's business.

Your OH is an electrician, and I'm assuming that within reason he could find work in most places where there is an economy (you are very lucky - for me it's Melbourne, Sydney or the plane out). I'd just echo some of the comments above - Darwin is a pretty tough place to settle (hot, humid, small and a long way from anywhere), and maybe before you call it a day, you could try somewhere a bit easier - Adelaide or Melbourne maybe? I guess it depends what you want out of life, but it may be that a different place and experience in Aus puts a different spin on it. Whatever you do, good luck. And yes, babies don't need new stuff - beg and borrow and buy secondhand - you don't need most of the kit for long anyway, and they don't care so long as they are fed, clean and loved. So wherever you are, you'll get through. The big clincher may be family support when you have very small ones.

I don't think I made any comment about this? Someone else?? I have an excellent accountant in the UK, and I leave them to advise what I can and cannot claim... Pasties though, I like.

I'm still making a modest profit, just not anything like as much as if First Direct had kept me on. Probably if I'd not have said anything about renting I'd still be borrowing from them... Did FD consent to your renting your house out? But neither values nor rentals are anything special in the urban West Midlands, and typical 25-30% losses in house value through the GFC have not been recovered at all, unlike parts of the South East.

The problem is that too much of the land has been built on at far too low a density, and even now councils are resisting the degree of increased density that is needed. We're not short of land, just short of land within an hour of a major city that isn't already covered with low density, shoddily built bungalows...

That's about where my thinking is. At present money moves from those who have little (first time buyers, young people, lower incomes) and who are stuck paying rent, to those who have a lot (investors, who include a lot of wealthy baby boomers, and cashed up overseas investors), and the pattern is only intensifying. I'm not sure a government of any colour has the cojones to do anything about it, since they stand to hack off all the people who have their nice little earners going. However, if someone does realise this is about the biggest cost of living problem out there right now, and is a serious problem for a hell of a lot of people, then they are going to have to unwind this very carefully indeed - whilst a housing bubble is not desirable, neither is a stupendous crash of the type which hit so many of us in the UK a few years ago. At the moment, the lack of FTBs isn't going to correct the market because there is so much investor cash washing around, and the more investors wade into the market, the more potential FTBs are forced into continued rental, thus providing a ready market for all the investors... Negative gearing has to go, albeit very gently...

I gather it also applies only to some qualification/skill levels - and essentially does not apply to occupations which require qualifications at diploma or above (ie. if its a graduate level occupation, its not subject to LMT). So it depends what the OP is actually coming over to do. The flaw in all of this is that for many of the occupations filled by 457s, the labour markets are international - so skilled people from many countries work in other countries, and the flows are two-way (in my industry, I imagine there are many Aussies working in the UK, as well as poms working over here, for example). I imagine, rather bluntly, that its this issue that the 'diploma plus' exemption is trying to achieve. But even many skilled trades, which LMT will affect, also have these sorts of international labour markets, so its all a bit crude.

Lucky you! Before I left the UK our mortgage interest was about £130 monthly. We did the right thing and advised our bank (First Direct) that we intended to rent out the property and they told us they could no longer offer us a mortgage. So we were forced into a buy to let mortgage costing £430 a month. Who says honesty pays? And that's how you can make next to no money on a rental...

If that's to me, the answer is yes. No choice but to do so as a 457.

We've used the accountants Saward Dawson in Blackburn for our tax returns and they have given us sound advice, and appear to understand migrant tax positions on various visas.

Take some advice from a broker. They will help you time your transfer to maximise your exchange rate. If you don't need it for four months, you can give the broker instructions to move your money when the rate reaches a given figure, and you have a four month window for that to happen. No need to rush, especially if you get less money over here as a result!!

Melbourne has the reputation of being the most diverse, multicultural city in Australia, and the most comfortable with that. This has certainly been my experience. You will almost certainly be fine here.

We're renting a brand new unit. The ad initially said 'no pets'. We have one cat and a couple of guinea pigs, so we asked anyway. With a little discussion, we got it - though there is an additional 'cat clause' in the contract. So my advice is, ask. Sometimes if you are obviously good tenants, and you only have a cat or small animals, you'll be OK.

Absolutely - the big upside of the 457 approach is that you come knowing you have a job. I would certainly not have wanted to come out here on PR with no job, and then watch my savings burn up as I hunted for one. I know a lot of people are fortunate to be able to come here on PR, having already got a job as well, and that is of course a better route. But if things are bad in the UK in your field, if you are older, if your skill is not on the PR shortlist, then 457 is a route to Aus, albeit like any scenario, with its attached risks. I can't say I enjoy having to get permission to move jobs, and having to report in to the government when I move house, nor do I like the way so many companies here (private healthcare for one) fleece 457 visa holders, but I'd still prefer to be here than back in the UK. That is not to ignore that many people get treated badly by unscrupulous employers - but neither is that just confined to 457s, as stories of bullying rife in healthcare attest.

Firstly, my heart goes out to the OP - just over two years ago that was us, so I can only imagine. We're here, as a family, on a 457 (so frankly the 'not suitable for families, too many risks, very silly' is a rather overblown generalisation). We used a reputable recruitment consultant who specialised in my industry and who took time to get to know us, and who knew the company and the individuals involved, so we felt secure that the people involved could be trusted. The same consultant has now placed me in my new company (I indicated I wanted to move on, so no ethical conflict). I can't possibly comment on the whole of the 457 market, but it got us over here, and employers have been fine. It was certainly more secure than the same industry in the UK, which was downsizing rapidly when I left. Having said that, being a 457 is not the greatest, not least because the visa class has been a political football playing to dog whistle racism (shamefully, by the Labor party, of all people), and we will be moving to PR ASAP. Current employers are lovely, and very supportive of this. I guess my advice would be that it can work, but be cautious and check out whether you can really trust the people you are relying on. In some industries (IT, are you listening?) there is a reputation for 457s being abused and treated as disposable cannon fodder, so caution is advisable. As in anything, do your homework, and check bona fides....

For the record, I checked my credit agreement from two years ago, and the rate is about 9.5%. As far as comparative car prices go, I had a look online at the official retail prices of a few cars in the UK which had close equivalents for sale over here. The basic 1.6 Ford Focus (comparing basic spec, and the same engine as in the cheapest model over here) is listed as £15,805 in the UK and at $20,290 here. A mid range Golf, in the UK the 1.4 TSi 122SE 5 door, is £20,710, whilst the nearest equivalent here, the 90TSi Comfortline, is $24,990. And to chuck in a third comparison, since Japanese cars are always well priced over here, the base Honda Jazz in the UK (the version with aircon, just to make it fair) sells for £12,495. Its nearest equivalent here retails for $14,990. As a caveat, this cannot take account of discounts and deals (the figures are the retail prices listed in What Car in the UK and Wheels over here) and specs are never directly comparable. These are all for manual models incidentally. However, my feeling remains that new cars are cheaper here, certainly in comparison to earnings.

Sorry Debs, I don't know, as I still rent here. I haven't yet applied for a mortgage.

Well I was a bit optimistic, but according to their website (http://www.esanda.com/personal/car-finance/esanda-car-loan/) Esanda quote a comparison rate of 9.44%. I definitely chipped that down in hard bargaining. As for comparative car prices, I guess it depends on the exchange rate you use, but as for everything else, the real cost of living exchange rate, which we all work to in our heads, is something like 2 to 2.2 times. So, for example, a base spec Ford Focus is around $21k on the road here - you would not get the same car in the UK for GBP10.5k. A mid range Golf is about $27k - similarly the UK price is bound to be more than GBP 13.5k. It is all complicated by exchange rates, specs and tax levels, and of course, you wouldn't be shipping a brand new car from the UK because you have to have owned it for a year to ship it. Secondhand is different - for some models that are particularly expensive in Aus, or which depreciate sharply in the UK compared to Aus, there may be a financial case for shipping your own car out here. But for most cars, most of the time, the calculations I've seen from others and done for myself suggest that it doesn't usually work out in your favour. And that is before the hassle factor of shipping, and the likely reduced resale value of an overseas car. So whilst there are always exceptions (classics, rare models etc) I'd still tend to suggest that for your daily driver, you are better to sell what you have and buy when you get here. I arrived late in 2011, I did all the sums and the research that I reasonably could - I shipped a classic largely for sentimental reasons, and bought our daily driver when we got here.

The finance rates I can't recall off the top of my head (it was over two years ago when I took the loan out, and base rates have dropped since then) but the finance is with Esanda, who are an ANZ subsidiary. I seem to recall about 6% at the time, though I may be wildly wrong. The advice I'd give is bargain hard and get more than one quote - the finance guy at the dealership definitely had room for manouvre. The finance market is pretty competitive, so prices for borrowing aren't particularly high (though base rates here aren't as low as the UK). As for costs around owning new cars, you will need to bear in mind that regulations around MOT equivalents, road tax etc vary from state to state so I can only be definitive for Victoria. Here, your road tax equivalent is about $750 per year, but bear in mind that this also includes a chunk of compulsory third party insurance. You will also need to get insurance beyond that, and this will probably not be much different from the UK, perhaps a little cheaper. The standard approach seems to be any driver covered over a given age, for any use, subject to lowered excess for named drivers. There is no compulsory MOT equivalent, ever, in VIC (though you will need an RWC, roadworthy certificate, if a car changes hands) - in NSW this is different and there is an annual test after a particular age. Fuel is effectively about half the price of the UK, but there is significant price variation between the three grades of petrol available - 91, 95 and 98 octane - and some cars (including my VW) only drink 98. Japanese and Korean typically drink 91, which saves you money - worth checking. My judgement is that new cars (except for prestige cars, which carry substantial taxation penalties, and are painfully expensive compared to the UK) are, compared to earnings, relatively cheap compared to the UK (also a result of the strength of the A$), but then depreciate more slowly, making secondhand cars relatively more expensive. Because cars last longer, and depreciate slower, buying a new car is not the money pit it is in the UK. But it is also worth saying that secondhand cars are generally in better shape over here too, because they are worth more, don't rot as badly, and get looked after better as a result. Servicing, tyres etc look to be much the same. Worth noting too that the norm over here is for cars to have auto gearboxes. Personally I can't stand autos, so bought a manual - which is typically about $2-3k cheaper. But bear in mind that the majority of stock (new and secondhand) in the system will be auto, and some cars and specifications will be auto only. Hope that lot helps?

Incidentally, the other thing to understand here is that no credit history here does not have the negative connotations it does in the UK. In the UK no credit history is suspect and seen as bad - here it is more that we know nothing, but we will give you the benefit of the doubt. The mindset is subtly different.