bensym

Cheers guys ^^^^will look into this.

Applied 27/4/17 online in Sydney. Still no news. My permanent residency visa has since expired. Does anyone know if there is a way around leaving country to go on holiday, without having to renew my PR visa?

thanks for the response. Getting a lender for my UK property (as an Australian) is hard enough at the moement.

Hi All, I need to re-mortgage my UK property to a buy-to-let (now the permission-to-let is expiring), and I also would like to take out an Australian residential mortgage here in Sydney. Is anyone aware of any of the international lenders (HSBC for example) offering lending on the two properties combined ( ie preferential rates on the two loans or cross-border mortgaging)? Usually these banks operate through local subsidiaries (so separate balance sheets) so I am thinking they probably wouldn't offer it. I was wondering if anyone has come cross this sort of offering before? Cheers Ben

a nice summary article from the SMH the other day http://www.smh.com.au/business/how-low-can-the-aussie-dollar-go-20130624-2osff.html

Discount the USD effects against the current AUD sell-off at your peril. USD is still the globe's reserve currency. The investment community (the bulk of which are based in the US) are long AUD stocks and bonds. US financial institutions own 40% of Telstra stock, 25% of the big 4 banks here.Asian pension funds are dropping AUD securities also (esp Japan). Returns are falling, non-mining investment is exiting. Lets not forget that China owns the bulk of US debt now as well. If it's rumoured Soros went short AUD @ 1.03-4 v USD then the world listens. Put it this way, in watching this sell-off I have totally discounted anything happening with the UK economy, and even any news out of China. Any big swings overnight have been attributable to what the US Fed is saying re ending QE. Watch GBPUSD v AUDUSD and you will see what I mean. When you factor in the impact of the technically driven computer programmes trading the markets, then the herd mentality on USD becomes further exacerbated.

Thanks for tips everyone. I will check them out. Yes I want a few accounts as I'm sending some GBP over every month. Moneycorp were quoting me 4c under the market on Friday which was taking the p*ss in my view.

Thanks for the advice lara and wattsy.

Does anyone use an fx broker other than Moneycorp? I'd like to investigate a few quotes going forward when I need to transfer.

I can remember coming on holiday in the early 2000s and it was 2.80 -2.90. I was buying people drinks and meals, and instead of shouting loadsamoney like the Harry Enfield character, i was shouting "strength of the pound". geez how that came back to bite me on the ar*e when i moved here to Oz.

I live in Sutherland Shire which is great for families (national park, beach, pools, schools). A mate of mine attended the Catholic schools in Caringbah which he says were pretty good. I think you could probably get a 4 bedder with pool for $1-1.2 mil. Train into Redfern takes 40-45mins and you could walk to the RPA from there in 10-15mins.

Yeah avoid Coles. For start-up here Aldi and K-mart will be your best bets. Aldi do basic loaf of bread for a $1, 2L of milk for under $2, and are even doing booze now - $10 for a bottled six-pack of "unkown" but quite palatable lager.

It's stuck in this 1.46-1.62 range for the past couple of years. I think this is going to tick back up to 1.60-1.61, but I will only get excited if it breaks 1.62. I read somewhere in the aussie press that the Australian mining boom is not expected to fully fizzle out until 2014 which could tie in nicely with some recovery out of the UK, but that is quite a way down the track. The mining company CEOs are now openly complaining about the strength of AUD, and if this makes them uncompetitive (as it has the other underperforming sectors in the Aus economy), then the RBA has to listen. I would say transfer as little as possible. Play the long-game on this.

Moved to Miranda (sutherland shire) last month and loving the area. We have all the amenities on our door step, and although we're 25km from the city it still feels like things are going on. I grew up in the inner west of Sydney and much prefer the Shire. Can't wait to get out and about locally when summer starts to roll on. We're three stops from Cronulla on the train, and with a limited stops train you would be in Kogarah in 20 mins (40 mins to city). Agree with LKC the Taren Point route to Kogarah is far more bike-friendly than Princes Highway route. Alternatively, I hear places like Oatley and surrounding areas are quite nice and closer to Kogarah.

I didn't know you could do it online. I thought it was Victorian residents only could apply online using a test app. I went to a centrelink office to do my wife's yesterday. Needed passport and visa details, driver's license and medicare card. I have to say getting documents here is far smoother than in the UK. We got our driver's license and medicare card on the spot.