Marisawright

Usually people who emigrate are discontented with life in their home country for some reason. Then when they get to they new country and encounter a few difficulties, (which they will), they think back to the Old Country with rose-coloured glasses, and conveniently forget all the sh!t that drove them to leave. I've known quite a few Brits who came to Australia, didn't settle and looked forward to going home - only to come back again. Once they got back to the UK, they remembered what had driven them to leave in the first place. So it's vitally important for anyone contemplating a return, to sit down and analyse why they left, and why they expect it to be any better if they go back. Of course, if someone was perfectly happy in the UK and only came to Australia because they thought it was Britain with sun and money, then they're bound to be disappointed in Australia and going back is the right thing to do.

I wouldn't agree. Say if the offer is accepted, you'll give him $1,000 cash to take the property off the market, but not before. if he wants the sale he'll agree.

It really depends how much money they've got. A house big enough for four boys would cost over a million dollars in inner Sydney, even as far out as Strathfield. Don't get me wrong, I love the inner city too, but it is very expensive for a family.

No, that's only if you move back to the UK (or some other country) and want to claim the pension there. If you're still in Australia, the residency qualification is only ten years.

The only sure thing is that moving countries will cost you much more than you think. It cost us about $20,000 - in 1985!!! It's the little things that will take you by surprise. For instance, you need to allow some money to buy essentials for the transition period. Remember, your shipping container will take a lot longer to make the journey than you will. If the shipping container leaves when you do, you'll have several weeks without furniture, pots, pans, cutlery, linen, etc etc. Australian property is rented unfurnished, so you'll have to buy all the basics to get you through that period (unless you're willing to pay for a serviced apartment for that whole time). Alternatively, you can send the shipping container on early. In that case, you may be able to "camp" in your home with the aid of old furniture, the second-best cutlery, or stuff loaned by friends. The snag with that option is that the shipping container may just get there early, and you'll find yourself hit with storage charges.

There are two kinds of pension in Australia. One is paid by the government and the only qualification for that is residency - no contributions required, ever, and it doesn't matter whether you work or not. The other is superannuation, which is a personal thing. You choose a superannuation fund and open an account with them, then if you're working, your employer has to pay a % of your income into it every month. You can also choose to put money into it if you wish. It's compulsory to have a superannuation fund if you're working - it's a way for the government to force you to save for retirement!

Definitely not. Get used to living in that area and when you're ready to buy a house, you'll find you can't afford one! Parramatta is the demographic centre of Sydney and there's a lot going on, so it's not a bad place to start looking. The Hills District is a nicer area than Liverpool, and there's plenty of young families there.

Take a look around Europe - most countries are increasing the retirement age and making it more difficult to get a pension. Australia could do much worse than it's proposing. Look at the UK - your pension is based on years worked, which is why my sister is stuck in an unhappy marriage: she married early and didn't work most of her life, so she can't get a decent pension on her own.

The bottom line is this: if you leave your home country, there must have been a reason. It's not something you do on a whim, after all. So there's no point in going back, unless that reason no longer applies.

If there's any doubt at all, I strongly recommend you stick it out until you all qualify for citizenship. That way, if you want to come back, you can. Whereas if you leave and lose your permanent residency, you'll NEVER be able to live in Australia again. You're so close now! You don't have to give up your British citizenship to be an Aussie, so it's a win-win.

If you're a British citizen and can meet the financial requirement, you can apply for her to come with you on a spouse visa. Residency doesn't matter - it's enough that you're intending to relocate back permanently. That will get her entry for two years, after which she can apply for permanence. There is a minimum length of relationship but I can't recall what it is.

We're in the same situation. From what we've been able to find out, the tax implications can be really nasty - I'll be interested if anyone is able to give better news. First, you'll lose your tax free threshold in Australia! That means ALL your income from Australian sources will be taxed. Also, you won't get the 50% discount rate on capital gains - you'll have to pay tax on 100% of the amount. That alone is going to be painful if you have a reasonable portfolio. You won't be taxed again on that income by the UK - but if you have a pension from your superannuation, they'll tax that. I'm assuming you just have a straightforward share portfolio, not a self-managed super fund. If you do have a SMSF, it will be taxed at 47% if you're a non-resident. You can get around that by taking your super as a lump sum and moving it all to the UK, or possibly transferring it to a UK pension fund (haven't looked into how that's done). Also of course, you could sell up your share portfolio and start a new one in the UK. I can understand why you're reluctant to do that (capital gains etc).

There is no formal agreement - all that means is that there's no special agreement re tax, social security etc. It doesn't prevent the pension being paid. The big change is that the qualifying age is going up from 25 years to 35 years. If you've lived in Australia for less than 35 years you can only get a pro-rated pension.

Yes you do have to pay stamp duty, which is on a sliding scale. There are Council rates and water rates. http://www.rams.com.au/home-loans/calculators/stamp-duty-calculator/

Where have you looked so far? I was an Eastern Suburbs girl when I first arrived and I'm amazed now how blinkered I was about the rest of Sydney. I still find the outer West too "dead", and it's an awfully long way from the beach, which is one of the things most Brits appreciate. However the Inner West (where I live now) has good transport links and you can still get to the beach with a short drive. I'm not sure about schools but cheaper suburbs for housing are Dulwich Hill, Lewisham and Marrickville. The St George and Sutherland Shire areas are worth a look. Engadine is too far out IMO - it's well over an hour to the city by train, and while it's only 50 minutes drive in theory, in practice it's over 2 hours in the rush hour. Besides, if you like the inner city life around Kingsford, you would find places like Illawong and Barden Ridge pretty dead. I've just spent 5 years in Oatley, which is a beautiful leafy suburb in the St George area. It has a village feel, a small town centre with a couple of cafes, huge park, 40 minutes by train to the CBD and about 30 minutes drive to Cronulla. Avoid anything close to the raill line because goods trains use it at night. Jannali and Gymea are a bit further out and also worth considering.

Sydney may be smaller than London, and it's not officially Australia's capital - but to all intents and purposes, you should think of Sydney as Australia's London. It's where most of the jobs are, it's the financial centre, and rentals and house prices are comparable. Would you expect to afford a large, modern house close to the centre of London? Or Paris? My sister has a high-powered job in London and she still has to commute over an hour to get to work. It's unreasonable to expect Sydney to be different. If you want to avoid a commute, then you'd be better off considering a smaller city like Newcastle, Wollongong. How old are you and what kind of "life" are you looking for - restaurants? culture? nightlife?

Most of those 60's houses were bought by the explosion of European immigrants who arrived after the war. They had just about saved enough money to buy a house in the 60's. They were frugal people who arrived with nothing and had to scrimp and save for everything. They furnished their houses in the 60's and never saw the point of replacing furniture that wasn't worn out. All those immigrants are now getting old and are moving into retirement homes, or dying. They may have no kids, or the kids are established elsewhere, so the house gets sold. That's why you see so many of them.

What are your interests? Do you want to be close to the beach? If so, Cronulla is a good choice but expensive. You could look at suburbs a bit further up the line, but still handy for the beach. Gymea is a nice suburb with restaurants and cafes. The St George area might appeal to you - funnily enough, although it's closer to the city, the rentals are sometimes cheaper than the Shire. Oatley is a very cute leafy village with a couple of cafes, good basic shops, and has the advantage that you're only 40 minutes by train to the city as well. Mortdale doesn't have quite the same atmosphere but has a few restaurants. If you're looking at suburbs on the Illawarra line - Oatley, Mortdale, Jannali, Sutherland etc - check they're not close to the railway line. Huge coal trains rumble along it during the night - if you live near the rail lijne, you'd better be deaf.

There are some beautiful, "character" houses in Sydney but there are also many houses built in the 1950's when there was an explosion of post-war immigration. I agree they look ugly, but that doesn't mean they're poor quality - far from it. In fact, the quality of new construction in Australia is far, far more questionable. Given a choice, I'd rather buy and renovate an old house to my taste, than buy a brand new one. Brand new houses are always tens of thousands more expensive than an old one of the same size. I don't know what the quality of building is like in UK/Western Europe and I wouldn't even assume they are equal - I hear comparisons of shonky building in the UK compared to Germany, for instance. Plus I have memories of paper-thin Barrett houses from my life in the UK 20 years ago. There are certainly cowboy builders in Australia but I see there's a UK show called exactly that, so I'm not sure whether we're any worse.

I'm not a Canberran but I do visit Canberra a lot for work. Canberra is slightly cheaper compared to Sydney, Melbourne or Perth when you compare similar suburbs. The averages make it sound more expensive, because the other capital cities have far flung, cheap suburbs which bring the averages down. Canberra is more compact with less variation. Rental in Canberra used to be expensive because of the demand from politicians and students, but there's been a huge amount of development of new apartments and it's now a renters' market (though the real estate industry is trying hard to keep that quiet). If you're arriving in August you won't be competing with students (the school year starts in January), so don't be scared to negotiate with the agent, you should be able to bargain them down. Commuting in Canberra is a doddle, the roads are good and rarely congested, so there's no need to live in the centre - and Civic is fairly dead, anyway. A lot of the best restaurants and nightlife are outside the city centre, in various suburbs. Personally I like the area around Kingston and Manuka but some might find that snobby (and it's the most expensive). Braddon is grungy but cool. You might check out the University websites for advice, you're likely to like the same locations they do.

By the way, our reasons for moving have nothing to do with hating Australia. I loved Australia from the moment I arrived here, felt like I'd come home. But I've always had trouble with heat and humidity, and as I get older, I'm even less tolerant. Any day it gets over 30, all I can do is mooch around the house - if I go out for even a minute, I feel like I'm going to explode. My husband (second marriage, an Aussie, only been together a few years) has skin problems which are made worse by the heat - he didn't know that, and has been suffering all his life, until we went on our honeymoon to Europe and his skin cleared up like magic. We're both semi-retired and now we've got more time to fill, feel the lack of interesting things to do in Oz. We're not beach people, or sporty - we're into dancing, art, history. We're also all alone - no kids, all our elderly relos here have passed away, no brother or sisters in Oz. So my dilemma is a bit different to others. I don't feel homesick for Scotland in the slightest and I feel Australia is my home, but I'm bloody bored! We're thinking of moving to Bristol, which I loved when I lived there in the '80's. I have two nieces, one sister and their families in the south of England, and we might be able to afford more travel as airfares to Europe are so cheap. But the rules on pension and the tax on super would be a big issue for us as we're not rich in the first place.

This is the biggest killer for me, too - and it seems like a lot of people on this forum are not aware of it. My understanding is that it will be made retrospective, so moving now won't avoid it - did they say it wouldn't be?

They changed the rules last year. If you live overseas, you can't collect your full Aussie pension unless you've worked at least 35 years in Australia before age 65. I've only been in Oz for 27 years and I had a few years off work during that time, so I don't have enough time left to rack up the 35 years.

That's madness. It looks like I was lucky - I never got around to changing back to my maiden name when I divorced, because everyone in Oz knew me by my married name and it ws too much trouble. I had a real kerfuffle when I eventually remarried because I had to submit all kinds of documents to establish the chain of name changes - but they didn't complain about having UK documents in there. Maybe it was because I wasn't going back to the maiden name. That was only a few months ago.

We looked into this exhaustively and I agree, it's confusing. If you're over 60 and take money from your Australian super fund, it gets special treatment, and is not taxable in Australia - as you know. If you have moved to the UK, any money you draw from your super is classed as income. It gets no special treatment. To quote: "The general rule is that where double taxation agreement is available, the country of the pensioner's residence has taxing right in relation to pensions sourced from another country. For example, a UK resident receives an allocated pension from an Australian fund. No tax is payable by the Australia fund, tax on the pension is payable instead by the pensioner in the UK." http://www.ngssuper.com.au/assets/Downloads/Retiring-Overseas.pdf