Marisawright

Having immediately regretted the move back myself I would consider your job security and financial position before considering coming back. The grass isn't always greener believe me.

 

BTW -a eureka moment for me was being in England renting an ex council house and scraping the ice off the car in the winter. I thought to myself 'aha now I remember why I emigrated now - doh!!!!'

Very wise words. When you move to a new country, you immediately see your old life through rose-coloured glasses and forget all the stuff that made you so keen to leave! As I said on another thread - if you think you want to go back, sit down and make an effort to remember why you left.

I say this as someone who's contemplating moving back to the UK, at least for a few years. There are good reasons for doing so but I am anxious that some of the reasons I left will still be there!

Because people are forever trying to move forward...unfortunately being on the arse end of the world is a huge backward step for some and coming back to the UK is a forward step. That's the bottom line grass ain't greener for some down under its burnt brown and lifeless.

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 thought I'd post this here as well as in the general forum. Hope that's ok?)

 

 

The real estate agent says he wants our credit card details when we make the offer and

before negotiation start

s. If everything goes ahead he

says

he'll deduct $1,000 from our account and when the sale terms are agreed he will come back and ask for a deposit.

 

Is this normal practice? and can we refuse to give him call over our credit card like this?

 

We live on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

 

 

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.

I think I read somewhere that it's 35 years. Would that be right?

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.

Hi All,

 

Me and the Familywould love to move to Oz... I have just starting to compile a list of costs to moving to Oz, which includes

 

Months Rent

Deposit

Flights

Visa's

Shipping Container

Spending money

Car

 

Is there anything else I am missing,

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.

Since we moved here I have been home with the kids. I have started to worry about filling in the tax forms at the end of the financial year and have also realised being at home with the kids is kind of like being invisible... Is absolutely nothing paid into the Aussie equivalent of pension fund for me at the moment? Will I only start to accrue Super (or whatever you call it) once I get back to work?

 

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!

 

Maybe you could look at places closer to Sydney, between Parra and Central Railway - Ashfield, Croydon, Strathfield, Burwood, if they are within your budget. .

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.

Well with Abbot and co in charge of Oz now, who knows what direction pension laws will be going. I do agree though Jen85, 25 years in country should be more then enough years worth of tax, medicare and other services paid to the gov.

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.

Just to say, I have no probs whatsoever with my or my husband's current commute, I know we're really lucky, we could even cycle it if we didn't have to drop off the kids. We're just looking for a family-friendly, good schools/ childcare and affordable suburb.

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?

I agree with this. So basically If I want to live in a "sufficiently nice" and modern house I will need to live far away from the cbd.. This will mean long commute time then, 1 hour or more ? Not really quality life I would say. Being from Europe, I'm used to that (actually even more than 1 hour) and don't want to go on with that kind of lifestyle: work , commute time and little time left for leisure..

 

Having been to Melbourne and Canberra as well, I found the houses in Canbera to be much more modern and the neighborhoods more nice. Probably built in the last 5 years. Anyway, there does not seem to be much life over there and besides I am only sponsored by nsw, so out of question. Just a comment to compare.

 

As far as I am concerned, the bad state and price of real estate in Sydney is a huge drawback to me moving. What's the point of moving to a nice country that is doing so well economically if I have to pay through the nose for an old ugly house I won't like ? I am really starting to wonder if moving to oz is the right thing to do..

 

I am trying not to sound too negative but if the houses were large, modern and close to the cbd at least this would justify the level of prices I am seeing online but they are not...

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.

Its the same for the inside and out. All the houses that I have been looking at are furnished from the 60's. Whats all that about. There are some uptodate houses but 70% of them are not worth a look. Very strange for a large cosmopolitan city.

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.

Just wondering if anyone could give me some advice on what southerlandshire is like. I am moving to sydney in march/april. And I would like to be living out of the city but close to tge airport ( for work). We were looking at Crunula.

 

Thanks

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Hi,

 

I have been checking on google street view many areas in Sydney in order to find the best place for me to live when I have arrived.

 

The majority of what I have seen are old and ugly houses. I'm not talking about apartments buildings here.

 

Now is it me or is the housing in Sydney not a quality one ?

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.

Hi I am a single 25 year old guy coming to Canberra in August and will be working at the hospital

 

My salary will be around $78,000 AUS

 

Would it be feasible to live in the city centre (civic) and commute to the hospital or would you recommend living in an area closer to the hospital

 

I still enjoy going out so would prefer an area with lots of bars and restaurants preferably within walking distance

 

I am also thinking about finding a room mate to share with in order to make sure that I meet new people

 

I have heard that ACT in general is ridiculously expensive for housing, do you think I will be able to rent somewhere semi decent on my wage?

 

Cheers

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.

We also are planning to return 'home ' later in the year I contacted Centrelink about portablity of age pensions and was informed we will be eligble to receive our pensions in the UK ( I did post about that response earlier ) However we have just been informed that as from January 2014 legislation -yet to be passed - will make it that you need 35 years or 420 months for the age pension to be portable That mean my hubby who currently has 258/300ths ( its 25 years or 300 months now ) if we leave moving until January would only receive 258/420ths a big drop in anyones language

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.

Thanks for the info, but actually the info form does state that documents proving name change (eg. My marriage certificate with my maiden name) were not issued in Australia, then a name change certificate is needed.

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.