can1983

On 15/03/2022 at 21:36, Ausvisitor said:

So now feel like we have totally arrived.

1) House rented move in Friday

2) Car coming Saturday

3) Job starts 4th April

 

Not bad for coming over 4 weeks ago with nothing sorted except 1 weeks temp accomodation

 

Good stuff, it was tough when we first arrived living in an airbnb wife 6 months pregnant toddler running a muck. It got easier once we had a rental and, ultimately, our own home

1 hour ago, DrDougster said:

Has anyone ever made the repayments on their mortgage and actually 'lost the house' because the type of mortgage wasn't correct or they were living overseas?

Can't imagine it, there are 10's maybe 100's of thousands of brits living overseas on permanent visas who have mortgages in the UK for their former home - my sister is one of them.

Permanent residency isn't, well, permanent! it has an expiry doesn't guarantee citizenship if you are naughty.

I did it 10 years ago I paid a one off GBP250 fee to Santander for letting consent and all sorted.

I would imagine the best thing is to is let the current mortgage roll onto the SVR and be done with it why remortgage the rate isn;t going to be better than the SVR if you have to get a special 'living overseas never returning' kinda mortgage 

The rate is what the rate was my philosophy. When we moved our life savings were moved at 1.70,  a year afterwards we could have got 2.00. we missed out on over $50k

But it allowed us to buy a house to make a home and with silly house prices that 'loss' has been offset a few times over since.

The long term average is 1.70 so id move what you need when you need it. 

On 05/03/2022 at 11:46, Marisawright said:

That is a matter of personal opinion. It will vary from person to person.  You've seen that on this very forum.  You think it's reasonable, your friend thinks it's reasonable, but I would find the very idea horrific and so would Can1983.  So it's not reasonable to say "it's reasonable".  Instead, be specific and say, "the commute from these places is 1.5 to 2 hours on the train, plus the time it takes you to get to and from the stations".  Then people can decide for themselves whether they'd think that reasonable.

(and by the way, I did check the train timetables before making that statement and yes, they are as far as was stated).

Like I said, I know someone who commuted from Birmingham to London for a year.  I know two guys who commuted from Newcastle to Sydney for over a year. I knew a couple of people who commuted from Bournemouth.   I'd have to say that although they all did it, not one of them thought it was "reasonable".   They did it because in their circumstances, it was the most sensible thing to do, but they would all rather not have had to do it. 

 

Yes i checked the timetable too! 3-4 hours a day.

My experience of long commutes is Reading to London "20 minutes by train" says the timetable. Reality was 15 mins to the train station and park, 5 minutes to walk around to my platform, 20 minutes train, 30 minutes transfer and tube at the other end, 5 minutes to get into the building and up to the 15th floor, hey presto 20 minute commute is actually 1h15. If anything went wrong could be 2-3 hours...

Also Bondi to Scotland Island. They are both "Sydney" but that one took me 2hr each way! by car and ferry, did that for about 2 months before realising how dumb it was.

Now my commute is 5 minutes and quite honestly that's still 4 minutes too long

I'd be wary of relying on WFH. During the height of the pandemic people I know here in Hobart sold up and moved an hour out to some beautiful locations thinking that was it the world has changed. Now we are mostly being told its back to the office and a couple of those are now stuck with massive commutes that they cant really afford to do with young children to care for.

To the OP id say live close to work or the lifestyle you want wont happen.

39 minutes ago, BeachBabe2022 said:

Hello Ash

Yes, Sydney is a good landing spot for a wide variety of work prospects

Most real estate near the coast is a tad expensive in Sydney.

Therefore, the further South or further North you go - the cheaper it will be 

Wollongong to the South, and Terrigal on the Central Coast to the North, are both within travelling distance daily to the Sydney CBD.

But I would not go too much further outside those areas, as the daily commute gets a bit long thereafter. 

 

 come on Wollongong and Terrigal are 3-4 hours a day travel time to Sydney and that's if you live at one rail station and work at the other. Its not reasonable even slightly

13 hours ago, Keelif said:

That's what I was hoping to hear. I just need to start gathering documents now. Seems to be so much Im not sure where to start.

 

We are going to go as its too good an opportunity to pass up.

I had a relocation package of shipping, flights for the (then) 3 of us and a months accommodation. We didnt get a car hire.

I'd say it seems very good

6 minutes ago, DIG85 said:

I think that’s probably quite near the mark.

I have to say its based on our situation and that of our friends and family living in a variety of locations in the UK and Australia. Most of us being couples both with jobs based on degree level training without access to old money and having 2 or 3 children. That rules out Sydney, Melbourne and London...

If we were from wealthy families or had been sensible and quit school at 16 to become a tradie rather than think continued education was the way to go  we might have been able to afford $2M with a couple of land cruisers (not that im bitter or anything!)

For what its worth I don't think $1-1.5M is affordable for the 'average family'. Even if you have 50% equity the repayments are pretty high for a couple bringing in $250k a year, unless you are happy to live an otherwise basic lifestyle.

I would put the figure at $750k

On 25/02/2022 at 07:55, Marisawright said:

Definitely not true. 

The arithmetic is simple. Houses anywhere else in Australia (except Melbourne) are approximately 50% less thanSydney. 

Salaries are lower outside Sydney for some occupations but they are certainly  nowhere near 50% lower. 

The problem is that some corporate jobs simply don’t exist outside Sydney or Melbourne, so if that’s your field, you have no alternative. For other occupations, there is plenty work elsewhere 

The OP doesn’t say what they do for a living 

Agreed both my wife and I earn 30-40% more now in Hobart than we did in Sydney 10 years ago. Adjusting for inflation its still an increase (or at least the same).

As you say its all about whether the OP can get a job in Hobart or other regional centres in their profession

I actually moved into the public service loosely in my field because, to me, there was no use in having a successful career if it only paid for a shoebox to live in and you sat in traffic jams all day.

Now id say I have a well paid job but no career anymore. I do however somewhere nice to call home for our family.....

I would have to say that Sydney is only beachy if you can afford $2 million plus

Our experience moving to Australia with one child aged 2 and one on the way in late 2017 was Sydney wasn;t an option due to the cost of living and the relatively poor quality of life for families (in our opinion from living there for 3 years about 10 years ago) unless you are highly wealthy. Don't get me wrong for those who are so wealthy they walk dogs for a living just ot keep busy Sydney would be superb.

We chose Hobart which has worked out great as we are 500m from the beach and 5 minutes form work by car. Enough space in the house and land to give each of our now 3 children their own bedroom and park two cars and a few toys to enjoy the coastal life with.

There have been numerous companies fold because the stuff they made was so good and lasted so long that they ran out of customers. In my industry it was kempf and remmers who made precise instruments for testing ships and propellers. The stuff lasted 50 plus years and once everyone had one......

Think iphone, my iphone 3 lasted 8 years - it was too good

4 hours ago, rammygirl said:

I think the quality has deteriorated in that 14 years though. Same with everywhere tbh, unless you are paying top dollar.

We have a leather Ikea sofa that we have had for about 13 years, it has been in storage, moved houses and country. It is still great and nowhere have we found one of similar quality recently, fortunately the style is timeless!

We recently bought stuff from Early Settler, a good range of stuff decent quality at reasonable prices……and yes we got a discount, always worth asking.

No point in providing quality, if it lasts 15 years they and their competitors have lost you as a customer for 15 years. You're no use to the industry at all.

If it lasts 4 years by the time 15 years is up you'll have forgotten how bad the set was you had before and come back. even if you don't forget there was still a chance.

I worked in a career job on my WHV, it was over 10 years ago mind!

There is no requirement for it to be a low pay hospitality or fruit picking job.

4 minutes ago, Blue Flu said:

Pretty much underlines the wages/salary paid to the majority, is no longer sustainable to obtain a lifestyle, once taken for granted in Sydney . (Australia in general) This has been the case for sometime with the resulting fall in living standards.  . 

Of course, it sucks, and for those of us with children how on earth will they get any kind of lifestyle in the future

We managed to get into a very good lifestyle here in Hobart at pretty much the last opportunity (literally a year or two before it too became impossible to buy a home offering a good lifestyle on a real world income)

12 hours ago, BeachBabe2022 said:

 

Hello

$120,000 is a decent wage, plus whatever you earn ; lucky you two

The average wage in Sydney is $77,000

Yes, Sydney can be expensive, but that is depending where in Sydney you live

How you budget and survive, depends on your lifestyle. If you send your children to public school, that will obviously be cheaper than a private school. The further you live from the CBD, the cheaper it is for house prices. The further away you are from tourist holiday areas, the cheaper it is for food, petrol and pharmaceuticals.

(i.e.) I live in a tourist holiday area, but buy my petrol 30kms away near work, as consistently 40 cents a litre cheaper near work.

So impossible to say if you can afford it, as too many factors to take into consideration.

 

The average wage includes young people in hospitality jobs and those who are low income earners who paid off their mortgage years ago and don't need a high income.

The average person probably lives west of Parramatta where its always 5 degrees hotter with no breeze and not a beach to be seen

I suppose the 'average person' has actually paid off their mortgage in Sydney. But there are millions who haven't and for those people $120k a year is no where near enough to live a decent standard of living. My partner and I earned $200k between us in 2013 and that paid the rent in the flat build in a back garden of someone's house in a nice area and allowed us to save a bit but it would never support a mortgage on a house and never the needs of a family.

14 hours ago, paulhand said:

That's very unlikely to be necessary in these circumstances. 

They will almost certainly be eligible for citizenship by descent. 

Perhaps im wrong on this too but if you apply for a partner visa and get pr but then only spend 6 months (for example) in 5 years onshore how would you demonstrate substantial ties to Australia, would marriage to a citizen be enough?

11 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

Would her children not be Australian if she is? 

ha ha yes of course I'm an idiot, citizenship by descent should be possible if you were 15 when you left Aus and were born there

59 minutes ago, Grace100 said:

Hello, new here! Not sure if I've posted in the correct section. I am Australian born but have lived in Scotland for the last 34 years. My husband and I were toying with the idea of a possible move to Australia. I'm 49 and he is mid 50's. We have a daughter who is 22 and a son who is 20. Son still at Uni and isn't really interested in a move to Australia. My daughter has recently graduated and has a job and would probably go at the drop of a hat. She was looking into it herself. I work as a Teaching Assistant and my husband is in the oil industry. We realise that getting jobs like we have here is probably unrealistic due to our age.

Was thinking of applying for the Partner visa? If you were  lucky enough to be granted one

a) How long do you need to stay in Australia once its granted ie/ is there a minimum stay? 

b) Would this make my husband a resident and could we come and go as we pleased between the UK and Australia? We would ideally like to retire there not sure how this works with no retirement visa anymore. Sorry for all the questions

Would be grateful for any advice as it is a very expensive visa to apply for

Thank you 

 

If you have been together for more than 2 decades and continue to be a genuine couple as immigration see it your husband would get permanent residency straight away and then could come and go as they pleased. There's no minimum stay (my first stay was 3 weeks after activating my permanent residency for example)

The issue with not moving and staying much in say the next 5 years is that he wouldn't qualify for citizenship in that time and so your husband would need to apply for pr again. There are minimum amounts of connection you have to show to renew it, or you can go through the whole partner visa application again but I suspect there's a limit to how many times you can do this before you start to raise questions. Really it would be best to try to move for 4 years to get him citizenship then he really can do what he likes.

22 year old having left formal education doesn't usually qualify as a dependent so their options are limited (because they also dont have enough experience to qualify for their own visa)

son being still at uni would probably qualify for a visa

Maybe speak to a registered migration agent regarding son and daughter?

On 22/11/2021 at 03:44, Russ1976 said:

Thank you, we are already in a few social media groups for Tasmania, like this forum, they are helpful.

I missed this thread before, I'm Hobart based if you still have questions

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Honestly, if you are struggling to afford the cost of a consultation, it's possible you can't afford to migrate.  I suggest doing a budget now, to see whether you have the resources. It's not just the air fares. 

You'll need to EITHER  ship the contents of your home OR you'll need to give it all away/sell it at a garage sale and buy everything from scratch when you arrive.  Remember that includes everything - pots, pans, cutlery, crockery, kitchen appliances, towels, bedlinen, whitegoods, furniture, TV etc.  Do a trial shop at harveynorman.com.au or ikea.com.au and see how much it all comes to.  I can guarantee you will be shocked, as we don't often buy all our household needs at once, so we don't realise how much they cost. 

Then when you arrive, budget for four weeks in an AirBnB or holiday let while you look for a long-term rental.   If neither of you has a job already set up, budget for at least three months out of work (with no benefits).  You'll need to buy a car, which is more expensive in Australia. Car leasing is less common in Australia and anyway, you would be unwise to get a car lease if you're on a temp visa, because if your visa expires before the lease does, you're stuck with a big debt and no way to sell the car.  

The most commonly quoted figure, when you put it all together, is around £30,000.  You may have that as equity in your home, but bear in mind, if you spend that on moving to Australia, it's gone forever, and you'll have that much less to buy a new home in Australia with. Make sure you compare house prices between where you are in the UK and where you plan to move to, to make sure you'd be able to afford it.  

Yep moving here is not cheap if you're a family that for sure

Single person aged 30 maybe it can be done for $10k but family thats a different story

On 08/12/2021 at 08:10, Sw4S said:

It wasn’t Stevenage by the way

oh wasn;t it, that slum comment from Lewis was genius

1 hour ago, Sw4S said:

My partner enjoyed the Lewis Hamilton comment

Thanks for the reply - can I ask how long you gave living in Australia a chance before you began feeling like Aus was the better choice for you and your family? 

You’re on the money re the fear of being away from my parents as a new mum (having children is probably not on the cards for another 2/3 years at least, but I see how much support my parents provide to my sister who has a 2 year old and it’s now got me doubting whether I’d be silly to move away from that! My partner’s parents are lovely but it wouldn’t quite be the same and we wouldn’t be able to live near enough to them anyway due to our careers)…I’m also very conscious that the impact of pandemic on being able to travel between the two countries is probably having an effect on how we feel about the situation - it feels very definitive at the moment, ie wherever you pick is wherever you’re set, but of course the other country and it’s ties to us will still be there whatever we pick

realistically it was as soon as we had our first child and realised that we were living in a very small house which was never going to support a family and we both spent too long commuting and not spending time with our baby. Where we live now i have a five minute commute and have a proper family home and we only need one income.

In reality the pandemic has made travel impossible but once you have child(ren) travel is financially difficult in any case. We have 3 children so we are looking at $10,000 for flights and that's not an every year trip....!

I'm the British half of an "Anglo-Aussie" marriage. We had the same decision, luckily in our case I prefer living in Australia to anything in the UK. Quite honestly don't see the appeal of the place anymore just overcrowded and too hard to live the sort of outdoor life I love. So I would say there are better places than others but I can see that the drawbacks of Sydney (I don't live there now but have in the past) over some parts of the UK

So it really was an easy decision my wife and I both agree that our children are better off here, they have regular contact with one set of grandparents and less so with the other of course.

If there is family in each I would just make the decision for yourselves and try not to factor in family support. Many people say new mums want to be close to their parents for support, that's not for everyone my sister has also chosen Aus over the UK because she believes here is a better lifestyle.

Bad places in Hertfordshire, sounds like Stevenage! If it is I wouldn't worry about offending anyone Lewis Hamilton has already done that!

On 29/11/2021 at 18:40, Toots said:

Boat Harbour was originally named Jacob's Boat Harbour after Captain John Jacobs, master of small vessels owned by the Van Diemen's Land Company. The vessels were used for trading between the Van Diemen's Land establishments at Circular Head and Launceston between the late 1820s and the 1840s.

wow I learnt something, thanks for that

2 hours ago, Toots said:

It's a little cove on one of the most popular beaches on the north west coast but funnily enough it's called Boat Harbour.  It's very sheltered and has some nice little cafes close by,  My favourite one is the Thistle Hut cafe.

 

 

sorry bad joke, recognised boat harbour I've been many a time lovely spot, just a weird name!