Rainman

No, we'll try to stick to villages and rural areas. I've had enough of suburbia and will avoid it if we can.

I have been on Rightmove regularly for the last couple of weeks. I see many decent looking places from 240,000 upwards. We're not after anything huge, just something adequate for our needs. Obviously the closer to the towns you go it gets more expensive, depending on what you're looking for.

Yeah, the CTP element of the car Rego is an absolute con.

When I was over last month, I was taking note at how much things cost. I was surprised how much more expensive some things were (Wine!! and petrol) and others that were on a par with Australian prices, allowing for the exchange rate. Not sure about utility bills but the lack of competition and regulation over here I'd say the UK is cheaper. On the whole I'd say there's not much in it. In Queensland we're used to not having to pay for parking at the beach-going to struggle with that one. We went to Durdle Door in Dorset and had to pay 4 quid for the car park for a couple of hours!

Have sent you a PM.

Not a problem, no offence taken. It's important to consider the cold hard facts of our move and as you say, I did ask.

I appreciate your input but do you not think I have already considered that?

Story of my life. We had a nice little house in the UK, which we wouldn't be able to afford now. We had a lovely house in Auckland which is double the value of our house here now. We live in the Redlands, south of Brisbane and the market has been very disappointing in our particular spot. I would have liked to hang on to it just in case we came back but the market here is so slow. I've suggested to the wife we buy in the UK, which is performing much better in most areas. Even if we sold in the UK in 5 or 10 years, to return here or NZ, I'm hoping it would have performed better than if we kept our house here, giving us enough to maybe buy somewhere mortgage free. Knowing my luck though, Brisbane's market will really take off now we're selling!!

I see what you mean, I misunderstood. I notice you only had a year in the UK before returning to Oz. Did you keep a property in Australia while you were away?

Yeah, I'm not too enthralled with the prospect of having to do it myself! But hopefully I'll find somewhere half decent. I know someone else who lives in Dorset but works in London during the week. For a while he was renting a room in a house on an island in the middle of the Thames for 20 quid a night, very quirky. If I could find something like that I'd be happy, as long as it's clean... I'll give myself a range of up to an hours drive from work and see what's out there.

That's good to know, thanks. It makes sense that my Super would just keep earning, not sure why I thought I'd have to suspend it. I'll have to remember to transfer it into a low risk fund when the time comes.

The job I do has required me to work away from home for varying periods of time including overseas, sometimes at short notice. I haven't had to do it for a few years but there's a good chance when we return I'll be doing that again. I used to hate it when the kids were young. Fortunately it wasn't too often but eventually my wife and kids got used to me going away. In fact as they got older the kids liked it when I told them I had to go away for work because they knew I'd come back bearing lots of pressies! Now they're older it won't be a problem, if it means earning more money than I would in Herefordshire or Dorset, they'll understand it is a sacrifice I have to make, in the short to medium term anyway. As long as I'll see my family at the end of the week or I know I can get to them relatively quickly, we'll all be ok with that. I've been looking at houses from 240,000 to 290,000 pounds, ranging from Dorset up to Herefordshire. If we could get a mortgage that allowed us to buy a place for up to 290,000 with 50% deposit I'd be happy, there are some decent places around in those areas for that price. I'm calculating my repayments based on a 19 or 20 year term, which seems affordable on a 150,000 pound mortgage at current rates. I don't like the thought of paying a mortgage after 70.

I'm 51 next Feb. My wife and I don't qualify for the Australian pension anyway as we're living here as New Zealand citizens. I think we do qualify for the NZ pension as I think I read somewhere NZer's can work in Australia and still be eligible for the NZ pension. Though I may have got it wrong. Being eligible for the full UK pension is another reason why I feel it's important to return in the next year. I began paying UK Tax & NI when I was 17, and left the UK when I was 35. I believe if I start working and paying tax and NI contributions for the next 16/17 years or until I retire, I will qualify for the full UK pension. Again I may have read it wrong. I'll also top it up when I get there. I understand I'll need to suspend my Australian Super, making sure I cancel the insurances.

My next step was to get in touch with a mortgage broker in the UK to discuss our situation. If anyone has a contact they could give me I would appreciate it. The long fixed interest rate was something I was considering. My wife has been doing all the taxiing around Mon-Fri since our kids were young while I've been at work, so no change there, plus my daughter will be doing her own driving anyway. I am concerned about the job prospects locally though... If we were only going back for European holidays and having the odd pint in a village pub we wouldn't be going. I have my Dad, Brother and Sister there plus my nieces and nephews living there. I think I said at the start of this thread my primary reasons for going back were for family. I appreciate yours and everyone's concerns and advice. You are certainly helping me weigh up the pros and cons of moving back.

Yes, I have. I've tried to be as candid as possible, so they are totally aware of the risks (and benefits) of moving over there. I have asked them not to keep any reservations they have to themselves. We all need to know how everyone is feeling over this massive decision. Anyway, who says it always needs to be two days a week? Ok, I might have a long drive home and back to work again but there will be times in the summer when I could leave work early in the middle of the week and go home. I'd rather a 2-3 hour drive than a 24 hour flight. Then there's public holidays and annual leave when I'll be at home or we'll all be together on holiday. My kids will be 19 and 16 when we move over there, the days of reading them a bedtime story are long gone. As long as we can talk during the day and I can get home if I need to, everyone will be ok with that. Bear in mind it's not my intention that this will be how it is for the rest of my working life. This is just the plan to get us back to the UK, into a decent home we can afford on one wage if necessary, take a breather then take it from there.

I did look at the option of doing that. Unfortunately I don't think it would work in our case and I wouldn't be able to get my job back in Oz if I went to the UK, even temporarily. It's either stay or go. In any case, as much as Australia is a lovely place to live, my Wife and I can't see ourselves wanting to be here for the rest of our lives, regardless of where the kids end up living.

I should have mentioned I wouldn't be working in the centre of London, but in West London, close to Greenford and I would be driving, not getting the train. This is the plan that I'm hoping could work without totally ruining our quality of life (please point out the holes). We buy a house as soon as we can either somewhere in Dorset, Gloucestershire or Hereford and Worcester. All areas that we love and great places to live. The location is obviously very dependant on house price and hopefully we can get a house where our mortgage is around 800 pounds a month MAX. I would rent a room 4 days a week, close to my work (my mate's sister in law rents rooms out at around 80 pounds a week). Then I would drive home on a Friday night to our beautiful house in the country (wishful thinking). As long as our outgoings for mortgage and rent don't exceed 1200 pound s a month and keep fuel costs to the minimum, I think that is workable? I'm not under any illusions it wouldn't be difficult at times but I believe the quality time would outweigh the crap times. In many ways it wouldn't be that different if we had to relocate to Sydney and I know where I'd rather be. After 5 years, we would assess the situation and if financially it stacked up, I'd get a job working locally though right now I've no idea what I'd do...though I'd love to run a B&B! I wake up at night thinking what the hell am I doing, it's total madness what I'm persuading my family to do and they're loyally agreeing to my plans because they're relying on me having done the homework and I know what I'm doing but do I? But, in the cold light of day when I think about our life here, although we do have a good standard of living and yes, the weather's great a lot of the time, we don't do anything exciting or interesting. We've got a couple of acquaintances that we have over for dinner from time to time but that doesn't happen often. We could go on like that until suddenly we find we're in our Seventies and then it's too late. I do miss the days when the kids were younger when we had a large group of friends because all our kids went to the same Primary school. Often in the summer because we lived closest to their school, the parents and kids came over to ours for a swim at the end of the day. Sometimes we'd end up having pool parties or impromptu BBQ's on a Friday, going late into the night while the kids all played in the pool. Good times. That's all finished now, unfortunately some of the friends moved interstate or the friendship's fizzled out because the kids aren't mates anymore and now we find ourselves just going from day to day, doing the same old mundane things with nothing much to look forward to. Ok, we have a decent amount of disposable income but when we talk about doing something like going on holiday, the options are limited without having to spend huge amounts of money. Unless it's to NZ to visit the wife's family or somewhere in Asia, which none of us are fussed about, we might decide to rent a house for a week close to the beach a few hours drive from Brissy, looking at pretty much the same view and doing the same things that we do at home, because we live close to beach here as well! There is no diversity here compared to living in Europe and after 10 years of doing the same old things it's getting very dull. We have friends and family in Spain, Germany and Switzerland, we'd love to be able to just pop over to those places when the mood took us. It doesn't take as much planning as it does doing it from here. Plus because I want to see my family in the UK yearly, we seem to just save for the next trip to the UK and I have to use most of my annual leave. It doesn't make sense to me to have that sort of existence anymore. But at the same time I have to be very careful that I don't totally ruin our lives because I haven't thought it through enough. It's a total nightmare and I wish I'd never set foot in this bloody country (damn, there's no emoticon for stamping foot on the ground and sucking thumb :jiggy:).

You're the man I need to talk to. I'll PM you soon.

I've just returned from a 3 week trip home visiting family. I was also there for 3 weeks last year and spent 3 months working in London in 2013. I'm not walking into this eyes closed, I know the risks and that's why it scares me but I still want to go home. If I was going on my own it wouldn't be a problem but because my family would be making the move as well that's where the dilemma of whether it's the right thing to do or not is giving me so much stress. I'm fortunate that all my family live in Dorset. My Dad and Sister live in Swanage, my brother in Wareham. One morning after staying at my Dad's, I decided to walk from Swanage to Wareham, 12 miles all across fields and footpaths and country lanes barely wide enough for a car with the steam trains going to and from Swanage in the distance. Absolutely loved it. Another day my brother and I walked a few miles along a cliff path to a pub in Worth Matravers called the Square and Compass for a couple of beers and a Pasty. Another time we were on the top deck of the bus from Swanage to Wareham after going to the Swanage Folk festival. There were a bunch of people sitting on the back seat, singing as we got on. No doubt a bit tiddly after a few too many ciders, but in good voice they continued singing wonderful english folk songs in perfect pitch for the entire journey back to Wareham. Please tell me where in Australia you can experience that sort of thing. I know money is always a huge issue but there are experiences in life that money can't buy.

Thanks Cal. Would 40,000 be considered a low wage?? I'm out of touch with what's a decent wage in Britain these days.

Really appreciate your thoughts, thanks. Unfortunately I am tied to London for at least the next 5 years because of the line of work I'm in. However the plan would be to buy a house as soon as we can, somewhere in the Southwest or up towards Gloucestershire, Hereford & Worcester, beautiful areas where good houses are more affordable and where we can eventually retire to or at least have a bolt hole if it all went t*ts up. Looking on Rightmove there appear to be plenty of properties in those areas that would suit our budget. Fair enough most of them are at least an 1.5hr drive from London but I don't think that's such a bad thing! I've had enough of suburbia. Because we're essentially starting from scratch we can go wherever we like, I suppose. Wherever we do decide to buy, we'd rent the place out while we rent a house closer to my work until a time when we're ready to move into our own house. Sounds doable in my head but when I write it down I'm not so sure. In regards to salary, I'm hoping my wife will get a job that will add another few grand to our joint monthly income. We can't go earlier than April next year, we have a few commitments which are preventing us from going sooner. Anyway I don't think it would be a good idea emigrating to Britain at the start of winter! Just to clarify, what educational establishments require the 3 year residency rule and which could my son attend straight away without paying fees, bearing in mind he'll be 16 in June next year?

We've been talking about moving back to the UK for a few years now and have decided to do it next year. It's the same old expat story, I'm very homesick, have no feeling of belonging here and sick of the xenophobic shite coming out of Australian politicians' mouths. I desperately miss being with my family in the UK even though we usually end up arguing when we're together! As each year passes I struggle with the fact I'm so far from my Dad and siblings, my Dad's 79, my brother and sister and me are in our 50's. It's hard seeing them having aged a bit more each time I go back for a visit. Not to mention my kids are missing out on spending time with their cousins, who are now in their early 20's. There are many other reasons why I want to go back but of course family is the primary reason. I have been fortunate that my old firm have been keeping a job open for me in the hope I would return but they said recently, they can't hold it open much longer. I've only got until June next year to come over, otherwise the door shuts. It's a good job, doing what I do now, in a sought after specialized field and the pay's not bad, close to 40,000 pounds with overtime. This is my last chance to get back home knowing I've got a job when I get there, which is important as my wife needs a Spouse Visa. I feel we have to go, I can't miss this opportunity. Plus, the recent bounce in the Aussie dollar against the pound thanks to the Brexit vote has made it possible to get quite a bit more for our money than compared to last year. Who knows how long it will last, so I feel this is the time to take advantage. So, the house is on the market, we had an offer fairly quickly which we accepted though it wasn't quite as much as we had hoped. We're waiting for it to go unconditional, so it could still fall over. But once sold, the plan is to move into a rental for 6 months get rid of the stuff we don't need, then I go over to start work and find a place over there. A couple of months later the wife and kids come. Sounds straight forward enough... The problem is I am seriously stressing out that it is going to be a massive mistake. In my heart it's the right decision to go but when I think about it too much I come up with so many reasons not to go I just don't know what to do: Reason no.1 - We won't have as much money as we would have liked to buy a decent house remotely close to where I'll be working. I'm hoping we'll end up with up to 150,000 pounds as a deposit (if the exchange rate stays where it is). 2. Our 19 yo daughter loves it here but is willing to come back with us because she loves her Parents more and couldn't bear being away from us. I am so worried she'll absolutely hate it living there and will come to resent me for making her come back. Of course, she could always go back to Oz eventually but then my wife will resent me, I'm in a no win situation! 3. Our son is in year 10, but will be 16 when we return, so not sure if he would be able to go to 6th form college without us paying international fees (have to be resident in the UK for 3 years). I'm worried sick he won't be able to do any further education over there and end up in some dead end job for the rest of his life - because of me. 4. We have a good life here. We have (until its sold) a lovely large home lots of space in a good area. I have a well paid job and my wife has a job she loves and only needs to work 3 days a week. I have an easy drive to work against the rush hour traffic, zero stress when I'm there. Once in the UK it's likely my wife will be on a zero hours contract, working 5 days a week for crap money and I'll be stuck in a bedsit 5 days a week as the drive to work is too far because we can't live closer and my work in London will be stressville. Is it enough to risk the happiness of my wife and kids and our quality of life for my selfish reasons of wanting to be back in the land of my birth because I'm homesick and want to spend the time remaining with my Dad and siblings? I'm the first one to admit I am a worrier, and tend to think of the worst case scenario happening. I'd be grateful to hear your thoughts, especially from those who have gone home with teenage kids. Thanks.

That's good to know, thank you both. And thanks for the appendix 2 tip, I may have missed that. The wording is confusing, I had assumed I needed to be in the UK before applying. The likelihood is that I'll go over a couple of months prior to sort out a place to live etc. but it's a relief knowing we can apply here and I can leave knowing my wife and kids will be able to join me (assuming she gets approved). In terms of the job confirmation letter/documentation does it need to be an actual contract or just something on the company stationary stating confirmation of a job, salary and start date?

Hi ScotlandBound, We're planning on getting an Ancestry Visa for my wife as well. If you don't mind, any useful info regarding your experience with the Visa process would be appreciated. It looks like it's less stressful than the Spouse Visa application, which is why we're going this route, I assume you're doing it for the same reason? Cheers.

Hi, Hope someone can help me with this. We are planning on moving back next year but as my wife is an NZ citizen, she requires a Spouse Visa. I have been confirmed a job with the UK office of the company I currently work for in Australia and my proposed salary meets the income requirement of the Spouse Visa. Also, as it is an interoffice transfer, I will have continuity of service, though I'm not sure that will make a difference to the application. My question is, when should I apply for the Visa? I understand my wife cannot be in the UK when we apply but is there a minimum period that I have to be resident in Britain, before applying? Thanks.