KiwiKaye

Hi Petals, Thanks for the reply. We've taken the plunge and bought, but its a question of finding somewhere we can afford to buy these days. I have a cousin and his family living in the area and we've been living in Melbourne for some time, so the area is not completely unknown, but visiting on weekends and living there are two different things!

Hi. Thanks for the replies. I already knew about Frankston North. It is the cheaper housing, but also the beach and the high school. OH has started a new job based in Braeside, which makes the bayside area a logical place to look. We also looked at Aspendale Gardens, but the prices are ridiculous to buy, and there's not much of a community feel there. It's just a suburb, no matter how nice. Frankston may have its gritty side, but it seems more like a self-contained town. I work in the city so will have to put up with the commute, but I guess I'll get used to it.

Hi all,We're currently contemplating a move within Melbourne to Frankston area. I know the high school has a good reputation, but does anyone have any experience of generally living there, and also primary schools. We are currently looking at a house which would be zoned for Frankston Heights Primary.Any info would be appreciated.

We live in Mt Waverley and it's about 1/2 an hour on the train from Mt Waverley station to Flinders Street. The trains run about every 7 mins in peak hour, so pretty good by Melbourne standards.

For Major Tom's info, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I agree there are a lot more 3 beds than 4, but 4 bedroom places are still findable, particularly in the newer McMansion areas, and even where we live which is a more established area. You won't get them in the inner suburbs though unless you have a pretty substantial budget.

I had with me a photocopy of my passport, drivers licence, reference from our rental agent in New Zealand, and a copy of my work contract. I think some people do covering letters but I didn't. Just explained that we were moving from overseas and the rest of the family was following.

Hi, Our situation is slightly different as we were returning and already had Oz citizenship, but we rented unfurnished as we were bringing very little with us in the way of furniture, and the. Just bought everything off eBay, or from IKEA. As as far as the 6 months up front goes, I don't personally know anyone who has had to do that, and I believe it's not recommended. The one thing I would recommend is to have your paperwork in order when you view a property. You can also apply online for properties before y view them if you tank they'll be any good. If you then don't like it you don't have to take it. The last time we moved we got offered three different properties. For our initial rental I was here on my own (OH and the kids were following), so I took photocopies of my passport, drivers licence, work contract and bank details. It pretty much meant that I could say "yes, I want it" and sign up for it there and then. the average cost for a 4-5 bedroom is a pit of a "how long is a piece of string" question. Where are you looking? We are in Melbourne suburbs, and in our area it would cost you anything from around $500-$1,500 per week, depending on whether you are happy with an older property or want something new. Other suburbs and cities will have different costs. If you're looking in Melbourne I'm happy to advise on suburbs, but not so much help with other cities.

Wheelers Hill is fairly near us (Mt Waverley), so welcome to Melbourne! Its a nice area with great schools, so I'm sure you'll settle in quickly and the time til the rest of the family arrives will go quickly. Best of luck. Feel free to sing out if you would like any pointers on the area.

Public transport on the whole is pretty good. Driving does get very busy during rush hour, and the main issue with driving into the CBD during the week is parking. Even "early bird" parking spots cost upwards of $14 per day. It's fine if you have parking provided, but otherwise not worth it. A monthly ticket on trains/trains will cost you around $8 per day.

We've been with TPG for three years now - not NBN though. No complaints. It's not the greatest or fastest probably but service seem fairly consistent and their phone call centre is one of the best I've dealt with.

They are nice suburbs, but all are at least an hour by public transport from the city. Naturally this is very subjective depending on what you want, but if its just the two of you for now, I would like at somewhere like St. Kilda, Elwood, Williamstown. All close to the city. Of those probably St. kilda is the most risky for crime, but it's not that bad. We like whe we live (Mt Waverley), but it's more family oriented and further from the beach. Much will depend on your budget. You can probably gets two bedroom apartment in St. Kilda for about $400-450 per week. If you wants nicer but still close to the beach look at Brighton or Hampton. Will cost you more though.

Wow, I hadn't quite thought about it like that. We're certainly not eating prison food, I can assure you. Having said that, my OH is a really good shopper (I don't do the shopping). Most of our staples come from Aldi, with some label stuff from Woolworths or Coles. Meat comes from either Aldi or a local butcher unless there's a special on. We eat a lot of vegetables and my 11yo is mostly vege at the moment. We buy our standard bread, but make mine (coeliac). That food bill includes all of our supermarket shopping, including toiletries, cleaning products, etc. but doesn't obviously include any takeaways or restaurants.

Hi, Just to add a comparison, we are a family of four (OH, me, 11yo and 7yo) and we managed for the first two years back here on my salary of around $65k. We were paying $400 a week rent and we probably spend around $150 pw on groceries. Having said that, we already had citizenship so did get some help from the govt on in the form of family payments, etc. Its not easy but it is doable. We manage with one car, are renting for the time being and the kids are at state school, not private. Sounds like you OH's salary will be a fair bit higher than mine was so I think you could definitely manage, but you won't be going on overseas holidays every few months! We live in the suburbs about 20km from Melbourne CBD and the train from here takes about 1/2 an hour so its not too bad. OH drives to work in St Kilda Road which takes around 30-45 minutes depending on traffic. Hope that helps. Feel free to ask if you have any other queries.

I did this a few years ago, albeit from NZ not the UK. We decided to move back to OZ and I was offered a job, but they wanted me to start in a month. Luckily I had family in Christchurch who were able to help OH with the kids while he stayed behind, still working, and trying to pack up all our stuff and finalise matters. I was luckily able to stay with a cousin in Melbourne until I found a rental. From my end, it was really hard being away from the family, but it also meant that I had time to buy a car, find a house to rent and organise some furniture, and household stuff before they arrived. My kids were 4 and 8 at the time.

Hi starlight. Thanks for that. Do you live in the area?

Hi all, We would like to buy a house at some point this year. Our budget will probably only be up to $450,000 and I have been looking at Upwey/Tecoma/Belgrave and possibly Ferntree Gully. Mostly because I like the leafy semi-rural feel of these areas. Is there anyone living in these areas? Mostly I would be really grateful for feedback on living in these towns and schools. We have an 11 year old (grade 6 this year) and a 7 yo, so need primary and secondary. Anyone know what Upwey HS is like? We will also both be working in town, so realistic ideas on commute times would be good too. PTV website seems to estimate around 60 minutes on the train with an additional 15mins for OH to get down St Kilda Road. What is driving like at say 7am into the city? Thanks for any help.

When we returned to Australia I had with me for each inspection: - my original passport with photocopies for the agent, if required - same for drivers license - copies of my work contract showing salary - a reference from our landlord in New Zealand (won't apply if you've owned obviously, but a letter from your bank saying you've not defaulted on payments should do the same job) I ended up getting our first place because I had all this stuff ready to go and could fill out the application form on the spot. There is also an online application system called (I think) 1Form, which you can complete once, attach scanned copies of docs to, and then just send off to each property you like from the http://www.realestate.com.au website. When we were looking again a few months ago, I just applied for everything I liked and thought might be suitable, whether I'd yet seen it or not. We ended up being offered a couple of properties, including the one we really wanted. I'm in Melbourne, but the same strategy should work in Sydney. Good luck.

It was a long time ago, but when we first moved here in 1996 we brought our landline cordless phone from NZ and had it confiscated by customs on arrival. We could have paid something ridiculous like $120 to have it "certified" but opted not to bother.

We're hoping to head back next summer sometime. We'd need to be there with enough time to find jobs, find a place to live and enrol the kids for school starting in September. We were initially thinking of North Oxford, but OH has family in Manchester and North Yorkshire, so further north might be a possibility too.

Hi and welcome. I'm fairly new to this forum myself and I'm sure others with more knowledge than me will be along. We're in a similar position, except reversed. I'm a Kiwi and OH is the Brit. We haven't lived in the UK since 1991 and are considering returning next year. Basically you'll need to apply for a spouse visa for your wife. The main basis for that is either that you (as the UKC) have been working for at least six months leading up to the application, and earning at least the equivalent of GBP18,600 per annum, and you have a job to go to in the UK starting within three months of your arrival earning at least the same amount. The other way to do it is on savings, which means you need at least GBP62,500 in accessible savings. You need to have had control of this money for at least six months, although I believe that if the cash is from the sale of a property which you owned, that six month requirement doesn't apply. Hope this helps.

Agreed :wink:. Its the job and somewhere to live that we need to get sorted.

I mostly agree with you. Although as Australian cities go the culture-factor is quite high. I don't think its so much a case of getting bored here, as even with two of us working its still quite expensive to do lots of things, particularly with children. The UK bonus of having Europe so close for holidays, etc. is hard to replace.

In some ways the changes are not much different to those that are occurring in other places, including the UK, but I guess somehow they seem harder to take here. OH experiences a lot of "casual" racism here, particularly at work, which gets him down. As a Kiwi I get some of that too, but I've worked in my current company for a long time now, and it seems less of an issue. This year's Aussie budget, particularly, seemed to have an effect on him and I think the news this week that the government is finding excuses to introduce new and ever more draconian security laws won't help. We had the misfortune to choose late 2009 as a good time to return to Christchurch (NZ) and buy a house. Hopefully once (if ever) the insurance company decides to settle our claim we'll have enough cash for once to satisfy the savings requirement for a spouse visa so if we don't do it then its unlikely we'll ever be in the right place again. Even with that cash we would be unable to afford to buy here in Melbourne, but would have a better chance of owning a home again in the UK, as long as we don't want to be in London.

Thanks. It feels like it might be now or never. It is predicated on a set of circumstances coming together that means we have the savings together for the spouse visa, but we're hopeful that will be sorted over the next couple of months. Otherwise oh might have to try and get his brother to offer him a job.

I think this is part of OHs issue. We've been here a long time but Australia has changed in recent years. No doubt the UK is not what he remembers either, but he does have family over there. The only family we have here is one cousin of mine.