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Probably finance. The suburbs in the far North and South are like that, and people move there because they're affordable. You can get a house like that, near the coast, for $500k. BUT, you're stuck in suburbia, it's crap. If you want the hills, or the western suburbs, the price is hiked. We lived in Joondalup and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I'd always advise anyone to get a smaller pad in Mt Lawley, Freo, Applecross etc. than get a McMansion in one of those suburban areas.

Second that. The western suburbs are your best bet in Perth. Cottesloe, Fremantle etc. Personally Freo for me.

I'm not Welsh nor do I work for the tourist board but Wales is my absolute fave place, it's amazing. It's got everything, beaches, forests, mountains you name it. We try and have a weekend there every couple of months with the pooches. Gorgeous.

Sorry to read that, must be awful.

I just went to the post office, got a form, filled it in, said I had lost my old one, attached a photo and had a new license in a week. Easy.

There's a 'moving back to the UK' section on this site, have a look in there, you'll see lots of examples of people in similar situations.

My Dad had a mate in Tamworth, said it was amazing. Nothing like that in Perth.

We all spend money on different things. We earned nearly $200k in Oz, we earn £70k here and are better off. Our mortgage in Oz was a killer, despite a modest living. Depends what you spend your money on, we love going out etc.

It is what it is. Put it this way, people in the UK moan about the weather, people in WA moaned about the weather. Whatever your motivations are for moving to the other side of the world, I'm not sure the weather should be one of them. Personally, I don't think it's enough.

No idea, good luck with it though, we jump across to Wales whenever we can, it's fantastic.

I lived in Perth, it's nice to have seasons here in the UK. The weather this year has been fab, it's fantastic this week, got up at 7am this morning and walked the dogs in shorts and t-shirt; not bad for the middle of September. It will change to autumn soon but, by the time it does, I'll be ready for it. Then winter and Xmas. I've been in shorts since mid-March, I'll take that no problem. The weather has surprised me in the (near) 18 months we've been back, I don't know whether it is better now than when we left in 2008 or just whether we were moaning for nothing. Either way, the weather here is absolutely not a negative IMO.

It sounds as though it is suburb specific. We lived in Perth far Northern suburbs (Joondalup) and the agent more or less stated that people aren't looking at the Metro extremities as much as they used to, I think buyer demographics have changed a lot. Your basic pom-by-the-sea type buyer is much less evident these days.

We sold last year for less that what we paid 10 years previous. The estate agent told us prices in most suburbs were at pre-2008. Just out of interest looked at realestate.com.au and there are houses still on there that were for sale in April 2019 when we moved.

We moved back to the UK 16 months ago so, Covid wasn't a factor. It was Jet Pets.

Ours had to fly on a Monday and via Dubai. And there was an extended stop-over at the half-way point. So basically they were collected from home in Perth Monday morning and I picked them up at Manchester freight terminal Wednesday morning. I think I was more traumatised than them. The only things they required in Perth was a rabies shot 3 months before and a bit of a check-up. So yeah, we worked our flights around theirs.

It's never going to be easy and, if you're like us, and these are your babies, it's ridiculously stressful and upsetting. Our boy is terribly nervous but they handled him well, I couldn't fault them at all. This was well pre-Covid though, as the other poster mentions, god knows what the state of play is now. We had to use Emirates, no other option out of Perth, and the summer months were blanked out for our smaller pooch. We basically had to organise our flights around theirs.

Some points made resonated with me. There is a lot made on this site about the 'outside lifestyle' however, as you rightly point out and I don't read about much on here, summers in Australia are excessively hot. We found that we couldn't always go out walking or basically do anything for long periods of the summer (this was Perth). People are very quick to talk about moving from one centrally-heated place to another in the UK however Australia is similar in that summer is moving from one air-conditioned environment to another. Same difference. Summers are OK if you want to sit in your back garden drinking, we didn't. Skype/FaceTime is absolutely no substitute for real family time. When we were contemplating moving back, I made a list of what we had missed out on i.e. births, deaths, marriages, birthdays, versus what we had in Australia e.g. a big house, a pool, a nearby beach, more hot weather etc. It helped focus the mind on what is important and, for us, it was a no-brainer. Since returning we have found that being middle-aged feels much younger here than it did in Australia. You say you are 41 & 50, we were both 48 when we returned, you go the pub, there is a much better mix, you go for a meal, much better mix, we got the first jobs we applied for etc. etc. It just feels much easier. We were moving towards thoughts of retirement in Australia, we feel young again here. It's hard being a migrant as, chances are, you'll have a foot in each camp for the rest of your life, at least metaphorically. So, if you move back to the UK then, I'm sure, some things will be worse than they were for you in Australia. I can only go on my own experiences and, for us as 48 year olds, it's been the best thing we ever did.

We did Jet Pets from Perth to Manchester for our 2 and they were great.

The weather has been better than not all year. January was very wet, don't mind that, the place wouldn't be green without it. From lockdown mid-March until the end of June, the weather was fab. May was the sunniest month on record in the UK. July was changeable but the weather has been good again for the last couple of weeks. In fact, too hot if truth be told. To the OP, I wouldn't worry about the weather, we have been back in the UK for 16 months and it really isn't a factor. Also, I'm not sure why you are still in Australia if, after 4 years, you can't identify with the place, have no friends, feel life is passing you by and are repulsed by the thought of dying there. Great that your house is big and petrol is cheap but, you know, really?

It's absolutely nothing like that. In the the hour and half it used to take me to drive to Mandurah (yawn) the options I have here are breathtaking. I don't save my money for a yearly trip to Spain, we have a weekend (or two) away every month, like we did in Australia. The weather isn't usually a factor, it's just as much a factor over there as half the time it's too hot to do anything. I've never paid £10 to park. Hillary's is OK for a bit, then when you realise it's 1 of about 3 options you've got for the rest of the your life, and you've been 800 times, the OK-ness wears off. I appreciate that people might like that stuff, not for me though.

To be fair, I got the isolation thing. The main reason for me was that there are only a finite amount of things to do locally, then you're faced with a massive journey to do something else. We lived in Joondalup, there's very little to do there. There's beaches and Hillarys or travel east to Swan Valley and the hills, or head South (I had to stop going to Hillarys, I literally couldn't stick the place in the end). We tried further north a couple of times, as far as Monkey Mia, but most of the small towns aren't really worth the drive, it's just like driving for an hour then getting to another Yanchep, but usually not as good. You may as well just stay in the real Yanchep and save the massive drive. Moore River is nice, I rarely ventured further north than that. We just ended up in a cycle of holidays and days out to the same places over and over, I hit the wall after about 5 years. Over East, I imagine you don't face the same constraints when it comes to travel options. Obvs, the tyranny of distance still applies.

Bob's Bar was the rooftop bar near our work. I remember getting stung for a round in there, $54 for 3 pints of IPA. Funnily enough, that's my main recollection of the place.

I would try Sydney or Melbourne for anything IT-related. The sector is much bigger in those places.

We sold our house in Perth last year 15% down on what we could have got in previous years. Looking at realestate.com recently, prices have dropped further. I know it depends on area. Where we were, Joondalup WA, the agent told us migrants were down from 14,000 a month at peak to 1,000 (WA) and house prices were doomed. Looking at the website now, they are still tracking down. Great buyers market, probably cheaper than when we originally bought 2009.

Moved back last year. I always found Perth CBD a bit sterile and lifeless. I used to work in the BHP tower so, you'd think you were in the midst of it but, there wasn't a great deal going on. There were a few bars and restaurants in that area but not much atmos in the places; and they're extortionate for not that great quality. I liked Freo, it was a bit different. You can walk the place in no time but there are bars and eateries galore, all within spitting distance. That cappuccino strip has a distinctly Euro feel to it now. Perth CBD is glass and metal and, whilst it looks clean, nice and new, its a bit clinical and unwelcoming. Just my tuppence.