MaroubraAndy

Totally agree @Blue Flu. After several months of indecision and working the AU job remotely, we’ve decided to stay put for the time being. Given the state of the pandemic in Oz and the lockdowns in sydney this has turned out to be a decent decision as I certainly wouldn’t have fancied landing in lockdown conditions!

Well that certainly isn’t what’s happened in the U.K. The social housing stock had dramatically decreased over the last 30 years and that didn’t stop the gov introducing polices to disincentivise the amateur (1-2 property) buy to let investors. I guess private companies will fill the void left by the amateurs which I guess is a good thing on the whole as they can be regulated properly.

The government need to move away from incentivising buy to let by removing the rediculous tax breaks available. The U.K. have done a great job in this regard by stopping individuals from deducting mortgage interest from their buy to let profits as well as imposing additional stamp duty for folks buying additional properties. This has led to many buy to let investors (myself included) exiting the market as the returns arent worth the hassle.

Solid commentary there.

Lol @Wanderer Returns why thankyou, I think

Interesting conversation and it’s certainly an approach I’ve considered especially as I’m a very active equities investor. Problem for me in Australia is the tax treatment of share investment sucks as all profits are added to your gross salary and taxed at your highest rate. There’s no tax efficient investment vehicles in Oz such as ISAs as there are in the U.K. baring super. Rent vesting is certainly an option or another thing I’ve considered is just saying balls to sydney, buying a place in Brissy and just travelling down for a couple of times a month.

Yep, I can certainly relate to all that you’ve said there! Maroubra is crazy horses these days. The economics simply don’t make any sense, but hey, I’ve been saying that for years and things have just continued to march upwards.

So I’m shifting back to sydney with the fam shortly, and need to look at buying something. Prices have obvs been insane for sometime but lately they appear to have gone parabolic. Im literally starting to question the value proposition of moving back to sydney if the cost of doing so is soo ridiculously high. The whole quality of life argument starts to erode if you’re taking on such a mountain of debt that you can’t actually enjoy what the city had to offer. There’s obviously always been a disparity between the U.K. and Sydney in terms of pricing but right now my lovely 4 bed house in Herts is about half the price of a 4 bed single story cr@p hole in the Shire! Feeling very frustrated!

If I’m completely honest with myself, if the job opportunity both in terms of experience and financial gain wasn’t what it was, I wouldn’t be considering moving back to Sydney at this specific point in time. I’d spend a few more years in the U.K. enjoying what it has to offer prior to moving back to Oz in the future. That is essentially the crux of the issue.

Both of your comments Perth1Paul and Marisa are spot on and I totally agree. I guess if I were FULLY committed to it being a 1 way trip I’d sell my U.K. house and fully invest in Sydney in a heartbeat. The fact that I can’t for some reason being myself to do that gives me cause for concern!

It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford to buy in Sydney at the time, I kinda of just couldn’t commit to buying a place as it felt like a level of permanence that my head couldn’t deal with. When we came back to the U.K. we bought a family home straight away and plan to keep it. Whilst buying in our previous haunts in the east might be a stretch, things seem a lot more affordable alittle down south so hopefully that shoudnt be too much of an issue. Im conscious this all sounds like a load of BS to most people, who probably just read this and think ‘just get the f@@k on with your life and stop p&ssing and moaning’. But I guess everyone’s issues are relative to their own circumstances.

Hey guys, OP here, To answer your question we were very happy in sydney with a wonderful long established circle of friends. We hadn’t however bought property in sydney so there was that part missing so to speak. Both sets of our parents are in the U.K. and mine are fairly elderly and just about coping, I’m also an only child so feel a sense of obligation even though in honestly I’d never want to be in a position where I have caring responsibility for them. Whilst I certainly already feel a sense of guilt at the thought of leaving them, I absolutely know I/we need to make life choices for us and our kids, but knowing it is one thing, doing it is quite another. I think as a couple of folks have suggested, I just need to head over on my own for alittle while and see how it feels being back over there again. I think I’ll either settle straight back in and love being back or have a massive allergic reaction to it!

Well things have been ‘interesting’ for the last few months since my post so I thought I’d provide an update. Essentially we opted for sydney with view to me flying out alone to basically set up a bunch of stuff like, house, schooling etc but the flight ended up getting cancelled. I then started working remotely for my new company in Oz and we booked tickets for the whole family to travel out on May 3rd. Between these times things got a bit crazy, The job was/is going wonderfully but we oddly seemed to be settling even more into our U.K. life. Essentially I/we seem to be even more conflicted around the situation made worse by the impact Covid will have on our family’s ability to travel out and see us. In tandem the stress of the situation has resulted in some pretty big issues surfacing with my side of the family. All of which means we’ve basically just put our heads in the sand.. We’re now a week out from departure date and we’re no way ready to leave, physically or emotionally. The options we have now are I either go out initially by myself and we cancel the three other seats. I get back to sydney and remember what it was like to live there for 6-8 weeks then if everything feels ok, the wife and kids follow. Or we can the whole thing completely. We’re essentially both completely frazzled and seem unable to resolve the best path forward.. uggghhh!

Everyone’s journey is different, I moved out to o in 2008 and lived their for 10 years before moving back to the U.K. in 2018. Personally I loved every minute of it but always had in the back of my head that we would move back to the U.K. at some point. When we eventually got back to the U.K. the place seemed so alien, we simply couldn’t get our heads around how crap everything seemed, it’s been 3 years now and although we’ve adjusted, life just doesn’t seem so sweet. My point is, the longer you’re away harbouring thoughts of the U.K. but all the while adjusting to life down under, if/when you eventually make it back, you might be surprised by what you ‘thought’ you wanted..

Thanks guy, that all makes sense.

Hi guys, ive noticed a couple of posts on this subject but my question is slightly nuanced so didn’t want to take over any of the other threads. Question is, if Im duel U.K. and Aussie citizen and have stocks and shares ISAs in the U.K. from my time living as a U.K. tax resident. I then move to Oz and become an Aussie tax resident. I know I’m allowed to keep my isas but not contribute to them further. I also know I have to declare interest as part of my Aussie tax return. However I’m wondering on what sorts of activity would constitute something I needed to declare? I’m assuming all dividends would need to be declared and if I made a cap gain as a result of trading activity that would also require declaration. But what about unrealised gains, for example say I’ve held a tech stock for 10 years but don’t sell it thus the gain remains unrealised. Surely I wouldn’t have to declare unreleased cap gains on a yearly basis?

We haven’t really broached it with them yet, although it’s safe to say it will certainly have an impact as we’re very close to both sets of grandparents. We have one set of aunty/uncle/cousins over in SE Asia so the kids are already very used to the idea of having a geographically dispersed family. The idea of distancing ourselves from our parents hurts immensely right now, but I guess we’ve done it before so we can do it again. One of the biggest factors for me is my work, I have a massive network in Sydney but the same isn’t true in London and as much as I could probably build it up, it would take me years to get back to the same level which is difficult to face into when I know Sydney opty is calling..

Those are fair points and to be honest neither my wife nor I have any objection to retiring / pegging it in Oz. I completely agree that going there for a number of years with the intent of retiring in the UK doesn’t sound sensible! I am however planning to keep our house in the UK and just rent it out, more because it’s a decent investment rather then having a place that we could come back to. Out boys are 5 and 3 and we’re 41 and 38 so we have alittle time but I don’t ever want to consider the idea of going for a ‘few years’, this time we’d be moving with the intent of not coming back! You’re spot on when you say time will get away from us this time and the last thing I want to do is mess around with the kids schooling as they approach/enter high school.

Hey guys, Man, I’m so over the feeling of being torn between Oz and the UK.. I moved back from Sydney after 10 years there and have now been in London for 2.5 years. We’re at a crossroads in that I’ve just quit my current company and have two offers on the table, one in London and a much better one in Sydney and I just can’t decide what to do. A few months back we thought we were gunning to return to Sydney now we’re seeing the beauty on our doorstep. it feels like whichever decision we make is a compromise, choose Sydney and we forego the comfort and closeness of family, choose London and we miss out on the wonderful lifestyle we used to have. Ahhhhhhhh!

As someone who made a similar move back from Sydney to London a couple years ago, from my perspective at least, going with the intent of staying for a year or two is great in theory but difficult in practise. Staying for that sort of time means you’re going to start to settle in wherever you land, your kids with start to make friends and you’re start to fit back in to UK life. Then a couple of years goes by and you may or may not have done what you set out to do, then you’re faced with another difficult decision and another big move and settling in period. Of course everyone’s situation is different but in hindsight I wouldn’t have made the move back.

It’s so funny for me to read everyone’s stories as they remind me of my own story so much. Everything from being the UK immigrant that’s been living in and loving Sydney for years, then being almost offended when visitors from the UK don’t immediately want move too.. Through to moving back to the UK after 10 years and feeling like a square peg in a round hole.. Personally I’m trying hard not to be the ping pong pom and am determined to try and make my next move back to Sydney my last. This time I’m going to settle and that will be that. He says

Solid advice there!

Hey there, Your story resonates with me massively. I’m English but spent 10 years in Oz and after ALOT of deliberation moved back to the UK with my wife and kids in 2018. We loved our lives in Sydney but there was just an itch that we wanted to scratch before we settled for good. After 10 years in Sydney, the nostalgic vision that I had of the UK didn’t match up to reality. My old UK life was essentially gone and we were left to start afresh which in honesty we’ve found really hard. Obviously that’s not to say you won’t love it back here and as per one of the other posters mentioned, sometimes you just have to give it a try and see how it goes. Personally, I’ve accepted a job back in Syders and we’re planning to return in the new year!

Thanks for your comments / thoughts Fisher, always interesting to see others with a similar set of circumstances / situation. In terms of my parents condition, I wouldn’t say they are exactly what you’d call fit and well. Mums got pretty tippy bloody pressure which resulted in her having a stroke about 3 years back whilst we were still in Sydney, whilst she’s recovered from it somewhat she still has to walk with a cane. She also suffers from chronic dizziness which very much inhibits what she’s able to do these day’s. Probably her worst condition though isnt actually physical but rather her general outlook which is pretty negative and I think has a huge effect on her wider wellbeing / myriad of other aches / ailments etc etc Dad, whilst the older of the two is probably in a better state these days, whilst he does have prostate cancer, touch wood it’s pretty well under control. My wife’s parents are around 10 years younger and in their late 60s / early 70s. Due to their age, better health and the fact that they’d travelled extensively for most of their lives were able to come out and see us several times a year whilst we were in Sydney, which was incredible. They also have another son whose lived in SE Asia for over 15 years so are very used to the idea of having a global family. In many ways both sets of parents couldn’t be more different, literally like chalk and cheese!