Guest mazanddave Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 hi i am in the process of applying for my skilled visa (I am a social worker). Cant see a problem in getting it. However, what is concerning me the most is whether i sell my uk home or rent it out? Advice needed please. I am a bit worried as the exchange rate from UK to Australian dollars is very poor. If i sell my home do i leave the money in a uk bank account until the exchange rate improves? Or am i better renting my house out? or am i better buying a house in australia. The australian house prices are sky high and internet searches are stating that it is possible that australia could have a property crash from 2013 onwards and that Australian homes are approximately 40 - 60% over valued. This is what happened in the UK when everybodies house prices crashed with the recession. I am therefore worried about buying due to a potential crash. I have a lovely 4 bed house in the uk with a garage and after looking on the net at australian properties, i will get nothing near to what i own now! Rents are also sky high in australia! Am i best just coming to Australia with £20k equivalant to set my family and I up? Is this enough? Also any advise on the best places to rent (cheaply) would be appreciated. We were looking at Perth but social workers are needed all over australia so we just want to settle somewhere cheap, what we can afford to rent out initially, before we decide on a more permanent fixture. thanks:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Well really nobody can say which is better, because we do not know what will happen. Some people choose to sell and some to hang on and rent out, I opted for not selling just yet but only time will tell if this turns out to be a good decision. I have been hearing about this property crash around the corner for quite a few years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Have to agree with Rupert all the years we have lived here each one they say the property bubble will burst, it never has, yes it may take a dip but always comes back. The only place I know where I can say property is at rock bottom is Cairns. When we moved up here we had a buyers agent helping us so she knew what the owners had paid and what their mortgage was and 95% of the ones we looked at were in negative equity from when they purchased for up to 5 years ago. We were putting silly offers in and getting positive feedback, which was totally different to how it was when we bought in Melbourne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chardy Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I'm afraid the final decision is yours ! I don't see Oz house prices being sky high as it is all relative to your potential earnings out there and what you could afford and remember Oz houses are bigger than UK ones. Of course if you are currently in a part of the UK where your 4 bed house is worth only around £180k then they will look expensive, whereas where we are our house is £300k and that is the cheaper end of the market so a $400k Oz house looks cheapish to us. Like others have said about the housing crash in Oz - it's been rumoured for years but prices have any cooled a fraction but it's anyone's guess if/when that might happen. Economic indicators seen to show it will hold steady for the time being. For cheap rents you need to be away from the CBD and the beach but then some areas may be less desirable. Have a trawl on www.reiwa.com.au or www.domain.com.au to get ideas of rent costs and buying prices. £20k may be enough to get you started if you can find work quickly and depending on the size of your family ! Don't forget to take into account shipping costs and flights ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mazanddave Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 hi thanks for the advice. I want to rent but i worry about having tenants that may trash my property. Didnt know Cairns was cheap.... i will have to look into that. Are there a lot of implications to renting your UK home. I think i read somewhere that you can only do this for 6 years (although I would not assume this is accurate as surely it is up to me when you sell my home) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cki2011 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 hi i am in the process of applying for my skilled visa (I am a social worker). Cant see a problem in getting it. However, what is concerning me the most is whether i sell my uk home or rent it out? Advice needed please. I am a bit worried as the exchange rate from UK to Australian dollars is very poor. If i sell my home do i leave the money in a uk bank account until the exchange rate improves? Or am i better renting my house out? or am i better buying a house in australia. The australian house prices are sky high and internet searches are stating that it is possible that australia could have a property crash from 2013 onwards and that Australian homes are approximately 40 - 60% over valued. This is what happened in the UK when everybodies house prices crashed with the recession. I am therefore worried about buying due to a potential crash. I have a lovely 4 bed house in the uk with a garage and after looking on the net at australian properties, i will get nothing near to what i own now! Rents are also sky high in australia! Am i best just coming to Australia with £20k equivalant to set my family and I up? Is this enough? Also any advise on the best places to rent (cheaply) would be appreciated. We were looking at Perth but social workers are needed all over australia so we just want to settle somewhere cheap, what we can afford to rent out initially, before we decide on a more permanent fixture. thanks:) We are in the exact same boat as you and i think a large % of poms in oz members are too.... we are going to rent our house we live in out and hopefully sell the other house we have which we rent out at the moment before we move out there for good next year. We have just spent over 30k on our house with new kitchen and bathrooms etc as we wasnt sure we would get the visa and the old tenants in the house we rent out has trashed it so we have to spend 5k to fix that up so we are a little miffed at the moment....and to say we are worried about renting ours out is an under statement.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mazanddave Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 .... i am going to sell! I have just spend £23k on a new kitchen and £7k on a new bathroom and i do not want it trashed. I think i will get my visa, activate it, return to the uk until it is sold and leave the funds in a uk bank. You spending £5k due to damage has put me off. Alternatively i will have to get the landlord insurance that protects me against damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laugan Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We were in the same position but due to the terrible exchange rate we decided to rent our house out and pay the estate agent a fee to maintain our property and do regular inspections. Six or seven years ago our house back home would of got us a $750k home here, now only $450k! Imagine moving back home and the exchange rate going back up to 2.50 dollars to the £, how much you could potentially lose!!! We only brought $10000 with us a a full container and got a loan in Australia to buy a car. The tax man has suggested we buy a house within two years rather than waste money on renting but too many houses for sale in the small town where we live in Oz and imagine if we had to move it wouldn't sell too quick, so many of them are rented out because they don't sell!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Ropey HOFF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We are in the ssame position, lovely 4 bed detached, now worth up to £50k less because of the UK long term recession, plus since we applied for the visa, the AUS dollar has dropped by almost $1 so we are looking at a massive reduction in what we would have been taking. Do we sell, or do we rent, we personally don't have to go until 2014 so hopefully the UK will be out of recession by then and the houses will have gone up slightly and also the dollar will have crept up. We are not talking peanuts here, it is a staggering amount of money that we can recuperate and I think it's worth biding our time, unless there is no option to sell. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mhags Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Hi, We moved out here almost 2 years ago(Oct 2010) and had put our house in UK up for sale in March 2010, just at the start of the decline in house prices (we had bought at the height of the housing market) and we took it off the market in 2012 as we were now getting silly offers (if any!) at a ridiculously low price that we could not afford top take. We then decided to rent the house out, which we had considered at the time of emigrating but decided against then. So our first tenants move in this week and we just have to hope they have been fully vetted and don't damage our home. As you mentioned you have landlords insurance for this very problem. We will also have a property manager. We are happier knowing that if for any reason we have to return to UK we still have a good foot on the property ladder. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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