Cost of Furniture/household goods in Oz

[Wozza]

In the final stages of selling our home after a long 18 months on the market. Is it best to ship your household goods or to sell in the UK?. We are hopefully moving to the Meriden Plains/Caloundra area. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Tulip]

Thing I've heard here; if it's going to get replaced in six months, don't bring it. I would bring things like sheets, towels, and expensive stuff. Not sure I'd bring white goods. I'm bringing NOTHING, but, I don't really own much. Gumtree will be my best friend.

[calNgary]

There are lots of places to buy furniture from cheap and cheerful like Ikea and Fantastic Furniture to better quality with shops like Super A Mart, Harvey Norman etc...

 

If your own stuff is in great condition it may be worth bringing, although we brought no furniture or white goods and doing this worked well for us.

 

​ Cal x

[NicF]

Depends what you stuff is and if you would be happy replacing it all with second hand or cheap stuff. We brought everything including white goods but we were lucky enough to be able to stay with my mum in the UK for 7 weeks before flying out and had 2 weeks in my MILs house when we got here so no managing without furniture in the meantime. That said, I would have still brought everything. We have some really nice, relatively expensive pieces that we did a lot of shopping around for that we really love. While you can get similar stuff here it is really expensive so it would not have been worth selling in the UK and buying new. The insurance value for the stuff in our container was well over £20k so the £4k spent shipping it was money well spent in my mind. It's also helpful for the kids to have familiar stuff around them.

 

What I wouldn't do though is go out and buy a whole load of new stuff to ship. If you need new stuff hold off and buy it when you get here. Whether you bring everything else is really down to personal preference and what would work best for you.

[richardtale]

Thanks Calngary for providing the shops. They provide good quality of furniture at the best prices.

[Bobbsy]

In my experience, Super A Mart is good for furniture comparisons--decent quality stuff, not the cheapest, not the most expensive.

 

For white goods, you could add "The Good Guys" to the list. We've probably bought more stuff there than at Harvey Norman.

 

One thing I'd add: take 10-25% off any prices you see on the Internet. Haggling is the norm down here, particularly if you'll be buying several items at once as you likely would be. We've never paid the marked price at any of the stores mentioned--there are always discounts to be had.

[Wozza]

Hi

 

Many thanks for your replies, they have been really helpful. We do have some quality items so have decided to ship everything over. Just who to use is now the question! Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thanks

 

Joe, Billie & 3 Kids

​

[Freesia]

There's a thread called Self-pack Container- too good to be true? you'll find loads of current info & opinions on there .