How much did it cost you?!

[TeacherClem]

So...the million dollar question (hopefully not literally)

 

How much did it actually cost you to emigrate to Australia?!

 

What would you advise someone who said to you, "we'd really like to emigrate to Australia" they would need for the process of getting out there?

 

 

 

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[ABG]

My costs to date for a family of 4 have been AUD7800 for the visa plus £1500 for skills assessment, medicals, PCC, IELTS, miscellaneous (e.g. statutory declaration). Our activation visit we just made cost approximately £5500, but this was a holiday with side trip to New Zealand rather than in/out visit. After seeing what things cost, I'm intending on having at least £25k for the move and setting up fund. We're planning on shipping quite a bit of furniture as it's really expensive to kit out a whole house from scratch. We haven't done things the cheapest way, but when it's all added up, I suspect we'll have spent in excess of £35k


Sent from a really tiny keyboard - pardon random autocorrects and fat-finger typos

[DukeNinja]

IELTS book: GBP 30

IELTS fees: GBP 160

189 visa for partner and I: GBP 3400

Police checks x2: GBP 160

Medicals (2 adults+ 1 baby): GBP 700

101 visa for child: GBP 1500

AIR skills assessment: GBP 600

University Paperwork fees: GBP 120

Solicitor: GBP 150

Courier: GBP 70

AIR membership: GBP 411

AHPRA registration: GBP 500

Fit2Work x2: GBP 200

Notary: GBP 150

Courier: GBP 70

AHPRA activation visit: GBP: 1500

New passports (Wife, baby and I): GBP 350

Passport photos x3 sets: GBP 30

One way flights (wife, baby and myself): GBP 920

Hotel layover in Singapore: GBP 155

18 nights Holiday rental: GBP 1200

Taxi from airport to Brisbane: GBP 55

Large MoveCube: GBP 1445

Marine Insurance: GBP 292

Deposit + 2 weeks rent for Long term rental: GBP 1800

Total running cost: GBP 15968

[Collie]

That's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question.

Need some more detail to be able to answer accurately

• How many people are looking to migrate?
• Are there kids involved?  
• Where are you looking to move to ?
• What visas will you be on? (school fees in many states on a 457)
• Have you jobs lined up?
• Are you shipping furniture?
• Have you friends/family to stay with initially?
• Will you need a vehicle or 2? (eg no kids and living inner Sydney/Melbourne, probably not, use PT and car share schemes)
• What lifestyle do you enjoy? (eg Inner city, by the beach is more expensive then rural)

There have been a few similar threads before (probably in the money section).  Depending on the answers to the above, I think you would be looking at $40-60k to set up your life in Aus for the first year.  If you have no need for a car, that comes down a bit and if you have jobs to go to, it means that you will have money coming in straight away.

The 1st 3-6 months can be expensive as you are in temporary accomodation, have a lot of one off costs and may not have an income for a while.

[Guest]

What Collie said. Depends on you really. 

Our costs were substantially less than the next persons but we still had to fork out for my visa, flights, our MoveCube and start up costs (car, bills, incidental costs like drivers licence etc). 

Give us some more to work with

[TeacherClem]

Ok! Family of 4 (2 adults 2 young kids) Brisbane or surrounding area but flexible with that as no job currently sorted (answers another question).
PR visa, no family or friends out there to stay with. Yes to furniture, yes to needing a car.
Thanks will look in the money section, had missed that [emoji85]


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[Guest]

I'd say you should have savings to see you through at least 6 months. That is after your flights and costs from the UK end. 

Factor in short term rental to start off, buying a car, even an older one can set you back $5000 including insurance and rego. Then rent for longer term, plus deposit and all the other things like school fees (iirc they are about $300 for our kid at primary for the year). If not school fees then kindy or nursery fees. Then there is food, bills, ambulance insurance at least and other day to day stuff. People manage on less of course but it's good to have a buffer as work may not happen straight away (especially if you arrive over summer holidays). 

[TeacherClem]

I'd say you should have savings to see you through at least 6 months. That is after your flights and costs from the UK end. 
Factor in short term rental to start off, buying a car, even an older one can set you back $5000 including insurance and rego. Then rent for longer term, plus deposit and all the other things like school fees (iirc they are about $300 for our kid at primary for the year). If not school fees then kindy or nursery fees. Then there is food, bills, ambulance insurance at least and other day to day stuff. People manage on less of course but it's good to have a buffer as work may not happen straight away (especially if you arrive over summer holidays). 

Thanks for your reply, this is really helpful


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[VERYSTORMY]

After visa costs, shipping anywhere between £5-10k. Flights 2k. Temp accommodation £1-2k. Car £3-5k. Incidentals - you leach cash in the initial weeks on things such as mobiles and stuff. £1-2k.

then the expensive. You need enough cash to live until you find work. So, rent, bond, household bills, food fuel and all the other costs of day to day living until you get a job. You should allow six months between landing and an income

[calNgary]

If your moving to QLD you don;t need ambulance cover, so that is a saving.

Have you looked on sites like Stayz.com for furnished accommodation for your first month? This will give you a guide to cost but its worth asking for a discount if staying 4 weeks or more. If your not too fussy about a big house straight away look at holiday parks and price up cabins for your first month.. Realestate.com will give you a guide to unfurnished rental costs so at least you will know roughly what to budget for. In a furnished short term rental you dont normally pay utility bills, in an unfurnished longer term one you need to pay phone / internet, electric and contents insurance along with gas if the house as it, some also charge water costs.

 

Cal x

[starlight7]

These things always seem to cost a bit more than we bargain for.  For example, would you factor in birthday presents, stuff for Christmas , fares etc- little things that add up? I think on the food side you could probably get away with a reasonably cheap grocery bill if you shop at places like Aldi, markets etc and don't eat out much. To get a cheap rent it might be best to avoid CBDs but then you have to factor in travel costs so wouldn't want to be a huge way out. I find that some shopping areas are definitely cheaper than others, too. Avoid the 'posh' looking ones !

[Collie]

Based on your answers above, I would say $50-$60k to make sure you are ok.  Depends on what you spend on a car.  You can do it with less but will want to be quite frugal

Brisbane and the GC will be cheaper than Sydney, Melbourne or Perth but the cost of living in Australia is still higher than the UK.

Expect your costs to be about $5k per month for a normal standard of living  Obviously the sooner 1 or both of you start working the better.  Accomodation will be your biggest expense and will be very much dependent on the area and quality of property you are looking for.

Check out Domain.com.au to get an idea of the market in your chosen area, rents are quoted in weekly amounts and properties are normally unfurnished.  As said above, look at stayz or airbnb for short term accomodation when you arrive.  I think allow for 3-4 weeks.  Don't be afraid to ask for a cheaper rent for a long stay.

Another thing to consider is the f/x rate.  Since Brexit it has tanked and is currently about $1.62, who knows what it will be in the future but many forecasters (investment banks etc) expect a further 10% depreciation by 2018 based on the Brxit negotiations leaning towards a hard Brexit.  It may be worth opening an AUD account (you can do this from the UK with any of the big 4 - CBA are my preference) and transfer some GBP to AUD (use moneycorp, currency fair, Halo etc for a better rate) from time to time to mitigate this risk.

Good luck

[DukeNinja]

Apparently you can open a GBP account with WestPac (I'm sure you can with the others too), transfer your GBP into it, and let it sit there until you're happy with a FX rate, at which point you then convert your GBP to AUD.

[TeacherClem]

So are long term rents always unfurnished properties or can you get a long term (by long term I'm thinking 12 months) that is furnished?


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[TeacherClem]

Thanks all, really interesting and good to get your feedback


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[Tulip1]

Most rentals are unfurnished 

[Guest]

Including one visa and associated costs, obtaining other various docs, flights, short holiday in Asia, first month's travel and accommodation in Brisbane before secured rental, first month set up costs (rent/bond in advance) furniture & whitegoods, car hire, Manchester (linen for house), crockery/cutlery/pots & pans (until Movecube arrives), food & spending money and bits and bobs along the way  ....£21,990.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Guest

[Guest]

2 hours ago, TeacherClem said:

So are long term rents always unfurnished properties or can you get a long term (by long term I'm thinking 12 months) that is furnished?


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We viewed nine rental properties. None had beds/tables/chairs. Only three didn't have a washing machine and fridge.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, TeacherClem said:

So are long term rents always unfurnished properties or can you get a long term (by long term I'm thinking 12 months) that is furnished?


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Furnished long term would be expensive. Not the norm either. 

Most houses are rented unfurnished and often don't have a fridge or washing machine. Depends on the age of the house perhaps too. Often newer builds have those things built in, older places may well not. 

[calNgary]

I wouldnt rent furnished for much longer than a month, which would give you time to check out areas and find a longer term rental. It would be way cheaper to rent a 12mths unfurnished house and grab a cheapo furniture package from Fantastic furniture or Ikea.

Cal x

[ABG]

Our plan for furniture is to ship most things, the exception being things we are going to really need in the first few months. Due to different bed sizes and the need for these from day 1: we'll buy those new on arrival, apart from one of the kids bunk beds which we'll ship. Gumtree or equivalent to get cheap washing machine/fridge to see us through until ours arrive from UK and then flip them for hopefully similar price we paid. We'll buy a small tv which will become a spare room/bedroom tv when the big screen arrives in the container.

 

 

Sent from a really tiny keyboard - pardon random autocorrects and fat-finger typos

 

[Collie]

14 hours ago, TeacherClem said:

So are long term rents always unfurnished properties or can you get a long term (by long term I'm thinking 12 months) that is furnished?


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Yep - 90%+ of rentals are unfurnished.  You will get a cooker, maybe a dishwasher and sometimes there may be an odd piece of furniture left there.

In units, you often get a dryer.

2nd hand stuff sold on gumtree, local noticeboards and facebook messenger, watch for garage sales.  Kmart is great for cheap crockery, pots & pans, basic appliances (toasters, kettles etc.

[ABG]

15 hours ago, DukeNinja said:

Apparently you can open a GBP account with WestPac (I'm sure you can with the others too), transfer your GBP into it, and let it sit there until you're happy with a FX rate, at which point you then convert your GBP to AUD.

Not sure if its going to work, but I'm going to give this a shot when we transfer money.  In preparation for our activation visit/holiday, I opened a Revolut account, which is a peer-to-peer money exchange service, and got one of their prepaid cards.  I used it throughout the trip and simply withdrew cash from the ATM or simply paid with pay wave/chip and pin.  I paid zero commission on transactions and exchanged my money at the inter-bank transfer rate.  With Revolut you can also send payments to another account on the same terms - zero commission, inter-bank exchange rate.  So my plan is to transfer money from UK to either my or my wife's Aussie accounts and hopefully not have to pay any charges or pay the bank spread.  

Edited September 7, 2017 by ABG

[Collie]

16 hours ago, DukeNinja said:

Apparently you can open a GBP account with WestPac (I'm sure you can with the others too), transfer your GBP into it, and let it sit there until you're happy with a FX rate, at which point you then convert your GBP to AUD.

Opening a GBP with Westpac (or anybody else) will not hedge against a fall in the currency.  If you expect the GBP to continue to fall (as many experts do), then transferring to AUD sooner (and let it sit in the account until you move) will protect against a fall in the GBP.  Of course, if the GBP strengthens, you will lose out (but most market commentators expect a further decline, certainly against the Euro.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

On 05/09/2017 at 23:45, TeacherClem said:

 

So...the million dollar question (hopefully not literally)

 

How much did it actually cost you to emigrate to Australia?!

 

What would you advise someone who said to you, "we'd really like to emigrate to Australia" they would need for the process of getting out there?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using PomsinOz

 

It's like someone else mentioned, how long is a piece of string. I've known a family of 4 arrive with $5,000 and get by. Others have arrived with $100,000 and spent it in the first couple of months.