Buy or rent Property when arriving in Australia

[Teecee]

Just curious to know who bought property and who rented property when they first arrived in Australia after receiving their visa approval?

How did you find your property? Did you do your searching from overseas who when you arrived in Australia?

Thank you.

[Jon the Hat]

Unless you have family to stay with I can't see how you would avoid renting for a few months at least.  We are planning on 6-12 months renting after a short period in a holiday let.

[Ausvisitor]

14 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Unless you have family to stay with I can't see how you would avoid renting for a few months at least.  We are planning on 6-12 months renting after a short period in a holiday let.

There are very good reasons to rent in the first place (over and above the obvious need to find somewhere and actually buy it which takes time). For instance in NSW (and maybe others) you can qualify for a stamp duty exemption on your first Oz home under $650k (or a sliding reduction up to values of $800k), but this exemption requires some residence beforehand, see rules below. On a $650k house this exemption is a saving of around $25k which would cover your rent for the first 6 months at least...

Breaking down the 200-day exemption

To further explain the 200-day exemption for PR visa holders, you have a maximum of 165 days in which to move into the property.

After this, you must live in the property for a continuous period of 200 days (165 + 200 = 356 days).

You can avoid this requirement if you had been living in Australia for at least 200 days since receiving PR.

[Marisawright]

It would be very unwise to trust online searches, particularly as real estate agents unashamedly doctor the photos of the properties.  You could use them to create a shortlist of properties to view in your first few weeks, but even that isn't as easy as it sounds.

It makes a lot more sense to start with a holiday let for four weeks while you look for  a rented place,  then take a lease for six or twelve months, to give you time to research the city thoroughly and make a considered decision.   

To understand why I say that, I suggest you do a trial run - make a short list of properties, then pretend you're in Australia already and you're going to view them this week.  You'll have to check the "Open for Inspection"  time on the property listing because that's the only time you can view the property.   If you've got three houses and they're all open at 10.30am on Saturday, tough - unless you're in the country, agents aren't cooperative about opening the property for you any other time.   Make a schedule for your first Saturday, and remember to allow driving time from one house to the next. 

You're likely to find that you don't have time to see many properties - and if you don't even know what the various suburbs are like yet, you'll end up driving by some of them because the neighbourhood looks dodgy.  How many homes did you look at before you bought your last property, which was probably in a region you knew well? 

When you find one you like, if it's for auction (which is common), they may not take an offer, so you'll have to wait up to 6 weeks for the auction.  If you're successful, then it's typically 6 weeks for settlement.   Meanwhile you're still in your AirBnB.   

[Melbpom]

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

When you find one you like, if it's for auction (which is common), they may not take an offer, so you'll have to wait up to 6 weeks for the auction.  If you're successful, then it's typically 6 weeks for settlement.   Meanwhile you're still in your AirBnB.   

At the moment a lot of properties are "off market" which means that to even get to see these properties you'll need to have shown some interest in the area previously.

Also the sales price isn't always set and expressions of interest (EOI) are asked for, so you have to have a good idea of the market and that takes time.