Australia - expensive??!

[Guest klong]

I have to agree with rachellh about the crazy car prices. I wanted a little run around until we got on our feet but there's not much in Perth for cheap. I paid $3600 for a little Hyundai Lantra that's 11 years old! For that car in the UK you'd struggle to get £500 for it.

 

If I was earning 50% more than I was in the UK then Perth might be affordable but the reality is that I'm doing the same job as I was back at home and the money's exactly the same so I am worse off financially here than I was at home.

 

If you left the UK a few years ago when it was still booming then I can understand why you would believe that Australia is not much more expensive than the UK. I have only just left the UK a few months ago when it was in the middle of the 'credit crunch' and I can guarantee that the crazy prices of a few years ago have all but disappeared. Supermarkets are fighting for business and therefore shopping is cheap now. Pound shops are springing up everywhere and selling quality products unlike they did years ago when everything was a quid for a reason! For example, I was buying Charles Worthington hair care products and Roc foundation which are bloody expensive here but I was paying £1 for them! It really has gone that crazy back at home!

 

Also with housing there are more affordable options for first time buyers to get on the property ladder in the UK. You can sill get a 3 bed terrace in the North for £50,000 within a 5-10 mile radius of a large city (if you don't believe that then look on the rightmove website) but I haven't found anything like that in Perth. I know those areas wouldn't be the most desirable places to live but it's an option for those who don't have loads of money to own their own homes. I have never seen anything like that in Perth in any areas, desirbale or not, new or old. I personally don't think that a house in the £150,000 - £200,000 price range is an affordable option for a first time buyer or a young family on one wage whether you look at it $ or £.

[Guest chris955]

I think new or would be immigrants have to get it out of their heads that the days of $100,000 houses here are long gone, prices went almost vertical after we bought ours 9 years ago and show no sign of slowing down. A decent house now in any major area is going to cost you minimum $300,000, it's just reality. Unfortunately first home buyers are being priced out of the market and unless the Government does something drastic the gap between house prices and what people can afford will continue to expand.

[Quoll]

I think new or would be immigrants have to get it out of their heads that the days of $100,000 houses here are long gone, prices went almost vertical after we bought ours 9 years ago and show no sign of slowing down. A decent house now in any major area is going to cost you minimum $300,000, it's just reality. Unfortunately first home buyers are being priced out of the market and unless the Government does something drastic the gap between house prices and what people can afford will continue to expand.

 

And the problem is exacerbated by the steady increase in interest rates as well - interest rates in Australia have always been relatively higher than UK which is an added burden especially to those new buyers who just lurched onto the property ladder with the last First Home Owners inflated grant. I fear some are already feeling the pinch and there has been talk of a .5% rise the next time around.

 

I have been back from UK for 2 weeks now and the cost of things is still making me gulp - especially food. I always thought things were cheap when I went home but my rational brain remembered that things were in pounds and not dollars. This time coming back I did the pound/dollar conversion and yup, I was right, more expensive. You do sort of get desensitized after a while though.

[scousers]

You will find a Volvo expensive here because it a european car and not very popular over here. The best cars to buy in Oz are Japanese, spares servicing etc much cheaper. My husband is a mechanic and has always said you do not buy european cars in Oz unless you are willing to spend big dollars!

[Guest bluebud]

The wife's..............4 yr old astra with only 55k..........$11500

 

kev

that would have been £2,000 tops in the UK.

[Guest guest36187]

I am most dissapointed at the price of a pint in Oz, have heard you get less than a pint in a nice pub or club and it costs on average £5 is this the case?

Glad to see meat is cheaper though, I suppose if you are earning say 50% more in Oz though that the prices will balance out.

 

 

Hi Bluebud

 

are you in Oz or UK?

[Guest bluebud]

Hi Bluebud

 

are you in Oz or UK?

Hi, UK for now, looking at Oz i a couple of years if possible.

[Guest guest36187]

(sorry to drift from thread!)

 

Thanks for that! Just wondered. Have you ever been to Oz before???

[Guest bluebud]

(sorry to drift from thread!)

 

Thanks for that! Just wondered. Have you ever been to Oz before???

Yes 3 times. and my brother has been over there 10 years,

 

You?

[Guest guest36187]

You`ll have seen a big difference in prices then in the times you have been here. Did you go all over Oz?

[Guest guest30038]

that would have been £2,000 tops in the UK.

 

With rust thrown in for free? :biglaugh:

[landv]

that would have been £2,000 tops in the UK.

 

 

The car prices must have come down a hell of a lot in the UK then since I last lived there.

 

I wonder if that price is before or after MOT though.

[Guest chris955]

2nd hand cars are a hell of a lot cheaper in the UK, often a 3rd of the price for the same model and year. I've been checking them out and it is amazing what you get for the money.

[Guest bluebud]

With rust thrown in for free? :biglaugh:

Cars in the UK today do not rust, they are dipped and I have not seen a rusty car for years.....remember my dad for ever rubbing down and filling his car panels with fibreglass..:laugh:

[Guest bluebud]

The car prices must have come down a hell of a lot in the UK then since I last lived there.

 

I wonder if that price is before or after MOT though.

You could honestly pick up second hand cars for peanuts before this scrappage scheme came in, new car prices are the lowest for decades which reflects on second-hand prices, with the 2,000 scrappage scheme you could pick up brand new cars for as little as £3,000

[Guest chris955]

Even when we last lived there about 10 years ago 2nd hand cars were cheap. I agree it has been a very long time since cars used to rust away. The worst car I had for rust was an old Falcon down in Victoria, the boot just about fell out, it put me off Fords for life so it wasn't all bad. :biggrin:

[Guest gratom]

Moving on from the interesting points about 2nd hand cars[and they are very cheap here]and returning to vegetables---I recently purchased three iceberg lettuces on Bedford market for a pound--is that a record??[one small, two medium sized].Interested to know the average cost of similar in Oz.Thanks

[mrcatania]

Hi, UK for now, looking at Oz i a couple of years if possible.

A pint will set you back $9, Not cheap regardless of what exchange rate you use, but in todays money it is 5 quid 42p. But hey, don't expect a nice pub culture here anyway... it doesn't exist.

[tracy123]

A pint will set you back $9, Not cheap regardless of what exchange rate you use, but in todays money it is 5 quid 42p. But hey, don't expect a nice pub culture here anyway... it doesn't exist.

 

And why is that?

[Guest chris955]

I put it down to pubs here being more like American bars where you just go to drink rather than in the UK where they seem to be places where people go to socialise, have a nice meal and a few drinks. The vast majority of pubs I have been to here are very sterile places with little atmosphere.

[Guest siamsusie]

 

I put it down to pubs here being more like American bars where you just go to drink rather than in the UK where they seem to be places where people go to socialise, have a nice meal and a few drinks. The vast majority of pubs I have been to here are very sterile places with little atmosphere.

Not in Tassie:wink:they are just like the pubs back home, and they cater better for children as well:biggrin:

 

[tracy123]

So it has nothing to do with needing a car to get to a pub (most cases) and would the booze buses being out most nights of the week or the police cars being equipted with breathalyzers have anything to do with people drinking at home?

Also why is it everyone talks about pints? when most pubs serve schooners, jugs or bottles...... or are we all going into these Irish themed bars, where it's :cool: to pay through the nose to drink out of a pint glass?! :wacko:

[Guest chris955]

No I don't think those things affect the people I know, pubs here have never had the atmosphere or friendliness of UK pubs even way before booze buses and the likes. It does help that all villages etc have a pub so people can just walk to them but that isn't the major issue I don't think.

The pint thing is fairly recent, when I have gone to a pub here mates always seem to buy a pint. Maybe it's regional as I know different states have different sized glasses ?

[Pond321]

Quinns Rocks sports and social club. Paid $6.50 for a full pint of Blue Tongue. Cheapest pint I have purchased in Aus so far!!!!!

[stevie ellis]

 

Quinns Rocks sports and social club. Paid $6.50 for a full pint of Blue Tongue. Cheapest pint I have purchased in Aus so far!!!!!

Hey fella was that the Gumblossem bowling club on Tappings way ? regards stevie