1972colin

Hi
Having recently visited an emigration exhibition in the UK we are torn between Australia and New Zealand. We are therefore wanting any information/advice from real people who have or are experiencing normal life and the fors and against's of living and working in another country (rather than agency staff looking for business who make every aspect sound easy and wonderful) for this reason i am posting this thread on New Zealand forums also.
Our situation is that my wife is a registered nurse who is just embarking on a 18month midwifery course so once qualified will be duel trained. I currently work as an assistant manager in a post office and we have twin boys aged 5.
We are looking for as i suppose everyone else is or was a better life than England offers. The areas of Australia we like the look of are Perth or Adelaide but we are open to hear about anywhere.
So what do we want to know - well anything that people who have been through this process can share and what they found out or helped in making the decision. Our priorities are i guess like anyone else safe living environment, good schools,reasonable standard of living, job availability for both of us, more so for my wife but i would also like to work even if just part time. Other things include real cost of living (food, clothing, cars, going out etc)
In a perfect world our desire would be a 4 bed house with pool in a nice area. We would have a budget from our house sale in the uk of around £150k so around $225k ($1.5 to the £). We are currently virtually mortgage free and would like to be in AUS is this achievable if not a small mortgage would be acceptable but we don't want to overstretch ourselves on mortgage payments.
One last thing that i'm sure is brought up a lot on this forum is spiders, how bad or not is the situation with them. We are not overly concerned with them causing fatalities as we have seen that nobody has been killed by them for many years but more with the constant vigilance that is applied to checking things before doing i.e around and under furniture,around the pool, outbuildings, shoes,toilets etc. I could go on but i'm sure you get the picture.
Please forgive me if this simply is not the case but the only evidence we have to go on i.e online sites are not conclusive. The situation we don't want is to be constantly on edge and paranoid about them we want a calm, less stressed life. So although mindful and respectful of them we don't want them dominating our lives.
I hope this gives you a good insight into our journey which is just beginning and anything that anyone feels could help or any information about areas, prices, visa process anything would be exextremelyell received and appreciated.
Kind regards
Colin & Julie

eddie007

Hello, you've come to the right place

House wise... A 4x2 in Perth in a reasonable area for $225k ... Not a chance..

But it will be a nice chunk towards one....

Lots of advice about costnof living on here... Search the thread, have a read and ask questions...

And before you ask, iceburglettuce was 69ct in spud shed this week

slapphead_otool

You wont get a "better" life in Australia, but you will get a different life which may have some better aspects and some worse ones.

Its the same wherever you go to, NZ, Australia or the Antarctic. Some things will be better and some will be worse. Its a balancing act and you need to understand and accept what you are trading, and what you are gaining.

Look at the "Moving Back to the UK" section on BE to read the stories of people who didn't understand the above, migrated and found that the new country wasn't perfect, it was a long way from family and friends, the Tv stations were different, the days shorter/longer, hotter/colder. Often the issues seem trivial, but they do affect people and they move back to the Uk because of them.

On top of that some people can embrace change and thrive on it, others prefer the security of what they know and dislike or are unsettled by change. Everyone is different.

Regarding the Australia and New Zealand choice, both places have advantages and disadvantages. NZ has come along leaps and bounds since i first visited it 25 years ago, but its still relatively small time. This gives it a charm of its own. Again it depends if you want that lifestyle.

My real advice would be not to sell the house in the UK - at least in the short term. Rent it out and use the income to rent a place here in Australia. You then always have a place to go back to if you need to. You may well find that you can buy here and own two properties, or eventually sell the UK house and pay off the mortgage here.

Reaver

There's a saying that floats around on the forums,

"same shit, different bucket"

Life is what you make it, and if you're looking for a better life then you're moving for the wrong reasons. If your looking for a change, for an adventure, then you just might find it and find a better life along the way.

I'm sorry to say this, but your house expectations are not that realistic.

My suggestion would be to watch the wanted down under series on BBC iPlayer right now. You have to take it with a pinch of salt, but there is some useful info to be had from it, and you can see what is achievable.

Most of all, make up your own minds. For every person that will tell you how much better off you are in the UK, there is another telling you how great it is. Only you can be realistic about your situation and whether it's right for you.

Hope that helps and welcome to the forums.

.

Bermudashorts

Your post is a bit worrying to be honest Colin. Most of us that have made a successful move did not move "for a better life", that is a term most commonly used by people who have not moved and to be honest not completed their research just yet.

Move for a different life and a different experience. You may end up being very glad you made the move and may decide that your life has been enriched by the experience. But don't move because you think every aspect of life is better in Australia or New Zealand. Because it isn't.

Your house budget isn't going to get you a 4 bed house with a pool or anything close. I would think at least double in the cheaper cities especially if you want a "nice area". In an expensive city like Sydney, this sum would be your 20% deposit, stamp duty and fees.

As for NZ and Australia choice, well one big difference is probably the weather, NZ being temperate like the UK. People also talk about it being hard to find work in NZ, although your wife at least is in a profession where there is often work to be had.

Buzzy--Bee

A lot has been said by many people about the difference between living in Australia and New Zealand, I will sum it up by saying that NZ is more expensive with much lower wages so you would need to have a lot more money to live there,although $225k might buy you a house outright in a very rural or poor part of NZ, it certainly would not in Australia. 1000 New Zealanders move to Australia every WEEK permanently largely because of the work issue. Some people love NZ and do not like Australia. I have lived in both and could not live in NZ again.

If you are attracted by some of the cutesy rural stuff that NZ offers, consider Tasmania maybe, although you would have similar work/income challenges.


BB

1972colin

Hi
I appreciate the replies so far and obviously I have made a mistake including" for a better life "in my post. We have a reasonable life here in the uk but we have been considering a new life abroad for a number of years unfortunately for one reason or another we have never got any further than just talk. In 18 months or so once the wife is qualified we are now in a position to proceed.
As I stated this is the start of our journey so all we have done so far is speak to people we know who have been to Australia who have told us a little bit about perth and Adelaide hence why these 2 cities are the ones I mentioned. Our research is just at the beginning again hence why I posted the thread to start gathering any information or tips or where to look for information to help us get started. To be honest I wasn't expecting a perfect/ dream property for the equity that we have in our uk house (£150k) but as I say this is a fact finding exercise and a mortgage to add to our budget hopefully would be no problem.
My intention from this thread was to not only gather information but to get real people's views on what is good about the country and what is crap so it gives us a balanced non biased view of what we could expect.

Buzzy--Bee

You'll get a lot of different answers about this depending on people's circumstances. After living in the UK, NZ and Australia I have no wish to move from Melbourne at the moment and love love love my life here, but that's just my opinion!

Bear in mind though, that a place that is nice to holiday may not be a very good place to live. Maybe come to Australia and NZ and do a reccie of both?

BB

Mummy3

Hi Colin, we have been here 7 months and yes we have a Better Life! My kids are outside all the time, they have more sports clubs to join than days of the week, there is lots to do and family time is a big thing here.
BUT, I miss my parents (technology is fab but you cant cuddle skype), I worry whats in the bushes in the garden (!), hot days are blooming hot! The culture is different although in my experience people are a lot friendlier.
We are very new and in a year my opinion may chance. We are renting and not bought a house yet but the costs of doing that is also a worry (stamp duty is very very high).
Best of luck in your decision

carolinephillips

G'day Colin, we have been in Sydney for nearly 5 years now, and have found our 4 bed house with pool- but we certainly are not mortgage free: in fact we are paying a much higher portion of OH's salary in comparison to England. Interest rates are much higher out here, and it is more expensive for many things.

Having said that, we are enjoying life out here, and for us, it is certainly better, although not quite what we had envisaged due to my unexected health problems. Luckily, with OH on a decent salary we are just about managing, and I hope to be well enough to get a part time job to pay for all of DD's extras. (She is 17 and is in Y12, which is horrendously expensive- but Uni fees will not be so onerous as school fees.)

Do a lot of trawling this site- it is full of interesting threads and snippets. Ask anything you want- there's sure to be someone who knows the answer.


That's trawling, NOT trolling!

h2oskineil

Hi mate
For Australian house prices, check out these -
www.realestate.com.au
www.reiwa.com.au

As the previous poster said, you will have no chance of a mortgage free property for AU$225k..... You will need to be looking around AU$500k to even start to be in the region of something 'nice' in a reasonable area.... then upwards from there. Many houses are in the $millions, especially with an ocean/river view.

Good luck.