Buzzy--Bee

OK let me put it more specifically -

Mum, Dad, 2 school age kids
Grow most of own fruit and veg
Like a holiday at least once a year to islands, once a year to NZ.
Don't go out much.
Like scuba diving but have own gear.
No mortgage or rent.
Would like a boat but doesn't have to be a large one.

AU$70,000 in Melbourne OK?
AU$50,000 in Brisbane OK?

This is OF COURSE entirely hypothetical!!!!

Cheers

Buzzy

Vash the Stampede

(a) I find it hard to believe that the average British ex-pat would have absolutely nothing for a deposit. Surely this is a very rare scenario indeed.

(b) It's possible that your ideas about what constitutes a half decent area are somewhat different to mine.

I am planning to live in the Adelaide hills, which I consider to be an excellent area with very reasonable prices.

I am hoping to buy a 2 to 3 bedroom house at about $280,000 max in a suburb like Bridgewater, Aldgate or Stirling. That would get me something like this...





Click here for details.

I consider this to be a nice house in a nice area. The exterior is nothing to write home about, but that's not important; what's important is the interior and the location, both of which come up trumps.

After selling our house in the UK and my investment property in Tassie, my wife and I would have about $120,000 for a deposit. Even allowing an absurdly generous $10,000 for fees (stamp duty is being abolished in South Australia, so no worries there) this would still leave us with a mortgage of around $170,000 if we bought that house.

Vash the Stampede

Living on your own? I'd say about $50,000 (the national average.) Even with a partner, that would be more than adequate; with no mortgage to pay, you would be sitting pretty.

It would be tighter with kids (depending on their respective ages, of course.)

MrsDagboy

Vash, you may find it hard to believe that no one has a deposit, but there are plenty of people out there who dont. Not everyone who comes over has owned their own house (some people *DO* rent you know!) & plenty have only gotten on the housing ladder recently, meaning that their equity is fairly low. By the time you take into account the money they need to get visas & pay for flights, shipping etc & to survive when they get here for the first month or 2, theres not much left!

And secondly, not everyone can live in Adelaide where the property is cheaper & not everyone would want to live in the Adelaide Hills, even if they chose to live in Adelaide. Peoples definition of a *decent* suburb are certainly different! (BW, Im not implying Adelaide Hills isnt a decent suburb, just pointing out that peoples expectations are different).

Thirdly, you have no children, so location, schools, size of the house etc are less important.

Lastly, remember some of us are older than you, so repayments on mortgages need to be higher as the loan term are shorter (If we took a 30 year loan we would be 72 before we repaid it :scared: ).

Try finding somewhere half decent in Brisbane for under $300K is a bit of a challenge. I can see why he has to have a $350K mortgage.

(There you go TM, I'm backing you up for once )

232Bar

I find all the 90K posts as the normal wage for one person amazing... these must be professional fairly high up jobs as most people I know are on a lot lot less a Clinical Nurse only gets $52,000 as starting level and new nurses get a hell of a lot less. Most other people I know are on similar wage or lower, I am yet to meet a local 90K person must all be at Sunshine Coast.

Buzzy--Bee

OK but could a family with no mortgage live (rather than survive) on 50k in SE QLD (and get some diving in????)

Cheers

Buzzy

MrsDagboy

Buzzy, you could survive OK, you wouldnt be rolling in it, but you wouldnt be dirt poor either.

IMO in your earlier scenario - mortgage free, holidays every year, 2 school aged kids, a boat etc - you would be comfortable on $80K.

That's our experience anyway .

MrsDagboy

You might find it amazing, but there are certainly people here in Brisbane that make that money.

Edit - you probably have to look at people that live outside of Deception Bay to find them tho!

Amazulu

Come to WA & you'll meet plenty. Then again WA is the powerhouse of the Australian eonomy & is carrying the east coast.

ABCDiamond

Check on that Stamp Duty..

S.A. From 1 July 2005, all mortgages taken out for the purposes of securing a loan that has been or is to be applied for home acquisition or improvement will be exempt from stamp duty.

It doesn't mention the larger Duty on Property Transfer.
http://www.revenuesa.sa.gov.au/stamps/sdmort.html
http://www.revenuesa.sa.gov.au/stamps/sdreal.html

On a $280k property in SA, you would be looking at $10,380. However, you do get $7,000 First Home grant to go towards that.

ABCDiamond

We do But only one child. And we don't dive

Buzzy--Bee

Thanks for the advice

Cheers

Buzzy

goldcoastblue

Cheers :scared:


Vash, you may get a bump on the way I am afraid be prepared as I wasnt.

I put a deposit , infaact all my savings for the mere fact I have come here to live and work and make it work. Tossing around , should I , shant I, am I arthur or martha just isnt happening so I took the plunge, and I will moan and groan, but I intend to work hard and play hard with a positive attitude except when I wind my friends up from the bayside.

Plus them pictures look a bit cramped, where will I put my bowrider and jet ski?

dont worry about my mortgage, thats my problem, worry about whether or not in two years you will be happy with what you get at $170k now, as before you know it , what you really like maybe a million and out of your reach, maybe.

I am not sure how old you are, but I am only 30, there are people older who, are up the ladder due to age, worked longer etc, so they get the deserved rewards of no mortgage, or reduced one, big boats, nice cars etc etc, maybe my time will come,

Why do you think British Expats have shed loads of money?

on another note

If your mortgage free anywhere in the world , you are half way out of the rat race, but the majority would only find something else to spend it on!!!!

guarenteed...

MrsDagboy

1st 2 blue boxes for you TM .

Vash the Stampede

But why? It seems that all I ever hear is "Wages are so much higher in the UK... cost of living is so much cheaper", etc. etc. If this is actually true, then people with no equity or deposit should be few and far between.

And yet... all of a sudden I'm hearing about people with no deposits.

Could it be that Great Britain is not the economic paradise of popular legend?

Sure, but...

(a) if they are renting in the UK, surely they're saving money as a result?

(b) even if their equity is fairly low, it's at least better than nothing.

(c) if they know they'll have nothing for a deposit when they arrive in Australia, they shouldn't be buying a house in the first place! It's more sensible to rent for a year, save a few pennies and build up a modest deposit for a modest house (easier to do in Australia, since tenants don't pay water rates or council tax.) Why drag yourself down with a huge mortgage millstone as soon as you enter the country? That doesn't make any sense!

(d) a lot of people make the common mistake of buying a car that's more expensive than they really need (thereby locking themselves into a credit debt at a rate far higher than you'd get on the average mortgage) when they would be better off buying a cheaper car for cash, and putting any extra money towards a mortgage deposit.

When I lived in Acocks Green, my daily drive to work took me past row upon row of shabby terraced and semi-detached houses with gorgeous cars out the front. You can bet your last penny that the majority of those cars were obtained via hire purchase or a personal loan. That's thousands of pounds poured down the drain - money which could (and should!) have been spent on improving the family home.

I bought my own car (a '94 Mazda Astina) for cash from a bloke in Handsworth. It cost me £550. He was selling it because he'd just got himself a nice swanky Merc - not brand new, but new enough to set him back £9,000. I spent half an hour in his house while we signed paperwork and chatted over tea, and in that time I saw more than a dozen places where £9,000 would have been better spent. (His bathroom had exposed plumbing and cracks in the walls, while the carpet in his living room was nailed to the floor over an older carpet which was peeking out from beneath the edges!) :scared:

People will always find the money for the things they want - provided that they want them enough - and you don't need to spend the equivalent of a mortgage deposit on emigrating to Australia.

True, not everyone can live in Adelaide - but they'd be mad to rule it out completely. Yes, people's idea of a decent suburb are certainly different, and I myself am astonished at the preference that some people seem to have for busy, crowded suburbs in overpriced areas.

Why not consider a more realistic property in a quiet area? Talk about value for money!

The point I am making here is that nobody is required to spend a fortune on their house in Australia; it just isn't necessary. And if people don't have a deposit, they shouldn't be lashing out on £350k mortgages. That just doesn't make any sense.

We don't have kids now, but we are planning to start as soon as we get over - and possibly earlier. So location, schools, size of the house etc. would be very important and are in fact on the top of my list.

Fair point!

If that's the case, then people who find it a struggle should find somewhere else to live and move to Brisbane when they can afford it properly.

I can't. There's absolutely no reason why he has to have a $350k mortgage. No reason at all. (In fact, he's made this very clear himself, in an earlier post. He had other options. Everyone does.)

Why do people want to live in Brisbane anyway? I honestly can't see the attraction.