Amazulu

This is from today's Times newspaper:

June 17, 2005

Abroad outlook

Transports of delight
By Megan Mason
A one-way ticket to Melbourne has never been easier to achieve





THOSE WHO earned passage to Australia just by stealing a loaf of bread did not know how lucky they were. In more recent times the country’s immigration policy has tightened considerably: anyone who has tried to navigate the points-based application process, spent hundreds of pounds on application fees, immigration consultants, full medicals and English proficiency exams will tell you that.

But still we try, and last year more than 18,000 Britons successfully navigated the visa maze to win permanent residence in Australia. Another 12,000 arrived on temporary business visas and 43,000 came for a working holiday.

There is good news for anyone squaring up to the pile of paperwork, though, and it is this: every state in Australia bar New South Wales has a skills shortage and is eager to fill it with qualified Brits. The economy has been advancing at such a clip for so long that unemployment is down to a 30-year low of just 5 per cent. You name it, they need it: nurses, lawyers, engineers, chefs, occupational therapists, hairdressers, pharmacists, mechanics, and perhaps even a new love interest for Toadfish in Neighbours.

The state of Victoria is so desperate for skilled workers that it has launched its own migration programme, which provides sponsorship to any applicant who promises to live in the state for at least two years. It cuts the processing time for applications and reduces the number of points you need to qualify for residency. All you need to apply through Victoria’s State/Territory Nominated Independent scheme is one of the vocational skills on its long list, about £8,000 in the bank and good English. It helps if you are under 45, but exceptions are granted if your skills are highly coveted. Moreover, if you are willing to live outside Melbourne — on the coast, near the ski fields or in the countryside — your case will also be given extra consideration. So if you do not have a skill on the list, but a piano tuner is needed in Geelong, you may still make it.

Newly qualified as a systems engineer, Dan Wimpress, 31, decided that breaking into the industry would be easier in Melbourne than in London, his home for the last decade. He found a job with a multinational engineering firm within weeks and now says he would never live anywhere else. “There’s all the regular stuff people say about Australia, the weather and people being so friendly and, well, hot girls. But Melbourne also has its own strong personality, masses of good restaurants — I think we’ve just hit one café per person — and beautiful parks. Everything feels really easy and manageable.�

Manageable, indeed. According to a study by the intelligence unit of The Economist magazine, Melbourne’s cost-of-living ratio makes it the most “liveable� city in the world, significantly cheaper than Sydney. Victoria’s Premier, Steve Bracks, can hardly contain himself when it comes to extolling the state’s virtues. “Victoria is the place to be,� he says. “We have a safe community, multicultural lifestyle, world-class education system, temperate climate and a strong economy. Melbourne’s cost of living is about 50 per cent cheaper than Tokyo, 41.5 per cent cheaper than London and 25 per cent cheaper than New York.�

And there is no chance that migrating Brits will be cold-shouldered by the locals. Bracks adds: “One in four Victorians was born in another country, and Melbourne has representatives from more than 200 countries, speaking 180 different languages and dialects.�

Where Melbourne really has the upper hand is with property. The average house price in Melbourne is nearly A$350,000 (£147,000). Average rental for a three-bedroom house there is about $1,850 per month, so selling in sterling and buying in Australian dollars makes for a whole lot of house. “You get so much bang for your buck in Melbourne,� says Dan Wimpress. “I love it that I can sell my little flat in Putney and buy something so much better here. I’m completely getting into the Australian dream, which is basically pouring everything into your house, your barbie and your deck.�

The federal Government is keen to help with that dream too, chivvying up a lump-sum payment of $7,000 for every Australian citizen or permanent resident buying their first property under the First Home Owners’ Scheme. The Victorian state government kindly throws in another $5,000, which makes for a very tidy deposit and another reason to head for Melbourne instead of Sydney, where the average house price has just passed $500,000. Moreover, the average three-bed house in Sydney costs about $3,500 a month to rent. This means that, while households in other Australian cities spend about 20 per cent of their salary on accommodation, in Sydney it is usually close to 40 per cent.

Spend half a million dollars in Sydney and you will end up with an ordinary-looking two-bed apartment in one of the many brick blocks that sprang up in the 1970s, about 20 minutes’ drive from the city centre, or a three-bed house in the outerlying suburbs. In Melbourne, however, $500,000 means a characterful Victorian or Edwardian house, with two or three bedrooms and a garden, in a central suburb close to one of the city’s many parks, or a seriously spiffy apartment on the foreshore.

Dan Robathan, 27, chose Sydney over Melbourne when he left London in 2003 and was shocked to discover just how expensive Sydney is. “I’m used to London,� Dan says, “so I figured it couldn’t possibly seem more expensive than that, but property prices are stratospheric and salaries don’t seem to be sufficiently higher to compensate for it.�

Dan, who works as an advertising manager for a publishing company, shares a one-bed flat in the inner-city suburb of Potts Point and pays $1,700 a month in rent. “Sydney is beautiful and I am glad I came, but the cost of it all means there isn’t much left at the end of the month.�

According to the statistics, the average salary in Sydney is $63,000 — only a tad higher than Melbourne’s $57,000. So choose Melbourne over Sydney and petty crime won’t be necessary before or after your passage to the colonies.


Sale away

A large two-bedroom Victorian house in Melbourne is within easy reach of trams and the buzz of Bridge Road. It is in the trendy Richmond area of the city and has an open fireplace, large bathroom, modern galley-style kitchen and garden with sheltered decking. It also comes with off-street parking. It is being auctioned on July 2 and is expected to fetch up to A$550,000. Contact: [email protected], www.benmac.com.au

Good migrations

VICTORIA’S immigration programme is a state sponsorship programme that speeds up your regular application with Australia’s Department of Immigration. Instead of waiting the usual one to two years for your application to be processed, it should take between six and eight months.

Applying through the State/Territory Nominated Independent (STNI) programme reduces the number of points needed to qualify from 120 to as few as 70. Everything from age to qualifications and finances is taken into account when adding up your total: see www.immi.gov.au/migration/ skilled/points_test.htm. The Skills in Demand or Skilled Migration Sponsorship gives immediate permanent residency status to any English-speaker aged under 45, with a qualification and work experience in any one of the fields listed at www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au. Forms are available on the website, and applications can be made online.

A second type is the Skilled Independent Regional (SIR) visa. In exchange for agreeing to live outside metropolitan Melbourne, applicants may be given leeway if some of the criteria of the Skilled Migration programme are not met. For both kinds of visa, applicants need to be backed by A$20,000 (£8,400) in savings, but allowances are made if you can demonstrate that your initial living costs will be minimal or that you have a job lined up.

There is also the Business Migration visa. To qualify, applicants must be planning to open a business in Victoria, provide investment plans or a business proposal, have a sound business record and “appropriate� funds. The Victorian government offers successful applicants help to establish the business.

tracey.d

Might have been tempted to go for Victoria if I didn't already have my visa. Had a look at Geelong as a potential area to move to when we were first looking into it all. Brisbane swayed us inthe end though.

Bit worrying that again figures are being quoted way above my salary . Hope we are going to manage.

jad n rich

The credibiility of the article went out the window for me when the cost of living in Melb was quoted as 41% lower than London Roll up roll up those who are finding living anywhere in OZ half the price of the UK Its annoying, becasue what could have been an informative article has lost credibility.

Couple of interesting facts, to be counted as employed in OZ you could have a 2 hour a week casual job, thats why the employment figures are so low and yes many states can quote thousands of vacancies, recently my son looked for an apprentiship, there were 43, brilliant, but 42 of them were not in the desired coastal or city areas where people want to live australias got a lot of outback to fill and aussies dont want to go there.

I'm surprised melbourne is pushing itself in the adelaide style, (advertises for immigrants as its loses a lot of its own people to other states), it seemed full to capacity, traffic, housing etc when we were last down

The first homeowners grant does contain another $5000 however the stamp duty on a house is double the rate of say queensland, small house we looked at stamp was $37,000, dont forget to add to cost of house.

NJJ

Bracks & co are on a push for extra xxx,000 - maybe more - immigrants to melbourne at the moment. people i have spoken to here about this issue are all in the agreement that things such as transport infrastructure and schools/hospital places should be thought of first.

The irony is that for the people who are in melbourne, Bracks' mob have another campaign going to try and encourage city dwellers to move to the country

Here in Vic, this is one of that many things that make up what is known as "Bracks Tax"