Originally Posted by OzzieNurse

£200,000 get you a three bed mid terrace in the SE??? Not anymore it wont!
We have been trying to get on the property ladder for years and last year nearly bought a brand new Bloor home but this would have cost us £300,000! with a mortgage of £900 a month.
We decided against it. Glad we did. House prices are ridiculous in the UK probably not much better in Oz but maybe just maybe we can get a house and it will be bigger than a 2 bed semi!

Originally Posted by anna marie shlyshen

Already have a house in Scotland so don't need another one the point I am trying tom make is that Oz is not as affordable as everyone is led to believe.

Originally Posted by cresta's conscience

If you don't need to be in the "burbs" for work then there is plenty of cheapish land still around if you know where to look. You can buy a 5 acre block and hour and a half North of Brisbane, 1 Hour from Sunshine Coast, an hour and a half from Hervey Bay and Rainbow beach 45 minutes away for the sum of 100K. It might not be where you want to spend your twilight years, but a foot on the property ladder. A 4 bedroom house with ensuite & double garage would set you back a further 150K move in. There's no need to mortgage yourself to the hilt giving yourself an ulcer into the bargain. We have friends in Brissie that we can visit any time and refer to each other's places as our holiday homes
I might not have sea views but I do have views of the Mary Valley, Roos & wallabies that play in the back yard birds and a possum that I can hand feed. In fact we live further away from the beach than we ever did in the UK. I love it.

Where is it? Well it's a little "backwater" 20 minutes North of the nearest "City" which is being developed at a great rate of knots.Plenty of work for tradies who don't want the rough and tumble of major cities.

Deb

Originally Posted by Tableland

A quarter of a million quid is still a pretty big mortgage by most people's standards though, isn't it? You'd be looking at monthly repayments of about £1400!

Originally Posted by AndyR1976

First, and this may be just me getting my back up - but 'backwaterish' is probably not the term I would have used!! Lots of people like what these places have to offer - just because they are far away from each other doesn't make them backwaters! There are lots of people who actually move to these areas specifically because they are quieter and a bit out of the way - these towns provide great places for retirement or for people to raise their kids out of the more congested city areas! I myuself was raised in Cundletown/Taree and feel very lucky to have grown up in such a great area.

I can also see why some people don't like it - especially English people - because you guys are so used to being near to everything/everyone all the time. I feel very clausterophobic in England and laugh when people talk of the the 'garden' county - I live in Kent and I have never been anywhere thats more than 500 yards from a road or house!!!

I could comment on this forever really - my parents lived in a great place, I had my own boat from the age oe 12 and spent weekends out on the water or surfing/fishing with my mates! We would take our boats and go on weekend camping trips and generally made our own fun! I have never thought of it as backwaterish - just different (but definitely different in a good way to my current live in a box, commute to work, spend all my money on bills and train fares lifestyle (actually my current lifestyle is nothign like that - but thats how most of my english friends seem to live))

Second - its not limited to NSW - Generally, Australia has some large conurbations (my word of the day ' conurbations'), but then lots of open space between towns!

You state that's why people have moved to Byron/Gold Coast etc. But keep in mind that apart from the Gold Coast/Brisbane/Sunshine Coast strip (which has long been cited as 'over-developed') there is no stretch of coast in Qld which has similar 'non-backwaterish' feel to it! North ot Maroochy there really isn't much except 5000 miles of open road with a few moderately sized towns every 500 miles (Bundaberg, Gladstone, Townsville et al).

I think its a bit of a perception thing - I have grown up miles from a major city, had my family live thousands of miles apart etc. Put an English person 100 miles from the nearest major city and they think they're in the middle of nowhere!!

This is repeated in pretty much all states.

Hope this doesn't offend!!??

A

Originally Posted by Tableland

This is a good point to make, and I have argued it before. For too long, the inequality between British and "colonial" housing prices offered the average British bloke a short-cut to paying the mortgage off. He could cut maybe 10 - 15 years off his mortgage or maybe even get rid of it altogether. This happened in Australia and to a lesser degree Canada.

Things have changed, and people need to get used to it. Houses in Australia and Canada are still better value than their British equivalents because while they cost the same per average "unit" they are bigger and generally have more land. For now - but this will change too.

What they mean is, they can't afford a four bedroom McMansion with a swimming pool and a view of the beach. LIke you said, they wouldn't evert get that in Slough, so why should they expect it in WA? Australia isn't a registered charity.

Originally Posted by Tableland

A quarter of a million quid is still a pretty big mortgage by most people's standards though, isn't it? You'd be looking at monthly repayments of about £1400!

Originally Posted by Tableland

Things have changed, and people need to get used to it.

Originally Posted by AndyR1976

A quarter of a million is a pretty hefty mortgage - but what can you get fro £250,000 in the UK anyway!??

Originally Posted by AndyR1976

A quarter of a million is a pretty hefty mortgage - but what can you get fro £250,000 in the UK anyway!?? Nothing in London thats any bigger than a box with a toilet!

In the south east (where I am living) 2 bed TINY TINY apartments and semi's cost about that!! You can go a little cheaper - but whatver you save on the purchase price you would have to spend making the place habitable! Then you would have to live with no parking (I pay £350 a year just for a parking space) and Council tax bill for me is around £1300 - thats nearing $4000!!!!!!!!! -

Atleast if you pay that sort of money somewhere within an hour or so of Brisbane you can have a house woth enough room to swing a cat (plus a nice outlook and a better lifestyle). PLus 5 acres for the kids to run around on.

Originally Posted by Tableland

Sure - I agree. I made the point about better value in Australia a few posts ago. I know how much my house is worth in the SE and I wouldn't pay this for it!

With full consideration of the outrageous wage/house price ratio in Australia, I can still get better value for my £/$ there than in the UK. Like Laura writes in the above post = £250,000 will get you a decent house if you go just 30kms out of the major cities, and much closer if you're looking at some of the smaller cities.

re. British house sizes and felines: It depends if you swing the cat by the end of its tail or the top of it.......

Originally Posted by AndyR1976

I understand what you are saying about prices further out from the cities.

Where I live (Canterbury) developments and older houses on the EDGE of the town start at around £200,000 for a half decent 2 bedder. In order to gata a'family' home you need to go above that!

In contrast, my brother just bought (about 4 montsh ago) a house forequivalent value in Newcaslte (NSW) - its similarly located (about 15 mins drive from the town/city centre) and for $500,000 (About £200,000) he got 5 bedrooms plus study, 3 living areas, 3 bathrooms, 650 sq m block (room for the pool) three car garage and workshop with EVERYTHING done (fencing, landscaping, outdoor entertaining area etc).

If I were to go to an agent in Kent and say I want a 5 bed, 3 bathroom house with 3 car garage my cheque would have to say MILLIONS rather than hundreds of thousands!!

In the UK I feel like you pay a lot and get very little - I don't want to live in a shoe box forever

Originally Posted by BadgeIsBack

There's no doubt you get better value.

Some would say aussie houses aren't as well built - but they're not going to fall down overnight, and some new English houses aren't exactlybuilt like Victorian homes.

Originally Posted by AndyR1976

I understand what you are saying about prices further out from the cities.

Where I live (Canterbury) developments and older houses on the EDGE of the town start at around £200,000 for a half decent 2 bedder. In order to gata a'family' home you need to go above that!

In contrast, my brother just bought (about 4 montsh ago) a house forequivalent value in Newcaslte (NSW) - its similarly located (about 15 mins drive from the town/city centre) and for $500,000 (About £200,000) he got 5 bedrooms plus study, 3 living areas, 3 bathrooms, 650 sq m block (room for the pool) three car garage and workshop with EVERYTHING done (fencing, landscaping, outdoor entertaining area etc).

If I were to go to an agent in Kent and say I want a 5 bed, 3 bathroom house with 3 car garage my cheque would have to say MILLIONS rather than hundreds of thousands!!

In the UK I feel like you pay a lot and get very little - I don't want to live in a shoe box forever