Neil51

Can someone please give me a bit of advice on the cost of living in Canberra please? I have a job offer there with a salary of $83,700 per year gross. I have two children aged 9 and 11.
In particluar, I would like some advice on:
1. whether this salary is sufficient to get a decent home for rent and look after my wife and children. It seems a high salary but I see also that house rentals are high.
2. What is the approximate cost of living in Canberra for a family of four?
3. What is it like to live in Canberra?
4. Which areas of the city are good for families, yet within commute of the University?
Thank you very much for any help.
Neil.

canadaeh

I can only answer a few questions for you as I live in Canberra, but I'm part of a couple and in our late 20's, so don't have a family of four, but there are people on the boards in Canberra who are here with their family and can give you a better idea. SO I'll try, but have included some handy sites at the end anyway

1: The wage is good. I'm not sure how it would be for a family of 4, we are a young couple and survived on that between us when we first moved to Canberra in 2009, and it was possible. Now we each have higher and life is much more comfortable. I really can't say how a family of 4 will be.

2: Cost of renting in Canberra is high, second highest in the country after Sydney. We have a 1 bedroom apartment in the city and it's just over $500 a week (But according to the cost of living section on the Canberra site below you can get a 3 bedroom house for $470 in the suburbs which is what you would be after anyway). Also depends when you are coming, it can be hard to find rentals in Canberra if you come from December - February as its when all the students come, all the new public servants etc. The best site for looking for rentals in Canberra is www.allhomes.com.au

3: FANTASTIC! Really, people under estimate Canberra. It has all 4 seasons, has everything a big city has and everything you want from a small town. You have the beaches to the east (90 min drive) and you have the ski fields to the west (2 hrs drive). You're also not a far drive from Sydney. A lot of people complain about Canberra (but have never actually been). Personally I love the place.

It has the highest paid and educated people in Australia, with high quality schools and University - ANU being our nations top

There are plenty of outdoor things to do and there is always something going on (festivals, fun fairs, concerts, fireworks, hot air baloons).

For a small city it also has great night life and options for eating out.

4: Which University are you talking about, there are two main ones (ANU and CU), and then some campus' of other universities (ACU and CSU).

Remember no matter where you live in Canberra you are no more than a 20 min commute from work. If you will be working at ANU or CU then you are probably better looking on the North Side. Again, I can't say which areas are better for families, but friends who are family people live in Ainslie, Belconnen area, Gungahlin.

I'm sorry I can't be much help as I don't want to give you the wrong info relating to raising a family. But here are some sites for Canberra that may help you, good luck and Canberra is a fantastic place to live.

The first site is excellent, it is just for people moving to Canberra and has everything about moving here and living there, schools, costs of living, jobs, things to do etc etc.

Live In Canberra (Information for moving to Canberra):
http://www.canberrayourfuture.com.au/

Police/Crime Stats based on suburbs in Canberra:
http://www.police.act.gov.au/crime-a...tatistics.aspx

Rentals:
http://www.allhomes.com.au/

Gas, Water and Electricity:
http://www.actewagl.com.au/
http://www.actew.com.au/

Good Luck

quoll

1. whether this salary is sufficient to get a decent home for rent and look after my wife and children. It seems a high salary but I see also that house rentals are high.

Its very much an average salary for Canberra - you will probably find that most families are two income and the average family income is going to be much greater than $80k. It is also going to depend on what visa you come on as to whether you will be entitled to any benefits - there is a bit of a catch 22 for people on temporary visas who have to pay for education for their kids as well. You are going to be looking at around the $500 pw mark for rental base line - you may get it cheaper but the spin off will be more for commuting every day and the further out you go the more you will need a second car so it is very much a swings and roundabouts situation.

2. What is the approximate cost of living in Canberra for a family of four?

It's a long time since we were a family of 4 living in Canberra but, more recently, as a pair of oldsters with no mortgage or rental payments, and paying everything off on credit card and then paying it off each month, my cc bill would average around $5k per month - that's food, petrol (2 cars), insurances, medical, dental, trips away, occasional dinners out, sports participation, internet, utitlities, phones etc etc We didnt stint but neither were we profligate and we were doing a little bit of diy on the house as well.

3. What is it like to live in Canberra?

If you have to live anywhere in Australia, its as good a place as any (did it for 32 yrs!). The 4 seasons are nice and usually (although there are odd years) the summers get hot but not too humid with the occasional weeks in the high 30s and the winters get cold but usually with daytime highs over 10C. We have been in drought so the recent couple of years' rain has come as a surprise to many but it was particularly welcome as the dams were getting a little on the dry side!

People are probably more insular than smaller communities and in general there isnt a huge connected community feel to the place - probably comes from having a pretty itinerant population with APS, Defence and University staff coming and going.

Education is alright but close to 50% of parents actually send their kids to private schools (you may want to factor that into your financial calculations $3k - $20k pa depending on which school!). Gov schools are OK and very much reflect the suburb so if you wouldnt want to live in Charnwood, Richardson or Narrabundah (you wouldnt, believe me!) then you probably wouldnt want your kids going to school in those suburbs!

Facilities wise it is hard to beat - the beach is about 90 minutes away but Canberra is built on lakes so there is water on hand even if it is sometimes inaccessible due to blue-green algae. The snow is about 2 hours away and on a good day Sydney is just under the 3 hours. Melbourne is a 1 hr flight or 7 hour drive. There are more Olympic size swimming pools than in the whole of the UK

4. Which areas of the city are good for families, yet within commute of the University?

Which university?
If ANU then try Turner, O'Connor, or any of the inner North suburbs (inner suburbs are always going to be more expensive than the outer suburbs BTW)
If UC then try Bruce, Aranda, Cook, Macquarie, possibly Kaleen but watch out for the High School
If ACU then go for the inner North suburbs again
There are good bike paths if you fancy a bike commute, the public bus service gets worse the further out you go. Driving into town at rush hour can be a tad tedious especially if the Tugg Parkway has a prang, as it often does, or there is a bingle on the Gungahlin Drive Extension (locally referred to as the GDE).

We lived in Ainslie and it was pretty much ideal - the local schools arent bad, the shopping centres are good and it is a walk or short ride into Civic. Downside is that the houses are old and cost more to rent but the convenience factor outweighed that for us (and we have a quarter acre garden as well)

Good luck, I am sure you will enjoy it and if you are connected with the universities there are all sorts of other facilities you will be able to access.

Neil51

Thank you both for taking the time to give such detailed replies. The job is at ANU.
We would prefer to send our children to a Roman Catholic school. Can anyone advise on any in the regions around ANU.
I do cycle to work so it is good news to hear about the cycle routes.
Thank you.
Neil

quoll

You have a child on the cusp of HS (depending on when they turn 12) so you probably need to look at both HS and PS. There are loads of Catholic schools around the place - I know of good reports from St Joseph's in O'Connor and St Thomas More's in Campbell and the one in Aranda which name escapes me at the moment - check out the NAPLAN site http://www.myschool.edu.au/.

For HS, the Catholic schools sometimes take kids in yr 5 and it depends on whether you have boys or girls. The best Catholic HS are reported to be St Edmunds (Griffith) or Marist (Pearce) (both are on the south side but kids travel from all over) for boys. For girls it would be St Clare's (Griffith)(south) or Merici (Braddon) (north side). If you want co-ed then Daramalan in Dickson would be pick of the bunch.

Fees are going to set you back about $3-5k pa

Neil51

Thank you very much for all your help.
Neil

Neil51

Further research done, and I now have a couple more questions:
1. Can someone please advise on the benefits (if any) of having a permanent resident visa as opposed to a working 457 visa on this salary in Canberra?
We have been to Oz before and so may have the possibility of getting a return resident visa rather than the 457 offered by my employer. I am thinking in terms of school fees, access to healthcare, and my wife being able to work part-time.
2. Superannuation is part of my salary package. I am not really sure what this is even after looking on official websites. Is this just the same as a UK pension which gets paid to me upon reaching retirement age, or is it like a saver account which Means I can remove the money and take it with me if we return to UK? I am thinking about what value it is to me if I am outside Oz when I retire.
Thanks
Neil

quoll

There are HUGE advantages to being on PR over 457 in ACT - firstly you will (unless your occupation is on the skills in demand list) be up for school fees of up to $10k pa in gov schools - Catholic schools certainly used to charge the local rate but some NSW diocese now charge more and I don't know if Canberra & Goulburn is amongst them. You are not entitled to benefits on a 457 but there are child care and family benefits you can claim on PR. There are also health care differences and whilst you would be covered under he reciprocal agreement I believe you are also expected to take out private health over which IIRC is more expensive than your bog standard private health nsurance. The reciprocal arrangement only covers you for necessary medical intervention so in the case of something awful they might expect you to be repatriated for long and ongoing medical interventions or "unnecessary" things like minor elective surgery (getting gall stones or tonsils removed I should think)

Superannuation is a percentage of your income paid by your employer into a pension scheme of your choice (so hope that your initial salary quote did not include your super contributions as that would reduce your take home pay somewhat). The benefit here of being temporary is that when you leave Aus you can (basically HAVE) to take it with you but if you are permanent then it has to stay in Aus until you reach preservation age (retirement) then you can do with it what you wish. If you have lived in Aus before hen you probably still have a super fund somewhere - you can keep adding to that.

A permanent visa is always going to be more attractive when looking for work as well so your wife would probably be at less of a disadvantage in finding a job. Don't know what she would want to do but a 457 would be a significant barrier to getting anything related to government and, as you know, Canberra is very much a government town

Neil51

Thanks again for the answers. They have however created more questions in my mind about superannuation. Sorry for asking again if the explanations to these questions are elsewhere on the forum:
1. I am grateful for the advice that someone with a temporary visa has to reclaim their superannuation payments when they leave Australia, but is pot of money that they reclaim purely their own contributions or is it their employer's contributions as well?
2. If someone has a permanent residency visa and they go back to the UK after having worked a few years in Aus, can they also reclaim their Superannuation payments either when they depart or when they reach retirement age can they be paid from Australia into a UK account?
Thank you very much for all your help so far
Neil

NickyC

Temp visa holders can claim their super back after they've left the country and their visa has expired or been cancelled. They'll get it all (employer's contribution and any of their own) after around 35% tax has been deducted.

Permanent visa holders can't get at their super till they reach retirement age. If you don't live here by the time you're retired - the money is still yours and can be paid to you wherever you are.

Plenty of info here:
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/Pr...t/00276719.htm

Neil51

Thanks for the link. What this does not explain is: for those on a permanent residency visa who leave Australia, what happens to their Superannuation. Is it linked to inflation so that it retains its relative value? If it is not then it will be worthless.
Can someone advise on this please?
Thanks

NickyC

Your super will still be invested exactly the same as it was when you lived here. It's your money, you can choose how it's invested - safe option (less growth), riskier option (higher potential growth). Entirely up to you how it's invested. As long as your super fund knows where you are the funds will stay where you left them.

If your super fund should lose track of your address, it gets trickier. It's possible that the money will be moved to another fund (an ERF) or the ATO (where the growth might not be so good) so it's in your interest to keep them informed of your current address at all times.

Neil51

Thank you very much for all your help.