jproberts

Hi all,

I'm completely new to the Aussie side of the forum as myself and the family had firmly decided on making the move to Calgary, Alberta. Australia has always been an option for us but now for some reason we're back to considering it as a real contender. We're about half way through the visa process for Canada so it's important that we make a decision soon before spending more time and money on the wrong thing. My online research shows wages of around $42/hour for myself as a maintenance fitter and around £28/hour for my wife as a nursery assistant. We've been looking in Perth because of the higher wages for myself? Although we're open to most places.

What sort of standard of living would this give us? we've run the figures over and over again and Australia seems to leave us with far more disposable income than the UK or Canada with those wages. Online research also suggests that we'd be looking at being about to borrow 900,000-1,000,000. So we've been looking at property around the £800,000 mark to be on the safe side and they look like proper dream homes to us. It all seems too tempting at the moment to cancel our Canadian plans and jump ship. But there must be a catch right? Besides the less frequent family visits to and from the UK and the spiders etc

We're both 24 and have 2 boys 2.5 and 6 months. In the UK the wife doesn't work but would be going back to work in a year or two and i earn around £50,000 for comparison.

Any advice would be great!

Pulaski

I would strongly recommend looking for the house you need, for a few years at least, not a dream house. Once you get established, and you're sure the move is long term/ permanent, would be the time to consider moving up to your dream home.

When I moved (not to either Canada or Oz) I discovered how much the bank was prepared to lend me (I didn't tell my wife until about six months after we moved in what a stupidly large mortgage we could have obtained), but we found a very nice detached house with a huge garden (by UK standards) for about a third of what we could, in theory, have been able to pay. It has proved to be such a nice house, and location, that we still live here 17 years later, and the desire to move up to a McMansion has largely gone away.

jproberts

Thanks for the advice about that. It’s definitely not our intention to max out our budget straight away, we’d probably rent for the first 12 months either way. It’s just nice to know what our wages could theoretically buy us over there.

abner

I think it's a brave call to make in either direction to make in the middle of a COVID-19 downturn for both countries. I'd be looking at certainty of employment, first and foremost, and whether any specialist qualifications and/or experience you may have would easily be recognised in either country. "Maintenance fitter" covers a huge range of roles and sectors, some hiring, some doing it tough.

jproberts

You’re exactly right I think, both options make me nervous at the moment. However I’d say that the current climate won’t make either option better / worse in the long term. Once we choose a destination we can carry on slowly progressing with an application and waiting for things to return to abit of normality. We just need to commit to one or the other.

Beoz

I think its very admirable that you are working to a disposable income calculation. At the end of the day, there are costs in life that are givens, housing, food, etc, and its all about what you have left at the end.

I tend to agree, its been 25 years since I lived in Canada, 10 since I lived in the UK, but Australia does seem to have the highest disposable income out of the 3 countries.

However, I have about 20 years on you, and I have lived in all 3 countries in that time, given you are already down the Canada immigration route why not see it through. You are only young, yet thinking with an old head that says lets get the mortgage, settle in, and never leave here again. You could do Canada for a few years, have the Canadian experience, then look at Australian options at a later time.

verystormy

If you think a fitter and nursery assistant are going to be buying a house anywhere close to that, you are dreaming

the troubadour

You may not be aware but West Australia is on the verge, if not already in a recession. Things have been tight here for sometime long before the virus outbreak, which though by no means bad in WA, is and will continue to impact on the economy. (already in a weakened state as mentioned previously) But then I was under the impression that Alberta was in recession as well?

It should be noted, just because one can gain immigration status, it does not necessary mean that jobs are there for the taking. Nothing of the sort. Neither Alberta nor Western Australia are cheap. I must certainly would not base my immigration on what a bank or mortgage broker can get you in way of a loan. Self interest at play here and too few lessons learnt from the recent Royal Commission held in Australia into the financial industry. Lending for housing is easy work for them, hard for you though if prices continue heading southwards and siting on a property servicing a loan more than the value of the house. Loads of folk are saddled with mortgages that should never have been granted. But your estimates on a loan do sound 'very high'.

You probably should be aware of the temporary nature of a lot of work as well. I can't think of much worse that having a large mortgage and no or limited working hours but still must meet repayments. There's considerable stress in a lot of work places but obviously you can be lucky.

Then there is the personal preference of things like the Canadian mentality versus the Australian. Which would you prefer and have your kids become? Canada is far easier access back to UK. The possible money earned should not be the only criteria. But yes in many areas Australia appears to have the advantage over Canada. Lots to think about and investigate. Both countries you will find have their dissenters and supporters. But until and that may well be a long time, the economies are in a better shape, i with a family in tow, would not be moving anywhere.

jproberts

Thanks for the advice, you’re right that it wouldn’t be out of the equation to move again but ideally we’d like the kids to be as settled as possible once they start school. Definitely have a lot to think about at the moment. Thanks for the genuine input though.

jproberts

Hence asking the question on here? Hoping that people with more knowledge and experience than us can give us some helpful insight. As I said in my post, there must be a catch as it all seems too good to be true for Australia.

jproberts

[QUOTE= But until and that may well be a long time, the economies are in a better shape, i with a family in tow, would not be moving anywhere. [/QUOTE]

We’re in no rush to make the physical move, it seems as if it’s going to be a global recession including the UK anyway. It just also seems like wasted time to not be getting on with a visa application at the moment. I do think we prefer the culture in Canada slightly. However, the lack of vacation leave in Canada would affect the amount of time we get together aswell which is ultimately one of the main reasons to move. I’m on a good wage in the UK but I work 6 days per week for it every week and am on-call.

Amazulu

Good idea to think about Australia, both are great countries but it's a better place than Canada. Alberta is going to go through a very tough time given the very low oil price. They have some bad years ahead unfortunately - tar sands are just not viable and won't be for a few more years. You would also have to put up with their wanker Prime Minister

In WA, the main area for your field of work is mining - and the industry remains quite robust despite the Wuhan flu overreaction. If you are prepared to work away on a 7/6 or 5/2/4/3 FIFO roster (many do), you could make a lot more money than $42/hr. I expect that there would be demand for your skills. There are many new mining projects underway or planned and production from all sectors apart from Lithium is strong given the high prices of resources. Two of our biggest mining companies, FMG and Rio Tinto are going absolutely gangbusters. I don't know why you want to borrow so much as you can get a very nice property for half of your budget but each to their own. I doubt a bank would lend you that much anyway

Good luck

jproberts

Hi Amazulu,

Thanks for the positive feedback about WA. The amount that we could borrow etc was just done as a comparison to what sort of housing our salaries could get for us. It's definitely not a definite for how much we'd spend. I'm seeing on Indeed etc that the average salary for my job in Perth is $52 but I really wouldn't be looking for FIFO so i'm expected to have to drop to around $42 to secure a Perth based job? Hopefully that's still achieveable?

My main consideration at the moment is that there are literally 0 jobs available for myself on Indeed, Monster and JobBank in Calgary or Alberta at all at the moment. Whereas it seems that there are 100's available in Perth.

The difference in wages for my wife also seems considerable, around $55,000 for a nursery assistant apparently? Although she probably wouldn't work for the first year or two as she doesn't work here either. (We'd rent until she started work I think)

Thanks again! Really useful info!

Beoz

I was over in WA early March drumming up business in the mining space with a new guy we transferred from Brisbane to Perth. Things were booming. Poor guy hasn't come up for air since. Mining seems to be booming and mining is pretty much the whole WA economy.

Amazulu

Cool, but get a visa first! It can a long, expensive and frustrating experience but obviously doable

Perth is one of the best places in the Western World for an engineering tradesman to live

Good luck