Wea re hopefully coming over with enough money to sort out two cars and buy a plot of land. However if we purchase the land before we get jobs and a mortgage then we wont have any money to put down a deposit on a amortgage. I guess that means we wont be able to buy land until we have a job(which is sensible) but we are just worried about being priced out of the areas we wont to leave in.

Whate sort of interest do these sort of mortgages charge. How long do you do it for, is it like UK 2-5 years fixed or variable, that sort of thing?
Thanks

Like the UK, each lender has different rates and terms, fixed and variable periods etc. Have a look at Infochoice which lists most mainstream lo-doc lenders in a handy comparison table.

Thats great. Thank you.
Have you bought yet? What sort of charges should we expect when buying in OZ. Obviously you have the land and house/or house but what about agents, solicitors, stamp duty etc. Does anyone have any experience of this? Thanks again

if you are renting your house out (in UK) maybe you should look at financing it to release some equity as interest rates are lower in UK and maybe able to offset (UK) interest costs against rental income. Then you will have a deposit for Oz and not pay higher rates for 100% mortgage.

And now for the warning.......
Of course, you should obtain professional opinion from a suitably qualified person before you take any action, than to rely on someone you don't know posting on a forum

Agents - no cost to you as the seller is paying them a whopping commission
Solicitors - generally charge a fixed fee plus searches. From memory (but don't quote me!) I paid about $500, but that included a number of searches. Search costs and the number of "included" searches varies from state to state and from district / council authority to another.
Stamp Duty - loads of calculators online for your to work this out. Charges vary from state to state. Try Infochoice again, or FreeMortgageInfo, which has downloadable calculators (handy if you don't always have internet access.)

You will also have to pay mortgage registration fees and transfer fees - these are dependent on purchase price, mortgage amount etc. Again, the calculators will work this out for you.

Have a look on realestate.com - they have loads of links to calculators and info on home buying which should see you right. Also loads of free suburb profiles and street reports. What we found helpful in our negotiation was getting a report from the Land registry office (Qld) which cost about $50, and listed all the house sales on our street for the last five years. That way, we not only knew the value of surrounding houses (in terms of purchase price) but also how much the seller had paid to buy the house a few years back!

Depending on your visa status, you may be eligible for the Federal Government First Home Owner Scheme (FHOS) or stamp duty concessions. For more information, you need to ask your solicitor or lender (most will arrange this for you) or contact your local State or Territorial Revenue Office.

thans for your help

Are you sure this is a credit card? Sounds more like a debit card. In terms of getting credit we first got a phone, rental home then bought a car with a big deosit and paid the rest of quickly. We got a letter from the finance company 14 days later saying we were a good payer. Credit card actually can be a problem. I got one but when we applied for the mortgage, they take the card limit off the maximum they will lend. So it is good to have for a credit reference, but a low limit would have been better.

Take a credit card with you ie American express or virgin .Both will transfer the account and credit history to their australian branches and will give you a credit history accordingly.

When you apply for a Virgin card here, it is not Virgin who are assessing you - but the Australian bank (Westpac) who operate the Virgin Card - and they don't know or care what credit history you had in the UK. They definitely do not transfer any account or credit history from the UK.

We have a mortgage against the land we own outright. Means we could borrow up to 80% of the value of the block and get the lower interest rate as if it was a traditional mortgage.

If You transfer your cards from the UK to Oz they do take into account your Credit history. I have had three work colleagues who have done this and they ALL had an instant credit score in OZ as a result. It does not work if you apply in for the cards inOZ you Must have the cards in the UK and ask them to Transfer your account to OZ.

Virgin do not do this. I took out a card specifically for this purpose but, when I tried, it's a definite no-no. The Uk card may say 'Virgin' but it's administered by MBNA and not Virgin so does not transfer over.

cheers for that x x