LandG

Me and the Mrs (and two kids) have decided, this time we're definately emigrating...after being a member of this forum for possibly 8 years or so!!

I have a brother in law who lives in Eastwood (Sydney) so we're heading to the East coast, looking at Wollongong or Newcastle. Looking at house prices though..ouch!! The exchange rate is going to be painful for us given we've dithered since £1= $2.60. I know it's a really broad question, but are these areas going to be affordable? I'm a clinical nurse specialist and my wife a psychologist, so our earnings should pretty good.

I'd really not want to end up working harder for a smaller house...thoughts and experiences gratefully received!

verystormy

It depends on where you live now as to how affordable you will think Sydney is. It is on a par with central London, so if you live in central London now then you will find it same. If though you live anywhere else then you are going to find it expensive.

Grayling

Don't make any assumptions about earnings

Being a CNS in the UK does not mean you will get an equivalent job here.....many have learned, to their cost, that you may only be offered level 1 jobs and have to start all over again. I was in a similar position (in mental health) and was offered very basic posts

Psychologists do not earn huge salaries here....I have employed a few who were paid less than nurses.

There will be opportunities to go up the ladder but that may well mean moving areas (same as in the UK). Psychologists can also go into private practice but competition is fierce.

pomtastic

Plenty of people on here will tell you that it's not all about the size of your house in Aus but the 'lifestyle' , but from my experience, that's exactly what Poms want. This swap is currently unachievable unless you are already minted in the UK. Migration numbers are tumbling because of this factor.

asher

yep clinical nurse specialist counts for nothing here nurse practitioners need to get board approval first no matter if you were a practitioner in UK make sure you bring over proof that you have worked at that level for 2 years.

wollongong is a lovely area but the price of houses depends on the size of house, suburbs and how near the sea you are . No idea about Newcastle but i would imagine the same applies

LandG

We're currently in the "golden triangle" of north Yorkshire, so house prices are still pretty inflated here. We already live rural, so are used to being away from the hustle and bustle of cities.

Good heads up about jobs, I am slightly concerned I'll have to back to shifts and in patient work at a lower banding, oh well minds have been made up. We'll just have wing it!

verystormy

Dont know about Wollongong, but in Newcastle you are probably looking at about 400k pounds minimum for an "ok" house in an "ok" area.

Thats not going to get you anything flash by any stretch. Probably a older house needing a bit of TLC.

paddyo

I live in Bulli, a beach suburb 10 mins north of Wollongong. House prices here are cheaper than the beach suburbs in Sydney but still high, in my opinion. For this area, you are looking at $4-600k for a 3 bed weatherboard house, $6-800k for a 3/4 bed brick home. There are some lovely suburbs here and some not so lovely, it comes down a personal taste I suppose.

paddyo

oh...the reason we chose this area and not north of Sydney was the transport links, there are 3 roads here to get to Sydney and an excellent rail line, Newcastle has 1 road and 1 rail link, when that road gets blocked you can be stuck there for hours.

fish.01

wow, wouldn't have thought Newcastle would be dearer than Brisbane but there you go.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Excellent maybe... but God it's slow. That crawl in through the Sydney suburbs always feels like you could get out and walk it faster.

paddyo

ah.....depends which one you get....I use the peak trains and they tend to miss the mini stations and just stop at Central, Wolli Creek, Hurstville etc etc.
Yes it sometimes stops everywhere...such as the last train home when any caravan park seems to have a train stop!!

Kalenge

Could you not rent for a couple years instead and hold out for a better exchange rate?
The UK economy and interest rates have to pick up some time and improve the value of the pound.

LandG

Had a quick look with the domain.com.au app, It's hard to tell which are the good areas, but it tallies with your valuations. I've also heard stories about health care professionals taking a drop in salary, which makes sense, I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule though, but I wouldn't bank on it.

I think the exchange rate is the bit that affects us most, and they're not likely to change any time soon.

Oh well, guess I'll have to buy some higher wattage bulbs and turn the heating up, and pretend we live there.

LandG

Good idea, although rentals look very expensive, it's a mixed blessing checking things on the Internet, if we didn't have it we'd have moved years ago, rightly or wrongly.

We're also the wrong side of our 30's so would be worried about low interest on our capital, high inflation and having extend the term of the mortgage.

We've still got a couple of years before we start to lose points due to our age, maybe we'll hang and hope the £ goes up and Sydney house prices go down (sorry if this affects you!!)