How Many Expats in this Situation
#1
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Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 280
How Many Expats in this Situation
A mate of mine, emigrated to Australia in 2005, sold his UK house for £185k, paid off the mortgage, left the UK with circa £130,000.00. Exchanged this into Aus dollars at £1 to $2.55. Gave him $330,000.00, he then bought a house for $500,000.00, he put down a 50% deposit. Anyway six years on, he sold the house for just under one million dollars, paid off the remaining mortgage, which left him with roughly after all costs of shipping, flights, with $750,000.00. He exchanged this back into Sterling, he came back to the UK, with a cool £500,000.00 sitting in the bank.
So in six years he has turned his initial £130,000.00 into £500,000.00 by emigrating. Not a bad 6 years work if you can get it. What even better, he's buying a like for like house he left in the UK for cash for 20% less than he sold his old one for.
Have a feeling us the newer arrivals will not be so lucky, strange old world.
How many on here think they could make £370k by returning back to the UK, and do they think it would be worth it?
So in six years he has turned his initial £130,000.00 into £500,000.00 by emigrating. Not a bad 6 years work if you can get it. What even better, he's buying a like for like house he left in the UK for cash for 20% less than he sold his old one for.
Have a feeling us the newer arrivals will not be so lucky, strange old world.
How many on here think they could make £370k by returning back to the UK, and do they think it would be worth it?
Last edited by carling black label; Nov 23rd 2011 at 6:18 pm.
#2
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
Personally I just live life where we wanna live and roll with the punches. Money aint that important in my life so long as we have enough to live the life we want to live:sunglasses:
#3
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Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 280
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
it's all acedemic though isn't it mate? It's only any good if you are happy to go from one country to another every time the dollar / pound works in your favour when you've already made the decision to live werever you live.
Personally I just live life where we wanna live and roll with the punches. Money aint that important in my life so long as we have enough to live the life we want to live:sunglasses:
Personally I just live life where we wanna live and roll with the punches. Money aint that important in my life so long as we have enough to live the life we want to live:sunglasses:
#4
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
I agree to a certain extent, but he can put his kids through a private education, then university for free now, he has £370k. This is more important to him than living in Australia. He is a citizen of Oz so can return when his kids fly the nest. Not all situations fit all. I agree with him on this occasion, the nippers education is more important than your own lifestyle....
Personally I'd rather live in Aus than UK and no amount of money would seal the deal to go back to that rats nest
#5
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 335
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
Your friend made this money by blind luck and exchange rates all being in the right place at the right time. Since then sterling has been devalued so no one leaving Britain can do this, but it might be possible for those that left before devaluation and got lucky by buying in Australia at the right time. Lots of people have also been ruined when exchange rates and house price booms and busts moved in the opposite direction.
#7
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Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
We bought our house here for $115,000 10 years ago and is now worth around $400,000, after we pay off the mortgage we will have approximately £200,000 plus the cash we have this is hopefully going to enable us to move back to the UK in the new year and buy a nice place and be mortgage free. We had no control over any of this but it has worked out well for us.
#8
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
A mate of mine, emigrated to Australia in 2005, sold his UK house for £185k, paid off the mortgage, left the UK with circa £130,000.00. Exchanged this into Aus dollars at £1 to $2.55. Gave him $330,000.00, he then bought a house for $500,000.00, he put down a 50% deposit. Anyway six years on, he sold the house for just under one million dollars, paid off the remaining mortgage, which left him with roughly after all costs of shipping, flights, with $750,000.00. He exchanged this back into Sterling, he came back to the UK, with a cool £500,000.00 sitting in the bank.
So in six years he has turned his initial £130,000.00 into £500,000.00 by emigrating. Not a bad 6 years work if you can get it. What even better, he's buying a like for like house he left in the UK for cash for 20% less than he sold his old one for.
Have a feeling us the newer arrivals will not be so lucky, strange old world.
How many on here think they could make £370k by returning back to the UK, and do they think it would be worth it?
So in six years he has turned his initial £130,000.00 into £500,000.00 by emigrating. Not a bad 6 years work if you can get it. What even better, he's buying a like for like house he left in the UK for cash for 20% less than he sold his old one for.
Have a feeling us the newer arrivals will not be so lucky, strange old world.
How many on here think they could make £370k by returning back to the UK, and do they think it would be worth it?
#9
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 335
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
How can the pound increase without rate rises, and if rates rise this is going to create a lot of forced sales as people who borrowed to buy when houses were so expensive will not be able to keep up repayments. It's happened before.
#10
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 335
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
I didn't realize you were in Britain. Yes, housing is very expensive here and unlike other places they seem to be holding their value without even the threat of a return to normal levels. You have to remember that the base rate in Australia is eight times higher than in Britain (0.5% > 4.5%) and that pinches when you have to borrow $500,000 for a three bedroom house!
#13
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
for me Hindsight is a wonderful thing....
We didn't move our house sale money, we invested it instead in commercial property and a business, which we sold on earlier this year at a good return.
But, when we worked it out we would have made more by buying AU$ at 2.63 (The most I could have feasibly got) and sold them for GBP in april for 1.48 by my reckoning a 56% profit just on exchange....
I'm not sure that the opportunity will present itself again.... I'd quite like a crystal ball!
We didn't move our house sale money, we invested it instead in commercial property and a business, which we sold on earlier this year at a good return.
But, when we worked it out we would have made more by buying AU$ at 2.63 (The most I could have feasibly got) and sold them for GBP in april for 1.48 by my reckoning a 56% profit just on exchange....
I'm not sure that the opportunity will present itself again.... I'd quite like a crystal ball!
#14
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 335
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
for me Hindsight is a wonderful thing....
We didn't move our house sale money, we invested it instead in commercial property and a business, which we sold on earlier this year at a good return.
But, when we worked it out we would have made more by buying AU$ at 2.63 (The most I could have feasibly got) and sold them for GBP in april for 1.48 by my reckoning a 56% profit just on exchange....
I'm not sure that the opportunity will present itself again.... I'd quite like a crystal ball!
We didn't move our house sale money, we invested it instead in commercial property and a business, which we sold on earlier this year at a good return.
But, when we worked it out we would have made more by buying AU$ at 2.63 (The most I could have feasibly got) and sold them for GBP in april for 1.48 by my reckoning a 56% profit just on exchange....
I'm not sure that the opportunity will present itself again.... I'd quite like a crystal ball!
#15
Re: How Many Expats in this Situation
There have been a few threads/articles about the number of Brits returning to the UK.
I think this is the main reason the numbers are up, many people who came here between 5 and 10 years ago could go back to the UK loaded.
I know if I sold my house here using a very conservative estimate (which is $100k less than what I paid for it) - I'd go back over 100K GBP up.
Not going to do it though, wild horses wouldn't drag me back there at the moment.
I think this is the main reason the numbers are up, many people who came here between 5 and 10 years ago could go back to the UK loaded.
I know if I sold my house here using a very conservative estimate (which is $100k less than what I paid for it) - I'd go back over 100K GBP up.
Not going to do it though, wild horses wouldn't drag me back there at the moment.