Kolothuk

I visited Syndey last year with my partner and it seemed like a nice place. Me and my partner are moving there this year. I see some negative comments about Sydney being a difficult place to live and just curious about peoples perspectives.

Me and my partner live and work in London. We are in our twenties and rent a studio flat for about 700 pounds a month. Our combined income is under 48,000 pound a year, unless we had really low paid jobs I personally can't see how "worse" sydney could be compared to London in the UK. For people, our age and backgrounds the opportunities of living a more fulfilling life seem better.

Has anyone lived or been to both cities (in recent times) before, what you think?

Perhaps you could give some comparisons in terms of cost of living, economic outlook, goverment (national and local), transport, working hours/culture, climate, leisure, GPs waiting times, banking, population, class, and the like. Just general living.

MarkMC

IMHO...

I've spent a lot of the last 8 year in and out of London with work, usually stopping in Hotels. I think the tube is great, its great as a guy on my own, plenty to see and do. However its not somewhere I'd like to live permanently with my family. Housing is through the roof, I noticed a one bedroom flat for near on £300k....

You are a young couple now, would you really want to bring kids up in London and have them go to the local state school?

spottydog

I would probably agree that Sydney won't be any worse for you than London, in fact it may be better. As I left London just over 2 years ago I can't compare prices now but I can give you Sydney prices so you can compare with current London Prices.

Flat rental: a studio in somewhere trendy like Balmain/Glebe will start at around $300/week. For flats council tax and water rates are included so you only have to pay elec/gas and phone

Food: eating out I find is definitely cheaper (and visiting friends remark that to), supermarkets can be variable if you want to keep costs down and quality up then you need to go to the local butcher, greengrocer and baker for as much as possible.

Beer: a decent pint in James Squires on Darling Harbour or the Lord Nelson is around $8, wine starts at aroud $15 a bottle depending on the pub

Transport: not as good as the London tube but a lot cheaper, taxi's generally cost less in dollars than an equivalent balck cab trip would be in pounds.

Work life: We've found it more relaxed working late means after about 6. Friday arvo beers in the office aren't unusual and there is a lot more standing around talking (coffee with a colleague/ex workmate is classed as work).

Government: can't say I've really noticed much difference to the UK; one side says one thing, the other either rejects it or tries to better it

Banking: not unusual to pay $5 a month for your account. Free ATM access is also limited to the bank who you bank with rather than any other banks. Debit cards only starting to appear here so you end up with EFTPOS which is no use on the phone/web. Many credit cards still charge annual fees, then also like to charge monthly fees for loans & mortgages.

Class: Doesn't really exist here, there only seems to be two types; those that want to work & contribute and those that want to live on benefit and not contribute:

GP Waiting times: Never had a problem getting an appointment when I want (I've been getting appointments within 2 hours even after public holidays). But you do have to pay unless you find a bulk biller and prescriptions are more expensive and based on the price of the drug. Private health insurance seems cheaper and you don't have the "you've hit a new age bracket so we're increasing your premium" like you get in the UK. The price on their website is what you pay whether you are 28 or 58.

Environment: Sydney smells and feels cleaner than London, there is also a noticable lack of litter and dog poo on the streets (despite a seemingly huge dog population).

Sydney has its problems as any city does but I know this is my home now and I could never go back to living in London.

chels

Up until four years ago, I lived in London, then moved to Sydney where I lived for 3 years before moving to Brisbane.

The decision to move to Brisbane / QLD was partly based on concerns about the NSW economy, which seemed to be stagnating, and the increasingly expensive real estate. Compared to the UK, housing affordability in Sydney is less - Sydney is one of the least affordable cities in the world apparently. Although we both had good (for Australia) salaries the interest rates and high loans required to purchase a decent property put us off staying in Sydney. I found it easier in London to buy propery as interest rates were MUCH lower, there were much better, more competitive mortgage deals and less of my salary was spent on the mortgage.

Apart from housing, I found the transport in Sydney pretty poor but I used to use the rail system in London which I found fast and usually efficient. Trying to get transport at night or at the weekend was often difficult in Sydney, as the timetables seemed to go back in time to the 1950s (even though we lived 2k out of the CBD.

Government - I was quite impressed by City of Sydney but the other local authorities didn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary. State government - some bits are good, some bad!

GPs - if you pay, you can see someone pretty quickly. If the GP bulk bills (ie Medicare picks up the whole tab) you tend to have to wait. Prescriptions are expensive here, and you can't get multiple packs on the one prescription.

Climate - if you have aircon, Sydney's fine. Gets cold in winter, hail storms are a nightmare but are infrequent, summer is a dry heat (I prefer a more sub-tropical climate - maybe all those muggy English summers I endured!)

Population - one of the things I didn't like about Sydney was how spread out it is. The metropolitan area is very large and if you were visiting friends on the outskirts it could be a long drive. Not too different to London! Sydney CBD and local town centres are highly populated, and there are lots of mcmansions on small lots catering for an ever growing population. People seem to commute long distances - or pay a fortune for an inner city place. Again, like London.

Banking - do a search on banks - the Australian system on the whole favours the banks not the customers and competition is still not being embraced by the major banks. There is some light at the end of the tunnel though...

Class - Australians aren't bothered about whether you're working class etc, the system doesn't exist here to differentiate the population. You're more likely to be judged on race, nationality, income, location, profession.

Final word - I hated Sydney. If I had wanted a piss-poor version of London, I wouldn't have left there in the first place.

paddyo

Understand most of what you say. Our intention is to work in the CBD (not much choice there really!!) and live on the Northern Beaches to have a good 'get away from work and the city' feel. Happy with the commute, actually better than mine at moment, and this would give us a more family orientated lifestyle. Does that sound like it would work or am I being totally naive?

michael_w

You're not really comparing like with like. Despite its claim to be a world class city, Sydney is really a provincial town compared to London, New York and most European capitals. It has a beautiful harbour and great beaches if you can afford to live near them. But when it comes to buying a house and you are faced with living in a place like Revesby or somewhere out past Paramatta well you might just start getting homesick for Crouch End or Plumley. Away from the beaches Sydney can be a pretty dire place - the state government has allowed property developers to create vast swathes of suburbs comprising Mcmansions, but it has not invested in any infrastructure or transport links.
If you're a young couple and can afford to rent [increasingly hard to find] or buy near the water then life in Sydney can be almost to good to be true. Otherwise, I would recommend looking elsewhere - Melbourne would be my choice - a city with real culture, friendly people and affordable housing [things Sydney lacks in abundance].

PS The Northern Beaches are nice, but as one former resident told me, they are a not so much a place as a state of mind. Good if you like surfing and talking about property prices at barbecues.

paddyo

Hey, don't bother me none, I will be on a 457 visa so only renting!! They can talk about prices as much as they want, as long as the barbie food is decent!!!