Plug

Hi Guys,

I've just started my application process for Skilled-Designated Area Sponsored (Brisbane) and have been looking in more detail at living costs in Oz. I reckon on having about £30k to take with us after house sale etc....We will be able to stay with our sponsor on arrival (this all depends on getting the visa of course and is all pie in the sky at the moment).

I have looked at Westpac's home loan calculator just now. I have made the assumption that I will be able to get work and taken a quarter off my current UK salary as contingency. The maximum I get for borrowing power is just under $200KAUD. Looking at some of the estate agents websites, this does not buy much. How are these calculated - is it like the UK, four times your salary? I have based outgoings on roughly what I pay in the UK at the moment (probably a rip off compared with Oz).

Has anyone else looked into this in detail, I would be interested in any feedback on monthly outgoings, like electricity, equivalent of council tax, water etc.... for a four bedroom residence in the Brisbane area.

I was all up for it when filling out the forms, now reality has struck home!! (or should that read realty).

Thanks in advance for any feedback...........

WBB

there was a thread on start up costs a few weeks ago, cant remember the title but there was a breakdown of all start up and monthly costs.

try a search in the archives

bundy

Is this the thread?

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...start+up+costs

WBB

good work, that is indeed the thread

i will have another look myself, thanks.

bundy

Purely selfish - I wanted to look at it too. At least I've been of some assistance for once, rather than just posting stupid and basic questions!

MrsDagboy

Mark, costs can differ dramatically depending on where you are in Australia & how you live. Very hard to say for sure, but heres an example of ours - family of 4, living in Brisbane.

Food - around $130-160/week. So say around $600/month. We dont eat much snack-type food eg crisps etc but I certainly dont budget when it comes to food.
Electricity - around $130/month but we are quite heavy electricity users . Before we moved here (dishwasher, drier, pool pump, 4 computers etc) it used to be about $60/month.
Phone - $70/month. Thats only for home phone, Dagboys mobile is totally paid for by work.
Rates (council tax inc water) - this is worked out on a few things including anything from the unimproved value of your land to how many toilets you have LOL. Ours is $150/month.
House & contents insurance - depending on values, ours about $70 or $80/month.
Car - this one can vary dramatically depending on how much travelling you do. We have 2 cars, mine is a smallish 4cyl & really only gets used for the school run, shopping & running the kids around & costs me about $20-25/week including fuel. I have had it for 12 months & have just done around 7000kms. It hasnt even had to be serviced yet LOL. Dagboys car on the other hand is a 4wd, does around 25000kms/year & costs around $150-200/month + fuel. Note that does not include repayments, only rego, insurance & maintenance. Other things to note are that we bought the car new, so no repairs on it, but it gets serviced at a dealer (part of salary package), so alot more expensive than Freds Garage doing it. Fuel ..... well it depends on who you speak to . Dotty says that she spends $80/week (I think thats what she quoted) ours is probably around $25, depending on what we do on the weekend.

Other things to consider may be car parking or public transport to work depending on if you drive or not (not applicable in our case, Dagboy has a carpark in his salary package), clothes (in general alot more casual than say London), eating out , entertainment, medicines (we have very large medical costs, around $250/month, most peoples might be as little as one tenth of that), Private health insurance (once again cant help with a price, part of salary package), internet fees, education & school fees (our kids go state, so minimal). Those sorts of things only you can work out, based on your situation.

Not sure how the banks actually work out your borrowing power but its something as you suggest. One point to remember though is that for every debt that you already have (& this includes credit cards) your borrowing power is reduced. Unlike the UK where the higher your credit card limit, the more you can borrow, here your credit limit will actually be used against your borrowing power. Something to keep in mind if you are planning on keeping a credit card in the UK as some people do.

One last suggestion would be not to assume you will get x% of your UK salary, but to look at some of the job website & the jobs available & actually work out what the going rate for your job is so you can work out what your wage is likely to be. Alot more reliable than plucking a figure out of the air.

Hope some of this helps .

Plug

Phew, what a response.

Thanks for that guys, and for your detailed breakdown Mrs DagBoy. I have been looking at job sites and getting an idea on salaries, what is the rate of tax (I guess they do not have NI) so I can then work out my monthly allowance.

Once again - thanks folks.

MrsDagboy

Mark, you can have a look on the ato website, this is their online tax calculator .

As a basic idea, leave the answers as default & just put in spouse & dependant details & it will give you a reasonable idea of the tax on a wage.