sitting here in limbo

Hi

Just looking for a bit of advice from people who have settled in Oz recently.

When we get to Oz we want to buy a house within our 1st year. We will be 1st time buyers and are worried there may be problems getting a mortgage. We have put off buying a house in the UK as we wanted to immigrate. We both have good jobs and salaries and would get a mortgage no problem here. However, will it be a problem getting one in Oz having never had one before and not being Oz citizens?

We also heard from friends who are 1st time buyers in the UK that they had to prove they had been UK resident for a minimum of 3 years. Is there a similar rule in Oz i.e. will we only be able to buy after 3 years?

Finally we heard when you get to Oz you will have no credit rating and can not therefore buy a mobile phone, car, credit cards etc. Is this true? If so how can you get a credit rating?

Thanks

Hels

I am not sure about the mortgage situation yet, as we are still waiting for our house to sell in the UK. However, we were able to get credit for a car after only being in the country for 2 days.

In Australia, its not that you have a "credit rating" as such. You just cant have a BAD credit record.

I think you will find that as long as you have a decent enough deposit for most things, you should be ok.