You'll probably need at least 3 months' worth of wage slips, and also unless you want to be paying mortgage insurance, at least 20% deposit. Also note the property market is hotting up in Perth due to all the fifo's buying up houses again so there's plenty of competition and vendors are achieving good selling prices. I know of friends who are struggling to find houses they want/can afford when this time last year it was dead and a total buyers market. As for the people quoting stats about hosue price falls, the official figures show houses are rising in a lot of states still.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]%202012

My advice to the OP would be to be cautious right now because for every stat showing rises there is another showing a fall and you have nothing to lose by waiting because houses are now so unaffordable there is no room left for another surge. If that were to happen Australia would go from the "quarter acre block" dreamland to a medieval rentier society full of landless serfs.

House prices fall to record lows - June 2012

http://www.news.com.au/money/propert...-1226379751250

Face it - the party's over and prices are stagnating at best.

Maybe but every house I have seen for sale in my area [Duncraig] in WA in the last 6 months has been sold extremely fast. For 3 of them I knew the owners and all of them want in 2-3 weeks and for above the asking price.

Yes Perth is going through a mini housing revival right now, a lot of people have moved over in the last 2 years and were renting, they're now starting to buy. The property market here has been bumping along the bottom for some years now, steady rises over the next year or so are expected. Talk of real estate crashes has been done to death and will never occur in a supply constrained environment. Melbourne on the other hand is probably going to get quite nasty as there's an awful lot of stock coming on line and nothing's shifting as it is.

More fool them. Perth prices must be the most over-priced on earth.

You can arrange migrant mortgage approval before you arrive in Australia - the approval will be subject to confirmation you have arrived in Australia and started your new job.

The rules vary though depending on your residency status, type of visa and so on. But if you are coming on a 457 visa for example, then 90% LVR is available (ie, with a 10% deposit). However, if you can do the 20% deposit option then you will save some money on mortgage insurance.

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As to whether its a good time to buy... who knows. If you buy now, you will look back in a year and think great timing or bad timing.

I've got my eye on a place a couple of streets over from me - a 20% deposit would be $150,000 - pretty much what the whole house cost in 1995.

We rented for 6 months to get good credit ratings and while we were house hunting. Rentals here were $750 per week and we are now paying less than that for a mortgage. (We stayed in a holiday let for 5 weeks while trying to find somewhere to rent- but had to settle for somewhere quite grotty, as it is Upper North Shore, Sydney, and the rental properties are vastly overpriced.) Couldn't wait to get out of there, but it took a while to find a suitable house that we could afford.

Yes, impossible for most, especially given the current exchange rates.

Thanks for all the replies and links - certainly food for thought. Our rent (if we manage to get anything decent) would be $600+ a week. If we bought with 20% deposit our mortgage wld be roughly the same, but i also think prices are over inflated at present with perth boom do we want to risk buying to find it drops in a couple of years (as it has done for us in uk) or be miserable with a move to a cr***y rental? Another one of those immigrants dilemas i think

Thanks craig
Although we are australian citizens all with passports - will that makea difference?

HI Betty Boot! in that case, 95% so only 5% deposit plus costs like stamp duty etc would be required. Good luck!

So I wouldn't postpone buying in case prices will drop, that has been predicted on BE for as many years as I have been here. However I would postpone until I have lived in the area, got the feel for it and made sure it is where I want to live.

And there is no need to be miserable in a cr***y rental, get a nice rental!

We've got a nice rental. The building itself is a bit crappy but the area is outstanding and the neighbours are the best we've ever had. for those reasons we've stayed renting a lot longer than we planned. Honestly, I'm much happier than when I owned.

Hi there,

I concur with the "Don't Rush" theme from the other contributors.

As citizens you'd be eligible for mainstream mortgage products.

The minimum deposit you'd be looking at is 5%, but at this level you'd need to show that it had been saved/stored in an account for 3 months, and as previously mentioned there would be a Mortgage Insurance premium to pay since the loan to value is more than 80%.

You'd need to show a minimum of 2 payslips to proove your income.