Just been thinking about our move to Australia.

We moved in 2005.

At that time we had about $60K savings and a UK house valued at GBP150K.

We had an offer for the house of 140K GBP but turned it down. Exchange rate at that time was about $2.60 to the pound.

We could have bought the house that we are currently living in (in Perth) in late 2005 for about $300K.

We delayed buying. Delayed and delayed and watched the house prices in Perth rocket.

We bought 6 months ago. The house cost us $500K.
Our house in the UK is now worth 135K GBP at best (i.e. 5K less than 5 years ago) and the exchange rate is now $1.70 to the pound.

On top of this, if I was doing the job that I'm doing now in the UK I'd be earning about 70K GBP. Here I'm earning about about 58K GBP equivalent.

We'd also be able to live in a significantly better house in the UK for the price we paid for the one we're in in Perth. 250K GBP buys you a decent house in the Midlands.

I'm trying not to have any regrets but it does kind of make you go "Ouch!" if you think too hard about it.

So, in summary, if you want to make money, don't move to Oz.

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Don't think about it then.

In 10 years your luck could have swung the other way... and you will look back and think how silly you were worrying about it.

I don't think I'm worrying about it as such......but it is quite sobering.

Christ man, drink more, it's always worked for me.

Out of interest, why did you end up buying in Perth? Having followed some of your earlier posts on the board you clearly understand how bad the WA property market is for people coming into the market. We were there for 4 1/2 years and never found the prices attractive enough to commit. It was so much cheaper to rent.

This may not help..... But it's only money.

A couple of reasons:

1. Our rental was up (landlord wanted the house for his mother) and the thought of moving yet again to what would be the fourth rental in 4 years with the attendant guilt feelings towards the kids (who have never been able to do what they wanted to their bedrooms) and spouse made me feel sick. The indignity of renting really got to me - must have been those 20 something RE dimwits who inspected our living arrangements every 3 months.

2. Started a new job that I knew would need at least 3 years of commitment. I could just about justify buying a house for 3 years but if I'd waited much longer the expense would mean that I would really need to rent for the 3 years.

But I still think that Perth house prices are an absolute joke. I'm now hoping though that they don't collapse - unlike what I hoped for a year ago.

It does help.

That 200k outlay must have hurt.

Put down a 200k deposit on a 330k home 6 years ago. Income has been between AUS85-150k - many people earn more far and they'll be along to tell us soon. I won't give the UK figure as it is meaningless.

A house in London in a half decent suburb would be GBP330 for a 3 bed semi/maisonette on half the salary in units. I know which side my bread is buttered. The thing is, I often do real estate hunts on UK property outside London and find anything really interesting, ie detached, character, study, more than 3-4 bedrooms, 2 living areas, proper village location, (not a pretend out of town location), bit of land suddenly rockets - and then you have the commute to think about - in my case, probably applicable.

And in September 2001, it was $3 to the pound. I am sure there are a lot of folk on here that would like that too, but there is nowt you can do about it. Worry about things you can change, not those you can't.

Easier said than done I reckon.

If my mortgage was an extra 200k it would put a dent in things. Nisky might have had a bigger deposit.

Emigrating doesn't make you rich

There's a great Australian saying "more arse than class"

Meaning more lucky than as planned as I understand it.

All my luck is proper brown stuff from the arse too so you are not alone my friend!

I could have bought in Sydney in 1991 and rented it out whilst back in UK and could have bought a house for $70k that now fetches $600+ But then what's the point of thinking that now.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a bitch when you start to think about things, we just need to crack on and enjoy this short life we have!

I would agree totally. Financially its f**ked beyond all recognition

However I still bloody love living here...