paulry

Well said. No point in looking back.

Antney

I'm so sorry to hear that, but sometimes life is a bit of a lottery

We left in 2005 as well and sold our house in the UK. We had it on the market at $395k and tried to keep it very quiet that we were emigrating as we didn't want anyone to use the emigration timescal as a way of bidding us down.

It didn't work and we ended up taking $20k less becuse the buyers found out we were going to Oz and on a tight schedule (loose lipped estate agent). A little disappointing, but we were embarking on a new chapter of our life and the exchange rate was 2.4 AUD to GBP anyway.

We lived in the Midlands and I certaily wouldn't exchange what I have now to move back there.

Good luck

E3only

It’s all about financial dislocation. I moved to California not long ago and very short term I am looking at sending 1 USD: 1 AUD which is going to suck (I have a sizeable investment in Australia). However that’s how it is.

The exchange rate movement is all about a ‘cycle’. Remember GFC = UK is **c*ed up. Australia did not enter into technical recession which meant strong AUD. Add to that property shortage and massive immigration & inflow of foreign investment.

I can not predict where exchange rates go but longer term, GBP won’t say where it is now. Unfortunately, you perhaps immigrated at a time when it was strong and it’s gone sough. Remember, flip side is you are getting more GBP than in 2004/05.

Regarding buying a house, no idea about you but my thinking is to get own house first before I pi$$ away money at expensive cars, clothes, pub etc – not saying you do but just sharing my logic I guess.

koalakim

Oh yes, that wonderful thing called hindsight!

If we had had the "sight" we would have sold up in 2007 when we left when the pound was 2.48 and before the housing boom here in Mellie!

So instead we sold last year (got a good price considering the market) then as you know we played the waiting game on the pound because when we sold it was $2 and thought nah.....it will go up soon ha ha ha ha ha as you know it plummeted and we exchanged the bulk at 1.80 only because we had decided to build a house.

Some people have suggested it was the wrong time to buy but like NKSK after 3 years we are fed up with the restrictions of renting and if we are going to be here a few years now we may as well our own mortgage off rather than someone elses.

So for us yes it's been a financial disaster because we had a good amount of equity and have lost a lot in the exchange rate but tbh it was driving me nuts studying the markets each day to see which way the pound was going and what was affecting it and I was wasting a lot of time doing it! So bye bye pool and hello bigger mortgage.

Still our new house is coming on a treat and will be lovely! We decided to build because we needed specifics for working at home and our business and also the less stamp duty and FTBG were incentives to build.

I guess folks you just do whatever you think is best at the time, the world is too volatile these days to guess what will happen down the track. Some people win, some loose - we're gutted we lost but in some ways it was our own fault for not burning our bridges when we left but then the pound had never been below 2.20 in the 10 years we'd been coming to Oz so never really entertained it going below! Ahem........c'est la vie!

The our other problem has been setting ourselves up in business which of course takes a while to grow and get back on your feet.

Still I have more pressing problems now like trying to find a new sofa....!

KK

Sammy T

Hindsight, omg, what we would do if we had it? Actually maybe nothing at all and where would the fun be in that?

We sold a UK house in 2005 for an amazing profit, the exchange rate was in our favour, but we didn't move to Oz then, we bought another house in the UK seeking something that we felt our lives were missing - mistake number 1, we should have moved to Oz then!

We sold our UK house in 2008 and moved our money over when the rate was about 2.05 only to find 2 months later it went back up to 2.75, so big mistake number 2, we should have been patient and waited!

We moved to Tasmania, beautiful island, gob smacking scenery, no crowds, etc but backward, even by Oz's standards, and lack of anything vaguely modern and 21st century! Bought a house after six months because we felt unsettled and thought it would help, hate the house, hasn't increased in price in the last 2 years at all - mistake number 3

So with the benefit of hindsight we may have done things in a different order, making us financially better off, but with hindsight we might never have moved here at all and even with all the negatives, my life feels richer for all the things we have seen and experienced so maybe that is all that really counts after all.

Sam

iamthecreaturefromuranus

With the benefits of hindsight I probably wouldn't have bothered at all.

LouiseR

I think if you spend all your time fretting about what happened in the past you'll be too busy to notice what's happening in your present and your future.

Going over old ground and wishing for what might have been makes people bitter and miserable.

Move on, thank your lucky stars for what you have. Every time I go to moan about something I think of what I have... wonderful husband, gorgeous children, we're all healthy, money to pay the bills...

There's many people who would love the problems some of people have, you know? "Oh damn, my £100k only got me $170k instead of $260k, poor me."

Concentrate on your present and your future, they're all that matters really.

asprilla

exactly... swings and roundabouts.

pomtastic

This is one of my many reasons for bailing out of the property market. (Perth).

We got lucky, bought 8 years ago, exchange rate was good and could afford a nice house in nice suburb easily with a small deposit on one average wage and 2 kids. It was a no brainer compared to our life in UK, our life would be immensely better, less hours spent working, nicer house in nicer suburb, better schools than UK.

Now the game has COMPLETELY changed - there's just no fat in migrating to Australia as the difference in house prices and exchange rate means too many people will give up on coming here, unless it changes and don't even get me going on the cost of living now. I can see a slowdown of people trying to get here, it's priced itself out.

Sure, plenty of Poms would love to give Aus a go and migrate but the bottom line is can they now afford it? Having no money and worrying about debt is no way to start a better life - I'm seeing this all the time now from new migrants. Remember, the average dwelling price in UK is $300K AUD, here it's $460K - big difference if you haven't managed to build up a load of equity in UK which I'm sure the younger migrants wouldn't of done.

Dont worry NKSK, we all have hindsight regrets but your time will come.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

..but plenty of people get permanently shafted on the see-saw.

coolerkingcooler

I'd say your right, we 'lost' a lot of equity last year when we sold in the UK. Looking at realestate in the same area now, we would have got less. I've decided that we were lucky.

We're in 'cheap' SA and I know a financial advisor who says most of the mortgages he is doing are for $400k (House @ $450k, $50k deposit). Many people he knows came to SA five years ago with £100,000 and that bought their house with no mortgage which has now doubled in price.

It has made us start planning for the future and sorting out UK pensions and super here. I'd recommend anyone moving out to get financial advice and decide what they think is best for them.

NSK, I have lived most of my life thinking what if and I've decided it's a waste of time. Took me most of my 45 years to realise this.

Funny thing is, we rarely look at the best decisions we made. My wife made a great one in marrying me

Cooler

BadgeIsBack

And there's always a big bloke hogging the best swing.

DeadVim

With the benefit of hindsight I'd be walking behind more attractive women.

If that is possible.

mbike

All good points that I can completely relate to.

I hope you feel happier/more settled now that you have committed to your own property. Personally, the attractions of Perth were never that great to overcome the ridiculousness of the OVERALL rise in house prices across the city (the effect whereby pushy RE agents forced prices up across the board, regardless of location/quality of housing stock) I also found it depressing that anything with a backyard already had the value of that backyard as a potential development site priced in when all we wanted was green space for our kids.

Good luck and stay positive

pomtastic

Well said, glad it's not just me who thinks exactly that. Perth is nice but not that nice for what it costs now.