No

Agree.

Reading this thread it does seem some people along with a huge amount of people in the UK think that Oz is a country where everything is cheap. People I speak to about Oz say "you can buy a 4 bed house with a pool out there for £60k" etc

I've done my research, and from what I can see, I am not expecting it to be cheaper to live out there. I am expecting it to be pretty much the same. Oh apart from petrol. How I see it, not quite sure how it will work in practice though, is if I earn double in dollars than what I do here in pounds, then if something is ruffly double what it would be in the uk, then it's ok. If it's massively more than double, then it's not. That's my philosophy anyway.

Only on a really good night out

Ok dont shoot me down - this is only MY opinion!! I am SO FAR finding it much cheaper................ running for cover

Too true. I'd like to see people stop converting and just work out the proportion of their income, or the average income is spent on a given article.

Put another way, I earn 3 times what I earnt in the UK but correspondingly not everything is 3x more expensive...so those things are cheaper.

I'd say tax regimes were similar. Someone the other day quoted a ridiculously low threshold for the highest rate of tax(!)

I find housing, utils, insurance (house/car) and rates significantly cheaper.

I find food more expensive. My wife's father loves comparing the prices to California which seems alot cheaper and we are looking forward to seeing for ourselves shortly.

Eating out and going out seems cheaper or is free - as is parking in many locations -even weekends.

Some electrical gear/tools/books more expensive. Specials on at JB Hi-Fi/ Kmart gets us across the line.

Petrol is still cheaper - despite a 50pc hike in 4 years - and we drive at more economical speeds which evens out the mileage if you do it.

That's fairly sensible.

Said this awhile back - people often report back to when they arrived in say, 2000 like one poster who is an expert on the COL.

But I bet people said the same in 1990 comparing with 1980, and 1980 after comparing to 1970. On average things have gone up big time and 10 years is not that long a time sometimes...

I don't think many people on this thread think that Australia is cheap, most who have replied are living there at the moment and have said that the COL is roughly the same as the UK.

I see what you are saying, but what I meant was comparatively speaking COL in Aus was cheap compared to UK back in 2000. Now it's on a par.

The Rudd government is going enact an election pledge to get the ACCC to investigate grocery prices which have gone up 46% in the last 10 years. In the UK they have gone up only 11%.

I've been here 5 years and I'd say the cost of living here is much higher, bar petrol which is going up quickly. The cost of living is not only higher but the rate of increase is going up hence the govt crapping itself about inflation causing a probable interest rate rise next month.

Were did you stay in knz. we lived in Durban, for a short while. well unmslanga.
we lived in jo-burg for a good number of yrs also. Randburg.
when we were last in st-lucia kwazulu, we were hi-jacked, on the out road when travelling on a game- bus drive.

I grew up in Benoni on the East Rand but spent some years in Mtunzini which is 40kms South of Empangeni. I still have a property there that I am about to sell. A fantastic part of the World that is now unfortunately becoming unliveable.
I'm not surprised you were hijacked - just another day in the Rainbow nation.

You often see people on here who are still in the UK saying that one of the reasons they are moving to Australia is the lower cost of living.

I dont find the col cheaper here I reckon its on a par but with lower wages.