jayandvicky

From Southampton to Springfield Lakes!

Any other Brits living here ?

My wife (from Gloucester) and I moved to Oz in Jan 07 and lived in Kangaroo Point for 10 months before buying our house in The Summit, we moved in a week before Xmas.
We're both loving it here as everything is so close to hand and we picked up a really decent new house and land package - just means there's plenty of gardening to do once you've moved in as all the builders done was mulched everything !

Would love to hear from any Brits in the area.

Jason and Vicky.

KarlandKerry

QUOTE=jayandvicky;6170913]From Southampton to Springfield Lakes!

Any other Brits living here ?

My wife (from Gloucester) and I moved to Oz in Jan 07 and lived in Kangaroo Point for 10 months before buying our house in The Summit, we moved in a week before Xmas.
We're both loving it here as everything is so close to hand and we picked up a really decent new house and land package - just means there's plenty of gardening to do once you've moved in as all the builders done was mulched everything !

Would love to hear from any Brits in the area.

Jason and Vicky.[/QUOTE]



Hi Jason and Vicky.

We are new to the area also - just along the way in Aspect.

I am from Northampton originally and Kerry is a Scot.

Give us a shout if you fancy a beer.

Karl and Kerry

jayandvicky

Hi Karl and Kerry,

Good to hear from you.

We'd love to meet up for a beer - we're off back to the UK for 10 days this week but would definately like to meet when we get back.

Speak to you soon...
Jason and Vicky

KarlandKerry

Good stuff - we are both in our mid thirties - no kids but have 2 dogs.

Have a great trip back to the UK.

Look forward to meeting when you get back.

Karl and Kerry

wheresnick

Hi there,
We're Nick (38) and Ally (30) heading over to Aus in July together with our labrador (Reilly). Initially living in Redbank Plains with family but hoping to move into Springfield Lakes by around Christmas. We were over last year and love the area. House prices there also seem to be levelling off a bit which is great.
Can I just ask a few questions of you before we arrive?

1. Can you recommend any builders in the area who offer packages for larger 4 bed places on a decent plot?

2. How bad is the traffic on the Centenery Highway 6.30/7.00am in the morning (upto the Logan motorway)?

3. Has the broadband situation improved over there?

4. Have either of the new lakes been built yet?

5. How do you rate Spring Lake Hotel?

Sorry about all the questions but it's good to make contact with a few Brits living in the area. Be nice to meet up once we arrive.

jayandvicky

Hi Nick and Alley,

Good to hear more Brits coming to the area !

With regards to builders we bought our 'house and land package' with G.J.Gardener - not because of the bilder though, just because we liked the house layout and the plot we got was a good size (860msq). There are so many builders here its difficult to say which ones are the best - did you go to the display village when you sere here last?
Delphin take care of most of the land and new builds here so it will be a good idea to take a look at their web site. http://www.delfinrealty.com.au/.

The Logan Motorway is only a 5 minute drive up the Centenary and shouldn't be a problem - my wife leaves at 6 and has no trouble but traffic will be heavier when you go but not to the point where it will be a problem. There is a bit redevelopment of the roads arounds the Centenary/Ipswich motorway going on so this should make things better once its finished.

With regards to the broadband I'll be honest - IT STINKS !!
I moved here in December 07 and finally got connected to ADSL in Feb 08 - it really is pot luck if you get ADSL at the moment - you have to just keep applying to Bigpond until you get it - you can apply with a third party ISP but Bigpond are always going to favour themselves first (Bigpond and Teltsra are the same company). A good (or bad) website for the situation is www.whirlpool.net.au then select 'Forum' then 'Broadband' then type Springfield Lakes into the search bar.

I think one of the new lakes has been built - not sure about any others as we don't live that way - we're in the main part where the lakes were done years ago.

Never been inside the hotel so couldn't comment!

Don't appologise about all the questions - you are only about to go through what we've already been through so its actually quite nice to give a little advise back - you're only asking the same things we wanted to know when we came !

Hope these answers are a little help to you.

Speak to you soon.

Jason (35) and Vicky (27).

KarlandKerry

Hi Nick and Alley.

I agree - will be nice to have some more Brits around.

We initially rented in a part of Springfield Lakes called Lakes Entrance which was near to where one of the new lakes is being built and when we left they had also started building the park. Would imagine by the time you arrive should all be complete. I will pop over sometime and take a look.

We now live in Aspect and it is just a quick walk to the other new lake which by the look of it should be open very soon.

We bought through Queenland Colonial Homes, their blocks are much smaller though. We got our place through Remax whose adverts apppear too be popping up all over the place now. Our contact was a lady called Tori Jameson - [email protected]. They appear to sell the odd bit of land as well as house and land packages, spec and resale homes.

Have not been into the bar at the hotel as yet. We were in one of the conference roooms on Chritmas Day for the buffet lunch and that was ok.

If you need any contacts with regard to shipping over your dog we have a couple so just give us a shout if you need them.

Cheers

Karl (35) and Kerry (34)

wheresnick

Hi all,
Thanks for the replies.....may well be coming back to you with more questions as we get closer to the time.
We actually first looked at Springfield Lakes when we were over in 2003 and land was about $90,000. Kicking ourselves that we could now end up spending over $250,000 just for the plot.
We looked at a G.J.Gardener display home in Collingwood Park and quite liked it. Would be interested to hear how much over the base price you ended up paying for all the 'extras'. We were initially looking at a budget of $450,000 but looks like we may have push it a bit higher now.

jayandvicky

... I think the word Hindsight springs to mind with regards to buying land in 2003!

Your budget of $450,000 is still achievable here - it depends on what you want for it... size of land, house or low set (bungalow), how many bedrooms etc

We bought ours when the main shell was up but there were no internal walls so it was difficult to picture how big any of the rooms would be - in the end we just went for it and bought the place and have loved the decision ever since.
Ours is a 4 bed low set on an 860msq plot so have a really good size back garden. We paid $438,800. The only 'extras' we had was things we asked the builder to do towards the end of the build - we done it this way as the builder knew the tradesmen to do the job and he needed it to look good as bad workmanship would impact the finished effect of the property which he wasn't going to do.

All we asked for was for the rear patio and front porch to be tiled the same as the house so it looked better ($980) and we had some turf put down in the back garden ($700) which I wish i'd never asked for anyway as most of it has now been dug up as we had a pool put in whilst the house was being built and this has now had decking put around the outside... plus the guy who done it didn't level the ground very well so some of it didn't grow that well.

I would buy from G.J.Gardener again as they were really good during the build. I had the phone number to the actual builder so could ring him up and he tried to accommodate any request we had. We even asked to change the colour of the house after it had been painted which he did for no extra cost.

We had a pest control guy round at the beginning of the year to spray the outside for spiders etc and he said the overall finish of our house was excellent and was quite impressed for what we had ended up with for the money.

Are you coming over as residents?
We are currently here in a 4 year visa but put our residency application in last July. The process of buying was easy - all we had to do was get approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board which was a piece of cake. Mortgage could not have been easier although interest rates are a bit steep!

trejon

Sorry to gatecrash your topic.................for all of you hankering for some British company and atmosphere, there is a meet planned for Sunday 4th May at around midday, at The Pig N Whistle, Eagle St, Brisbane. Children are most welcome also and there is always a cross section of people that come along. For more info : http://brit.meetup.com/246/calendar/7735497/

There will also be a St Georges Day celebration at The Pig N Whistle next Sunday 27th. English Pub Food and Morris Dancers and a great atmosphere.

wheresnick

I'm on a spouse visa as Ally was born in Brisbane (although her parents are actually Scottish) We're both teachers so looking round for posts at the moment!

The Reid Family

Hi

We are currently living in Springfield Lakes - only renting for just now- been here for 1 year and been back home to Scotland for a 3 week visit only came back last sat.

We have two girls aged 12 and 8 and would love to meet other british people - it can get very lonely here sometimes lol

wheresnick

Hi,
Would love to catch up when we arrive at the end of July. My wife's family were originally from Dumbarton in Scotland and, despite being there for 30 years, her mum and dad still have their Scottish accents.

clairer

Hi, we've been here since jan08 Im Claire and Shane with two kids (love it), let us know how you get on arranging a meet up -we'd love to meet up! Our next door neighbours are brits too, Im sure they'd be up for a brits in springfield lakes gathering too!!

The Reid Family

Sounds like a great idea to us ! Whereabouts is everyone in SL ?