DhakaBoy

You mean moving to Sydney as opposed to other cities in Australia? Or, the rationale of moving to Australia in the first hand?

DhakaBoy

If I ultimately end up renting in Gymea and you visit me by any chance, I will certainly treat you to chocolates from Nina's.

DhakaBoy

Worried, worried, worried...... well, its better to know the facts before than after...... thanks.

Beedubya

I will definitely hold you to that!!

chocciecake

we have done our figures and groceries cost us 40 % more in sydney than they did in london...
we have to eat much simpler food...
never ones for packaged food, we eat a lot of fresh veges and fruit, and have had to severely limit the variety we eat, as otherwise it is just too expensive...
we ate much better in the uk for less...
on the whole our life here costs us 32,000 yr (not inc tax) tax and in the uk 17,000 (not inc tax) a year...\we are not surviving here, so we are heading back next yr.
we had a better life back in the uk...more disposable income and luxuries like nice cars and clothes were cheaper...
here in sydney, i have even had to get a part time job just to pay the bills, and i never had to in the uk..just a full time mum to our little ones.
atm, we don't buy any extras like clothes etc, as we just don't have the cash....
sydney is an AWESOME city, so if you earn enough ,you should be fine...
if you dont earn enough, you're stuffed!
seeing as we have lived there very recently, our figures are accurate, and

chocciecake

you know, i just wanted to add, having grown up in australia, and heard all the bs about the lucky country, i am now disillusioned at what a rip off alot of things are, and how every one seems happy to pay over inflated prices for everything, and they still bang on about the lucky country!
when we came over last yr, we had $25,000 savings in the bank over and above what our expenses were, and we watched it dwindle away, havng no clue as to where it was going, as we weren't spending on anything but the basics (not even clothes) but now i see all the extra our groceries, utilities, rent etc cost us, than when we lived in the uk, and i realise i have been taken for a mug...
i feel its a giant rip off here now...
sydney is FANTASTIC! and if you can make the figures stack up, then why not have a great experience somewhere else, but for us, i just cant reconcile how much it costs and how hard we have to work just to pay the bills.

DhakaBoy

Thanks for sharing your experience chocciecake. Could you perhaps lower your living costs by moving to some other city in Australia? I have never been to Sydney, but from what I read on various posts here, its one of world's most expensive cities. Obviously, one needs to have good income in order to be comfortable in any expensive city.

chocciecake

i don't want to live in any other city in australia!


i grew up in melbourne, and i don't like it , so i wouldn't live there, i have lived on the gold coast, and that is fine, but not alot going on if you are into the arts, and i wouldn't choose to live in any other city in australia, as they are not my cup of tea...housing is even expensive in perth and darwin and brisbane...
its not the place it used to be.
we had a very comfortable life in london, on my husbands wage, with spare money and savings in the bank.
if i lowered my living costs by moving out to the west of sydney, i would then be living in a city that is unrecognisable to me ! what is attractive to me about sydney is obviously the beauty of the harbour, all the amazing beaches and coves and scenery, and also the groovy areas in the inner west, full of arty interesting people. you can go down to newtown on an evening to hear someone performing jazz on the street, with an eclectic exciting atmosphere...
out in the west, is house after house and shopping centres and not alot else, and a long trip into town to feel part of the culture.
i'm not saying there is anything wrong with living out there ,by the way, but its not the sydney i know or love.

the fact is, when we were young and newly married, we moved to sydney and rented a nice semi in leichhardt, and a REALLY nice 2 bed apartment in a woolstore warehouse in ultimo and had a great standard of living...with spare money to go shopping for nice things etc...
we go away overseas for 8 yrs and come back to find that things have gotten so out of control over here with the housing market that i even meet people who are professionals in a double income family that are struggling to meet their costs!
its ridiculous!

why would i sit here and just have a crap standard of living and have to move somewhere i don't like, just to get by, when i can go back to the uk, and live in some beautiful place, all around the uk, for around 500 pounds a month in rent??? compared to the $2816 mth we pay in rent here.... (over $33,000 yr!)
$650 wk is pretty standard rent in the inner west for a 3 bed house, that is not a health hazard! people that moved into a house a while ago, might pay lower rents,such as my friend in alexandria, who pays $515 wk for a 3 bed terrace, but it is only cheap because she moved in 8 yrs ago...

australia has changed from being the affordable lucky country where everyone has a backyard and possibly a pool, to being one where even the new huge houses being built on a lot of housing estates barely have backyard at all... and it has changed from a place where you could buy a house on a single income, to being one where really you need two incomes to scrape by with a modest mortgage!

i'm not telling you this to cast judgement on where is better to live, or persuade you otherwise..i am just giving you a reality check on the fact that australia's housing is now found to be the most unaffordable housing in the world,in recent studies...

to me, life is for living, and i like both countries, so we are going to take advantage of the fact that the uk is a lot cheaper to live , and move back to a different part, as we had had enough of london for the time being.
that way we can still have a nice life, and save money, without having to work like dogs just to pay the bills!


unless you are on big money in sydney, you may struggle...(unless you live so far away from sydney that you miss out on all the good culture sydney has to offer)
our family that live in san diego ,california we STUNNED at how expensive everything was in aus compared to america, when they can over recently.

its exciting to come and live somewhere different, and you may love sydney, as we do, but don't fool yourself that life is cheap in aus...

freebo

Just wanted to add that I agree with all of the above. I'm lucky to be on a good wage but our rent alone ($800 pw) is equivalent to a $70,000 salary. We're living nicely and putting money into savings but on anything like an average wage I would not want to try to live in Sydney.

chocciecake

sorry, i can't edit this post now, so can i please point out that the 32,000 IT costs us to live per year, IS IN POUNDS, not dollars, (as my husband still earns his living in pounds ) and that is purely, food, rent, utilities,private health insurance ,xtras cover only, costs of running one car that needs no maintenance,..JUST the basics...thats before any pressies or new clothes or anything...and that doesn't include the tax bill my husband has to pay on his wage as well...

mecheng

Sydney is an expensive city, not least housing. Unfortunately, non-finance job salaries don't always reflect its "expensiveness". I'm sure there's a great deal of people out there who hope that the housing market crashes just to get onto it.

ABCDiamond

Your figures are accurate for yourselves, and other peoples figures are accurate for them.

Many people live OK on average wages. We have old friends back in Sydney that earn less than us now, and they manage OK. But then they are locals, and maybe that helps in some way.

Once you take accommodation costs out of the figures, most of the Cities are pretty comparable to each other.

ABCDiamond

With the way the UK £ has crashed against the A$, your income will have been affected very badly in Australia.

For example; £32,000 at 2003 FX rates would be about A$90,000, but is now only about $51,000, so a massive drop in your spending power.

I can understand anyone that is earning British Pounds needing to leave here now.

freebo

So can I, but even for one earning well above the Aus average wage (in AUD) Sydney is not an attractive place to settle from a financial viewpoint, maybe I'll move to Redland Bay (lovely spot I know, used to go camping on N Straddie regularly ).

Steve2009

Why 2003? That wouldn't happen to be roughly a ten year low for the AUD versus the GBP by any chance? Convenient example.