northerner

Sorry what I meant was £160,000 which you mentioned (I think!) to buy with, not £160 a week which as you say is around $400 ish a week.

I must type slower LOL....

Graham

alkristensen

knew what you meant mate it was 160 for both a week or thousand to buy.

Your house is exactly the sort of thing we will look to rent.

cheers, more than hopeful now.

How long did it take before you were in the property.
i.e. from walking in to realestate agents to gettin the keys

What is the process for getting the property. Do you have to pout a bid in or a sealed bid or owt daft like that, or is it the same as uk where you show your refs and wad of cash and get the keys in a day or so when refs check out.

Some privates give you keys there and then if theyve got all they need(deposit and first months rent in hand) and finally is there a short hold tenancy agreement like thing, if so whats the minimum length and how does it differ from a uk one if at all. As long as it covers notice period and general im fine.

..............................and was there a waiting list and you had to be quick for some of the properties as rentals in london go at 6am i kid you not.

I used to get the loot at 6am on the way to work in london, and rang a few at that time and they had already had a few calls that morning and had viewrs booked already when the advert came out that day.

Is it that bad as we are lead to believe?

I personally cant believe it but i will stand corrected (said the man in the orthopedic shoes )
cheers

al

hedgehog-girl

It sounds to me like you've decided to go to Brissie and are just looking for support. I live on the Northern Beaches of Sydney which is a great place to live but its not cheap. It has all the things we want, beach within walking distance, lots of places to eat and drink, a bit of history, work is close by for me and hubby and it a fab place to bring up possible kiddies in the future.

The rental side of things in Sydney is going up (or threatens to anyway). We rent a 2 bedder with garage overlooking the harbour and pay $400 per week but to buy it would be about $600,000 just because its in a popular place on the Northern Beaches (which tend to be more dearer than most parts of Sydney anyway).

Why don't you go to Brisbane and stay there for a 2 week reccie and then visit Sydney or Melbourne or Perth or Adelaide and then you'll get a much better idea of what you like yourself rather than what other people like.

spottydog

The comments are always racist against non-whites (particularly after the Cronulla riots just over a year ago) and normally from people who have never spent any time in the Shire. You head down to Cronulla any weekend and there are people of all different races enjoying themselves and I've heard many more discriminatory comments central Sydney than in the Shire.

The only time we've experienced any comments was when the neighbours took the mickey out of the England cricket team being so bad and I thought that was fair enough (their playing probably managed to embarrass most poms)

alkristensen

You are right, i did need support. Thanks for the advice, all good.

Perth too far away. Melboune a maybe,and adelaide gods waiting room from what i have heard/read/understand, a bit like bournemuth and therefore not for me.

Cairns too humid for my chest even if its for a day i dont want it.
And too many things to kill you on land and in the water ALL year.Love the place though.

We have made up our mind by studying all the great info which has just confiormed all that i thought and studied for the last 3 years.

Thanks for everyones posts and views, its all been taken in and digested into a plan that will be shelved and put into plan in august this year

Once again. Thanks BE members, i do feel settled in a decision and i can enjoy my last 6 months of uk now knowing that all the things we wanted to do are possible.

Good luck everyone else.

Alan and Clare.

suzimc

So where are you gonna head for then... Sydney or Brisbane?

alkristensen

To sydney and look for 6 months and have fun.

Then if our head rules over heart ans sums dont add up then brisbane via newcastle to have a look.

Then if brisbane/newcastle a no then melbourne.

if not then thailand, lol

We are making it up as we go along really, but the research has confirmed everything i though it was and i feel as though i can use it all at a later date.

My evaluation is

I know i can afford rents no problem even if i want to work on a part time wage.

I know i cant afford sydney but ill wait to see other areas of the city/mountains/beaches as i can only feel what i feel about something. Other people are NO way like me.

I know we can afford to buy and set up businesses outright in brisbane, in nicer areas closeish to the city-exactly what we want.

I know to wait and see what happens now in all the knowledge above.

I did it to stop panicking about negative feelins and to get a FIRM plan together with clare.

Now thats done i have 3 more work days til i retire. 6 months off,aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhh.

This ll give me time to relax and do everything well in advance.

Our biggest job now is a car boot sale in april as we have booked flights and a hol in between to thailand.

We have hired a car and we are hostelling/hotelling it round outer suburbs of sydney to get a feel for the place rather than drive through them at speed.

The cats are booked for door to door service.

Ive shut down credit cards(kept 1 for credit in oz) and bank accounts(kept business account for same reason)

We dont have furniture, so all we have are about 2 boxes as my brother is getting a free ship of his stuff over courtesy of australian army, so my tools are going with him for me to pick up at a later date.The 2 boxes we are shipping are just excess clothes and nic nacs and paperwork. We went on a rtw trip last year 05 and we chucked a load of stuff then and clare sold her house with pretty much everyhting in.

We are lucky that the 2 houses we have moved into since coming back from travelling have been fully loaded homes as the owners moved out to mnove in with is missus and all he took was a poster and pc and clothes.

Easy peasy, now im signing off expats for a little while to have fun.

seey'all

al and clare

ShozInOz

Then forget about Sydney.

suzimc

Sounds like you've got is sussed!

Enjoy.... and maybe see you in Sydney later in the year!

alkristensen

yes we have so far...........

cheers, will organise a meet then or get the person that does that side(swerv-o i think) to do one.

seems like there is a lively expats meetup crowd there thats more of a drinkers club but not sure

al

Caesar

I was browsing the domain the other day with roughly the same requirements - 2br+ house, to the north of CBD. Looks like $450-500 pw is pretty common for a neat place. Though a good chunk of what I've seen was 3br.

SydneySwede

Hi there,

We've just bought a place in Engadine in the Sutherland Shire! It's green and leafy, great for families, 45 min to Sydney but maybe not that good for restaurants, bars and shops. Houseprices are reasonable- $400.000 for a two bed house.
We've been in Sydney since August and have been staying in Cronulla. Apart from it being a bit of a commute to the city Cronulla is great for a couple. The commute to the city is about an hour. There are shops, restaurants, bars, clubs and the beach, gyms etc all within a short stroll. We easily found a place to rent and were paying $310 for a new 2 bedroom unit with balcony 5 min from beach. Cronulla is quite pricey to buy in but there are sevel suburbs which are more affordable (unfortunately a bit further from the beach).

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutherland_Shire

Hope this helps.

JustBecause

Hi! We will be looking at Engadine as it is near to OH's work. We won't mind it being out of Sydney centre if it's ~1hr or less to get in. Did you check out any other areas nearby to Engadine? Any to avoid?

SydneySwede

We checked out other areas too, we liked Yarrawarrah too and Woronora Heights (although a bit hard to get too/from without a car). OH doesn't want to live in Heathcote although I can't see anything wrong with it. He's from the Shire so it might just be something silly I would love to live in Bonnett Bay, Como West and Oyster Bay but it's unfortunately out of our price range
We didn't like to look of Menai and Illawong and Alfords Point...but nothing seriously wrong with them I don't think.
Good luck!