chels

Never mind Cheryl - sounds like you'll be surviving on a salary similar to most people, and they manage! If your husband was earning 120k GBP in England, you'd have made the rest of us jealous

Jacque

Hi Cheryl

I'm a buyers agent here in Sydney and know the northside very well. The Northern Beaches is a lovely part of the world and prices vary widely, depending on which suburb you want to live in. Manly and Fairlight, being the expensive end (for their proximity to the CBD via a quick ferry) is going to cost you a lot more than Dee Why or further inland Cromer. It really is such a vast area of Sydney.

On $120K Aus dollars p/a you should be able to comfortably afford a "middle ring" suburb house, but this again varies on location and your budget. My recommendation would be to rent for 6 mths when you come to Sydney and then use that time to rec around and decide where it is you can realistically live. Like London, Sydney is a BIG place and there are so many wonderful areas to live that you can't just make a choice until you get a chance to see it all. Good luck with your research and feel free to ask questions!

ali south

Cheryl, Hi
Huge confusion here about age for starting school and age/year group to put your kids into. My kids are exactly two years apart but ended up one academic year apart. i have very little knowledge about kindy places.
In the UK, Sept is start of year, in Oz it is end of Jan. you will sort your 4 yr old out easily I would imagine as many people are happy with public schools for primary.

Your 9 year old may be a huge issue. This is going to be a contentious comment on expats but, in my opinion my teenagers were not going into public. Once we viewed them I was bitterly disappointed except with Manly selective. None of the staff at the high that I teach in send their kids to public, apart from those who secured a place in selective. Here is your issue.

The schools that cost 30k a year may not be full, I have no idea, we could never afford them. The middle range and church schools tend to be full 4 years in advance. Plus if your child has not been fully sacramented you will have no hope of the catholic schools which are very good and range from 4 to 6k a year in fees. Private schools have huge waiting lists and kids go on the lists at birth. Do not underestimate this. Also do not presume you would be happy with public if you have no experience of schooling in OZ, it is very different.

If you end up near us on the Northern Beaches I'll give you the insider info on local high schools. What does Oliver like, is he academic, sporty, effeminate etc. We really struggled with finding co-ed here. This was a big issue for my 15 and 17 year olds.

Seriously look into the secondary transfer issue if you want Oliver to successfully change schools in 3 years (Or earlier).

There are some great inexpensive and very expensive school in the areas that you have discussed. Plus Manly selective which is heavily oversubscribed and free has a great rep.

FYI, we came here with a bit under $500k equity. Have a smaller house (it looks impressive and detached from the outside but less rooms yet we have a pool), better lifestyle although we both work just as hard, a smaller $120k joint income and larger mortgage. Wouldn't change it for the world.
Feel free to PM me
Good luck
Tara

delama

Hi Ali South,

Did you remortgage your property in the UK to bring over the equity to Oz? We're thinking of doing that, as the interest rates are so high over there, but wasn't sure if I was getting a bit ahead of myself! The way I figure it though, even if we only stayed for 18 months, we'd spend approx $30,000 in rent, whereas if we bought, we could spend the same on buying costs, but own a second property at the end of the day!!
Hope you don't mind me asking!!
M

ali south

Hi, no, we sold 18 months before moving. UK market very slow. BUT, when we moved to USA in 2001 our sale fell through just before we left. Ended renting property out which was a little traumatic because of tenant and the boiler costing a little. However on the return our 210k GBP house was worth 260k plus. I would seriously look at market. We were lucky, low UK market and here (in Oz) house dropped by 16% in some areas (Collaroy Plateau). However a few of our friends got 2.88 on exchange rate we got 2.40??? So many things to consider.
Ask away, we're happy to share.
Tara

Rosscarbery

Tara, I know this is not my thread, but I would be really interested in any info you could give me on high schools. My eldest is 13 and because of the English system has always been the youngest in the class (August 93 birthday). He is dyslexic - not profoundly, but he gets small group help at his school here and would be eligible for extra time for his GCSEs. His reading if fine but his spelling is appalling and he is slow to write. At this point I certainly wouldn't classify him as academic, but he is bright. He is very sporty, lives for rugby and is looking forward to lots of surfing/sailing etc. We looked around St. Ives High where he felt he would fit in. It looked a bit shabby to me but had good facilities for things like industrial arts, drama and photography. BUT I do not want him to get through high school avoiding academic subjects. He is good at geography, wants to continue French. His maths is poor. He is baptised Catholic, but no further than that and would be very anti a religious school. I could live with it Any advice? - a slightly cheaper area than St. Ives would be good TBH but we want to be in that kind of area. OH will be commuting to the CBD. Thanks in advance.

Rosscarbery

Sorry, I keep forgetting to add my proper name to my posts! Should have signed off with Martha!