Grub

Hi Lyn

Care to share your thoughts on your new home. It's not oftent that someone who is there tells us about their expereinces (unless they hate it and then you cant get them off the bloody site!)

Thanks

Ceri

I'm not going to quote anything... but in my opinion, Australia has basically very similar problems to Britain, including the prob's ..Health service, crime, drugs, employment... some worse, some the same.

without going into a long list of comparing each country... my list will be in favour of Britain, better standard of living... but on my list for pluses for Australia, I can only think of two.
Better Weather and better fishing.... if I were weighing things up to should I stay or should I go... it would be go, but that is not an option for me at this point of time...

cheers

silvervfr

Better standard of living in Britain!! I don't think so.

House prices are through the roof which means most people are having to pay half thier monthly income on their mortage! This in turn doesn't leave enough to enjoy the other things in life we all want.

When I was out in Adelaide I took a look at some of your display homes-WOW-A four bed house with double garage with 600 square metres of land , including landscaping etc A$230,000 which is about £87,000 !!!!!!!!! You can't buy a bedsit in the south of england for that.

Add to this the better climate and lower crime rate and I think there is a better quality of living to be had in Australia!!

Nick

Grub

Agree with you there Nick- for all the negativity from the minority we are led to believe that Australia is some back end hick town full of drugs and crime. I have never found it be that, and nor have family and friends who havelong ago settled there.
I personally cant wait for my new house- cheap as chips compared to South Manchester

Ceri

Without getting into an argument here ...
No 1... it depends where in Britain you are quoting... for a start with your house prices $87 thou pounds would buy you a 4 bedroom house in Penclawdd... next to the sea... easily! So don't try and tell me about British housing prices...(my mate who lives in front of the water spent 80 thou.. 2 years ago) (my so called in laws (defacto)... 65 thou mumbles ... sea town). My parents who are still there... house is valued about 70 thou.
87 thou would get you a mansion in some parts of Britain... try some parts of Ireland. One of my old mates, bought a farm/small holding out there 20 thou at the time... 1990's which is a bit far back fair enough (he's a hippie mind you .. so wrong example )
I'm currently building here in OZ, and I also know what housing costs in Wales/ Gower/near the sea....."go on quote London etc etc... yes, yes, we all know they are expensive, I just love it when people only quote certain expensive parts of Britain... which is classed as half truths, try quoting other parts of Britain"

No 2.... there is more crime in Australia. , where I come from petty crime is high (car thieves),but serious crime is higher in OZ . Don't tell me there is less crime here in OZ... lol... there is far more serious crime here.. it was an eye opener to me when I first got here. Gun laws in Britain are tighter than Australia (I suppose you're not going to agree with me on this either, lol... (check both countries gun laws... it is a fact).. There are a lot of hold ups here, actually I had the pleasure of seeing one at the local westpac, one month after I landed here. By the way only 4 weeks ago I had my car broken into in my drive here... I'm in a so-called nice area of Brisbane, by the sea.

So, don't try and argue with me about what I personally know and experienced...(I'm fed up of it!!..I can't say a bleedin' word here these days! .) I'm saying what my PERSONAL experience has been , and IS...so to argue with my personal experience and view is pretty pointless isn't it?? (bang , bang.. don't worry just my head against the wall!)
.
So please stop quoting your housing prices to me which is in a certain part of England.Why don't you look to see what 87 thou pounds will buy you in a decent Sydney suburb?? .(Best of luck to you!!) I think you'll find you need hell of a lot more money than 87 thousand pounds. Houses in certain/nice areas in Sydney ... wooden, small, 3 bedroom ... believe it or not 600 thousand AU dollars (shacks basically!). So if you want to quote an expensive part of Britain, just remember there are places and certain suburbs in Australia which is just as expensive... don't you realise that???

To be fair, try quoting an expensive part of Aus to Britain. Even in Brisbane there are Expensive suburbs ( Manly etc ... 300 thou au would not buy you a place here, well over a million for a sea view), and cheap suburbs... Ipswich, Deception Bay, which will only cost you 150 thou , 200 plus thou for a nice 4 bedroom... see what I'm saying, there are areas, and there are Areas! Normally, cheap suburbs here ... are full of crime.

At the moment Brisbane is one of the cheaper cities in OZ for housing, we are getting a lot of people from Sydney here who are selling up their Sydney homes and moving to Brisbane because of the prices in Sydney, and they can buy a much nicer house in Brisbane for the money.

Also while looking at your display homes.. make sure you find out about the extras which are not included in the price... seriously, make sure you don't get ripped off, . Things such as connections to utilities (set you back a few bob on top), floor tiles ( from 6 grand min... cheapies tiles) are not usually in the price, driveways (couple of thou).. council planning, I'm not being awkward here, but there are a lot of hidden costs, I know as I'm currently having a 4 bedroom house built for me, and the salesmen in these houses are not totally honest with you at he beginning... they want you to spend, and sign up with them.... just be careful that's all, when building a new house.
Also be careful what may look cheap... the area maybe cheap for a reason... crime mostly "ask yourself why it is cheap?". I know the cheapest areas around Brisbane are cheap because of that, not very nice places to live.. high crime areas. watch out for "cheap"

cheers
Good luck to you,
got to go to work early start. Before the loons hit the road.. argg traffic, oops sorry, ... there's no traffic problems here.. according to some., must only be my imagination

silvervfr

[QUOTE][SIZE=1]Originally posted by Ceri:



Without getting into an argument here ...
No 1... it depends where in Britain you are quoting... for a start with your house prices $87 thou pounds would buy you a 4 bedroom house in Penclawdd... next to the sea... easily! So don't try and tell me about British housing prices...(my mate who lives in front of the water spent 80 thou.. 2 years ago) (my so called in laws (defacto)... 65 thou mumbles ... sea town). My parents who are still there... house is valued about 70 thou.
87 thou would get you a mansion in some parts of Britain... try some parts of Ireland. One of my old mates, bought a farm/small holding out there 20 thou at the time... 1990's which is a bit far back fair enough (he's a hippie mind you .. so wrong example )


Easy Tiger, chill out!!

I hear what you are saying, and yes Wales is very cheap on the property front. I live in the south, which is a nice area but the cost of housing and living is really getting out of control.

I've been fortunate in that I bought our property five years ago, it's now worth two and a half times what I paid (Great) But what about my Kids. How are they going to be able to afford to get the property ladder when they are old enough?

I know is not perfect in Australia nowhere ever is (I've worked in various places in the world), we are hoping to go there to have a simpler, less stressful lifestyle that won't cost us and our children a fortune to get by!

Is this fair comment?

Nick

Herman

Whenever people quote ludicrous house prices for the UK, like '20 times the average salary', they are referring to London and I simply respond with an equally 'selective' sample: by quoting for the lower North shore in Sydney. Average salary in Sydney: $40,000, average price of 3 bed house in lower North Shore: $1 million, ratio: 25 times average salary.
PS. your claim that a 3 bed shack in Sydney costs $600k is way off, that would be in the outer suburbs - a 3 bed shack in a half decent suburb within a reasonable commute of the CBD will now cost you at least $800k!
I am returning to North Bristol in the UK (very close to the Severn bridge to wales) where a 4 bedroom house in a country town within 30 minutes of the city centre costs 220,000 pounds. Thats far more affordable than anything I've seen in Sydney and the build quality of the homes is signficantly better than the crap they build out here. (yes, because the weather's worse but it still means homes in the UK dont need full scale renovation every 15 years like they do here!).

pommie bastard

You are not compairing like for like, Adelaide would be same as Wigan in UK. look at Sidney prices to London prices .
Location is everything in home prices , most of you good people earn far more than the Aussies which is then passed onto house prices .What seems a cheap to you is pricy to locals .The lower crime rate HA , HA means your chances of getting shot are far higher.

ANDREW HENNESSEY believes he and his mate are alive because they played it cool when a pistol-wielding couple attacked them as they slept in their car next to the North West Coastal Highway Perth.

A MAN walked into his university tutorial yesterday and opened fire with two handguns, killing two students and injuring five others before he was overpowered by a classmate and the lecturer.

Ceri

my 600 thou was a sort of guess.... I didn't like to say higher. Oh well 800... even worse. I got my guess figure from watching "Auction squad" ... ever seen that programme? it's good for a laugh... 3 bedroom tiny wooden houses reaching 600 plus.. in places in Sydney. I can't believe it when I see it. Are these people mad??? I don't know how anyone can afford to live in Sydney to be honest with you, it's not as if the wages in Sydney are any higher than the wages in Brisbane.

... "crap building" ... got to laugh at this as it's very true... they construct the frame here with wood (unless you pay for steel), also the foundations are not as deep as the British way... we need some good old British builders out here. They basically are like "Barrat" homes here (spell check).... throw them up. They look good on the outside, but are poorly constructed.
We've had terrible trouble with our builder... the plans. We changed a lot of things on the original plan, and he dosen't quite get the drift.... a lot of frayed tempers

yes, I know where Bristol is of course ... I see you're getting closer to "Gods land", Wales, lol, good stuff..... you're nearly there... almost

cheers

Ceri

depends what you think is cheap... I find food shopping is a lot more expensive here. And as for property, I think you'll find that it is booming... the houses in my area went through the roof in a year (North Brisbane/Redcliffe)... which is a lot cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne). Take for instance, a year back I was looking at second hand homes, 3 to 4 bedroom, brick... trhey were around 150.. to 170 for a sort of decent home (15 year old homes) . Those same houses now are being sold at 260, 280... all within a year. They are now getting really stupid ... I looked at some others a year back , now these were wood/old/needing work done to them... but only 2 streets away from the water, they were 150, 160... now believe it or not , they are selling for 340 and above, that's hell of a rise... people wanting to live near the water.
So when your children grow up, don't expect housing to be cheap here, unless the market crashes... but house prices in Australia have been rising/booming. These prices may seem cheap to you, but remember I'm in Brisbane, which is cheaper than Sydney... we are getting a lot of people moving this way.. as they can get more house for the same amount of money they spent on a house in Sydney.

Also, if you're thinking of building... watch out for home and land packages... I found it cheaper to buy my own land first, (it was an existing plot among an established street) then build. In my opinion 600 is not a large plot of land to put a big 4 bedroom house on, unless it's a small 4 bdm, you won't be left with much of a garden. My land is 900, which when my house is built, still in my opinion leaves a small garden. Check your prices first. Also if you buy a completed house and land.. you pay stamp duty on the whole . But if you buy house and land, you've got build the house in other words... you only pay stamp duty on the land, and not the building.

cheers

pommie bastard

Perth drugs never?


Dealer talks of police green light


A PROTECTED witness who described herself as one of Kalgoorlie's top 10 mid-level amphetamine dealers claims it was common knowledge that rogue detectives "greenlighted" certain drug dealers in the late 1990s.

The woman, known as C5, told the police royal commission yesterday that in 1998 Det-Sgt Silvio Cinquina tried to extort $1000 a week from her as protection money. Another time, Sgt Cinquina tipped C5 off about an impending police raid on her Kalgoorlie home.

C5 claimed Sgt Cinquina also offered to set her up as an ecstasy dealer by supplying her with 100 tablets a week for six months.

Herman

I am very familiar with Wales and we have always spent a hell of a lot of our free time walking, hiking and surfing (Gower) in Wales. Not so much traffic on the M5 as heads south to Cornwall and equally as pretty. I have even considered living in Wales before as house prices are much more appetising than on the other side of the Severn plus there is so much gorgeous countryside there (real countryside, not 'bush', i.e. scrubland!). We are also buying a block of woodland in Wales when we get back - you can buy a 5 to 10 acre block of Welsh woodland on which you can camp in the summer and merrily roam all year round for about 15,000 pounds. I'm sure that would surprise all the people who claim there's no land in the UK and its a tiny cramped Island with no space to roam.

pommie bastard

You are a worry the good people on this forum wil be on your case I am sure too many good things about the UK on your post.
I lived in Tenby for 2 years and loved it , Wales has a good feel about it , a lot of the good people on this forum get lost outside there own backyard and know little of the rest of UK.

Ceri

ever walked out to Burry Holmes? (Gower) ...Ah I'm jealous!!! , or rhosilli? (buying land in Wales)... you b*st*d!!!
Seriously I have not seen anything in Australia yet that matches Gower.

I wish you luck... you lucky b*st*d!!! ...

cheers

laurash

Ceri- we want to hear the truth no matter how unpalatable for some people. Can you list why you don't like it- promise to listen !! We're having severe second thought at the moment and I want to hear from someone who is there.