Biggest issues to consider - emigration UK to Australia?
Discussion
Hi,
I may have the chance of a job offer in Australia in the next few months.
Just wondering if anyone who has already been through the process of moving over there has any advice for someone middle aged with a young family feeling they need to make a life change?
I already know my wife would easily get a new job with almost double her current salary in heathcare, with less responsiblites.
I have had a quick initial look into property prices and where the job is based the property prices are considerable higher than a large portion of the UK for similar porperties.
Salary has not yet been negotiated, anyone know roughly how salaries compare to equivilent Uk jobs in the Construction sector?
What is schooling like?
Crime levels ?
Anyone know anything about personal healthcare?
How are the Brits treated/accepted by Australian retail or contract clients?
Sorry for rambling... in a hurry to leave for work and have so many questions, with so little time this week!
I may have the chance of a job offer in Australia in the next few months.
Just wondering if anyone who has already been through the process of moving over there has any advice for someone middle aged with a young family feeling they need to make a life change?
I already know my wife would easily get a new job with almost double her current salary in heathcare, with less responsiblites.
I have had a quick initial look into property prices and where the job is based the property prices are considerable higher than a large portion of the UK for similar porperties.
Salary has not yet been negotiated, anyone know roughly how salaries compare to equivilent Uk jobs in the Construction sector?
What is schooling like?
Crime levels ?
Anyone know anything about personal healthcare?
How are the Brits treated/accepted by Australian retail or contract clients?
Sorry for rambling... in a hurry to leave for work and have so many questions, with so little time this week!
The answers to your questions depends greatly on where you want to settle in Aust. Sydney being the most expensive city to move to. Your salary will need to be high. I suspect if you are a family renting a 2-3 bdr unit/flat with less than 1 hour commute to the CBD then you will need to earn at least $100K before tax and around $70k after tax. Rent is more than $600/week for nothing special and not in the CBD. If you have children and you're not coming in on a PR visa then each kid will cost you around $6K for school a year at a 'local' school. Usually the schools here are OK to Good. The best schools are selective schools then private schools then public schools. You'll need health insurance around $3K+ for a very basic cover.
The real difference with budget for different cities differs mainly around rent/mortgage otherwise general expenses are very much the same everywhere. If you're used to London prices then Aust is OK for you. But if you're not used to London prices then you'll find Australia stupidly expensive.
What do you mean Personal heathcare? Do you mean personal carer (not qualified) or a doctor/nurse (qualified)? Makes a huge difference. Personal carers you are looking at around $20 to $25 per hour. Nurses are paid ok here and doctors are paid very very well here after qualifying again.
I work in IT and there are 6 Brits in my team with 10 Indians. Everyone get on well. There is no problem generally fitting in as most work place are very multicultural.
The real difference with budget for different cities differs mainly around rent/mortgage otherwise general expenses are very much the same everywhere. If you're used to London prices then Aust is OK for you. But if you're not used to London prices then you'll find Australia stupidly expensive.
What do you mean Personal heathcare? Do you mean personal carer (not qualified) or a doctor/nurse (qualified)? Makes a huge difference. Personal carers you are looking at around $20 to $25 per hour. Nurses are paid ok here and doctors are paid very very well here after qualifying again.
I work in IT and there are 6 Brits in my team with 10 Indians. Everyone get on well. There is no problem generally fitting in as most work place are very multicultural.
Try Seek.com.au for jobs for your wife. It'll give you an idea of wages etc.
Try realestate.com.au and domain.com.au for property sales and rental. Buying apartments in Sydney is a problem atm. Banks are strict on lending to apartments in some areas. A 2bdr Apartment within 5 to 10km from Sydney CBD is going for around $900K.
Try carsales.com.au for buying cars. Petrol atm in Sydney is $1.40/L. Car registration is around $1100/yr including CTP cover. Try bingle.com.au for comprehensive car insurance but you're looking at $1000/year depending on the car and you not likely to get your UK no claim bonus counted here.
Try coles.com.au and woolworths.com.au the main 2 supermarket here for groceries (Aldi is in Aust as well)
Where about in Sydney will your work be?
Try realestate.com.au and domain.com.au for property sales and rental. Buying apartments in Sydney is a problem atm. Banks are strict on lending to apartments in some areas. A 2bdr Apartment within 5 to 10km from Sydney CBD is going for around $900K.
Try carsales.com.au for buying cars. Petrol atm in Sydney is $1.40/L. Car registration is around $1100/yr including CTP cover. Try bingle.com.au for comprehensive car insurance but you're looking at $1000/year depending on the car and you not likely to get your UK no claim bonus counted here.
Try coles.com.au and woolworths.com.au the main 2 supermarket here for groceries (Aldi is in Aust as well)
Where about in Sydney will your work be?
We live up on the Central Coast. It seems like a lot of people are moving up to the coast and driving or taking the train down to the city to work. Its doable but it also depends on how much of a commute you want each day. House prices down in Sydney are high and they are getting higher on the Central Coast as more and more people are moving up this way.
Have a look on realestate and domain. There is a lot of places on the Central Cost like Woy Woy, Umina, Gosford etc which are close to the train line. It takes around 1 hour 30 mins to get in to Central Station. We took a trip over to Sydney before we moved from the UK and explored the Central Coast and it worked for us. We don't need to go to the city for work so that helps but its also easy to go down to Sydney if we need to.
Have a look on realestate and domain. There is a lot of places on the Central Cost like Woy Woy, Umina, Gosford etc which are close to the train line. It takes around 1 hour 30 mins to get in to Central Station. We took a trip over to Sydney before we moved from the UK and explored the Central Coast and it worked for us. We don't need to go to the city for work so that helps but its also easy to go down to Sydney if we need to.
hedgefinder said:
I think the main issue is looking like Salary to house price ratio.. but we will see I suppose!
The banks don't care. If you've got a pay slip and a pulse they'll lend you whatever you want - that is why the market here is screwed.A few years' ago I put our salaries in to the bank website, along with outgoings: the amount they were happy to lend us was terrifying, something like 8 times our combined salary.
well, I think its all for nothing anyway...
Had a 3 way Skype meeting (people in 3 different areas of Australia)scheduled for this morning with the company MD and a couple of other people - didnt even get a request to share contact info until 5 mins after the scheduled appointment time, so I sent the area manager a Skype message immediately to let him know that no one had called me or requested to share contact info apart from him(to which I recieved no reply)then sat like a pillock for an hour.
I did email him half an hour after the meeting time asking if he would like to reschedule the meeting and he replied that they had been sitting waiting to talk to me at the scheduled time!
NO attempted or missed calls on Skype.......... and his Skype was set to AWAY and didnt answer any calls for the whole period.....
A little annoyed that I have wasted a day on this now!
Had a 3 way Skype meeting (people in 3 different areas of Australia)scheduled for this morning with the company MD and a couple of other people - didnt even get a request to share contact info until 5 mins after the scheduled appointment time, so I sent the area manager a Skype message immediately to let him know that no one had called me or requested to share contact info apart from him(to which I recieved no reply)then sat like a pillock for an hour.
I did email him half an hour after the meeting time asking if he would like to reschedule the meeting and he replied that they had been sitting waiting to talk to me at the scheduled time!
NO attempted or missed calls on Skype.......... and his Skype was set to AWAY and didnt answer any calls for the whole period.....
A little annoyed that I have wasted a day on this now!
Edited by hedgefinder on Wednesday 25th January 13:31
Sorry, haven't popped in here for a while, and have just seen this.
Awfully unprofessional of them to ignore your calls.
We moved from Surrey to Adelaide as a family with two young kids - if you need anything further on what we experienced, shipping cars and all, just give me a shout.
Awfully unprofessional of them to ignore your calls.
We moved from Surrey to Adelaide as a family with two young kids - if you need anything further on what we experienced, shipping cars and all, just give me a shout.
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