To think the families on Wanted Down Under are a bit spoilt/delusional?

[Hatchinganegg]

Almost every episode involves a family with pretty average jobs living in your average 3 bedroom semi detached. They go to Australia and turn their noses up at massive houses because they don't have pools and walk in wardrobes. Or they're 10 minutes from the beach rather than right across the road

They never seem to want to start off a few rungs down from their eventual goal, it all has to happen right away.

They all want identikit houses too- those shiny kitchens and acres of cream carpet. I'd like to see one where the family was after something a little different personally!

You can't access really lovely bedding or soft furnishings for example and a lot of people just don't care

Really?

People build a house and then live with the same, dated tiles for 40 years! It's a weird part of living here that I havent got over. I've got used to it but only because I live now in a house which isn'tas bad because it was built in the 20s and has a lot of original features

So how are your original features different from their "dated tiles"?

It's as annoying as the people on Escape to the Country where Mabel and Gerry want to downsize their 6 bed family home now the kids have flown the nest. They go on EttC after 3 years and 200 houses and it becomes abundantly clear that they want to 'downsize' to a 5 bed house in a quiet village with lots of amenities.

Oh, and the house must - of course - have enough space in the kitchen for 'entertaining'.

My daughter (who has moved out to Australia, Melbourne) has been told that she can't buy a house unless she takes Australian citizenship. They currently rent because they are not sure they want to take that step. While the Australian Gov have no restrictions on temp visa holders buying property, it is up to individual banks/lenders as to whether they will loan the money to temp visa holders. As temporary residents you also do not get any home-buyer benefits/incentives. Add to that, the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) will need to approve certain purchases by temporary visa holders. And I believe that under most circumstances you HAVE to sell it once you stop living in it, so no option for renting it out, or having a "holiday home"

We looked in to buying when we first came over, and were told 2 years on a full time wage (by three separate institutions) before the banks would even consider us. And that is only if we were permanent residents (we always were). So no, it's not easy but also not impossible if you can find a bank etc to loan to you.

Anyone who moves away from family with whom they are close is an idiot doing a disservice to their children. Those connections are really important. They will regret it one day. Nice ... I don't consider that I have done a disservice to my child. (she was three when we arrived here) Yes, she was upset, but she is now a thriving mid teen and loves her life here, so please be careful who you call an idiot!

You can't access really lovely bedding or soft furnishings for example and a lot of people just don't care. Really... I don't have that problem.

Echt yes really! Without a big budget I'm faced with mixed fibre shite from Kmart.

And 1980s tiles with brown floral designs on them are not comparible to original 1920s ones.

Where do you buy your bedding and soft furnishings Echt?

Regards the bedding and furnishings... there doesn't seem to be a middle ground for buying. It is either cheap shit from Kmart or target or higher end stuff at 5 times the price. Same with a lot of stuff.

I moved to Aus 7 years ago. It was difficult. I came out with my 10 yo DS and 6m old DD. We have since had 2 more DD and we are very happy. I miss my family (DH family are here in Aus but are arseholes so we don't talk) but won't be going back to the UK for the foreseeable future. I have not done a disservice to any of my children by living here.

The expectations of the people on these shows are ridiculous. We still can't afford to buy a house but that no longer matters as we are now a defense family so we get cheap accommodation.

I love my life here.

Eh? There are loads of places for soft furnishings beyond Kmart.

Bed Bath and Table? Freedom? Myer or DJs? Matt Blatt?

But I do agree that interior update work in Australia is more done as part of a major renovation. Reading the Property DIY thread on here, I'm amazed at how often people get their walls replastered or painted! We've never repainted a rental house, or even a house we've bought.

I find them ugly in the main and expensive...Myer is a prime example. Way overpriced for the quality.

It's a minor issue though! I love Australia...genuinely love it. I'm glad we came and can't see me going back either.

Brit living in Queensland here.
There are crazy cheap places (and I'm talking 3 bed 2 bath with a pool within a few mins of the beach for $350k aud) I know because I live in one (central Queensland, rural. Town population plus neighbouring town population is less than 1500) but people wanting to save cash can't hack the lifestyle, often, when it comes to living so rurally and it's not that bad by Aussie standards, there are some places particularly far north and in NT where you can be 6 hours away from the nearest group of people of any kind - it's not like that here). In most places that just isn't possible.
I know someone down in Clinton, Gladstone, renting a 5 bed for $110 a week (approx £60pw) check realestate.com.au for prices if you don't believe me. Some of the houses are seriously cheap (and they go even cheaper if letting/ estate agents aren't involved) to rent or buy. But Clinton isn't exactly a hotspot for expats.

it's no different in the UK.
My sister just bought a flat in abertillery South Wales for £13,000 outright. In reasonably habitable condition - no structural issue/mold etc kitchen cabinets are worn and it seriously needs redecorating but it's otherwise fine and she's living there now while she gives it a lick of paint etc. I'd bet my house on that not buying you a garage in parts of London or even Cardiff!

Some people are much better off here, we are, for example (salaries were previously £20k a year and 40k a year gbp, we now have 78,000aud and 120k aud per year and our living costs aren't that much more as we live in a rural area but we do have to run a 2nd car now swings and roundabouts) but for others their roles will only be easily found in the bigger cities. Sydney much like London is eye watering and parts of Brisbane are becoming the same now. I lived on the Northside for the first 6 months we were here. So unless you're worth 4x as much in the UK again you'll struggle unless you had an over average income anyway.

TLDR:
Parts of Australia are very cheap. But you probably don't want to live there.
Parts of Australia are very expensive and I dare say anybody with kids earning less than 200kaud a year in Sydney is going to have to be pretty darn frugal unless you have some kind of free housing (from family or an inheritance). Housing is a real killer and landlords often leave the "rent" box blank on an application because they expect you to offer more. I know someone who viewed a unit in Sydney that was up for $600aud per week the person who got it got it by offering $850aud per week. That's just crazy money to me ($800aud per week is about one minimum wage income; depending on your award rate)

Another thing is holidaying to decide whether or not you want to live somewhere. I might be biased here as we did come out for a couple weeks beforehand (to view rentals and get some things in order like a westpac account opened etc) but we weren't going swimming with dolphins or getting drunk on the beach we were enrolling in Medicare, double and triple checking we had everything sorted. Got our home sorted and checked out a few furniture places etc. we had young dc we didn't want them to be around while we did all that after such a horrible trip (I hate flying and so do they).
I'd really recommend you avoid going there for a fun holiday if you plan to move there. It'll give you rose tinted specs.

And 1980s tiles with brown floral designs on them are not comparible to original 1920s ones Well, yes they are. The point I was making was that your prefer older dated things (20s) to more recent ones. One is not intrinsically "better" than the other, and both are dated.

Bedding - IKEA
Soft furnishings - re-upholstered dining chairs with fabric from Spotlight. Ditto curtains. Op shops are good, and it's where I've bought coffee tables and sofas. Sunday markets are good for odd lengths of fabric. I don't update my soft furnishings, I wait for them to wear out, which probably helps.

Oh, and nature strips are excellent for outdoor settings, which are usually updated before Christmas, and often serviceable stuff put out for hard rubbish.

People massively underestimate the adjustments required as Oz is NOT the Uk with sunshine. Don’t be fooled by the flag - Aus is a foreign country has its own way of doing things and immigrants have to fit in. Sounds easy and the culture is similar but for those thinking it’s easy peasy to do, it’s really not. Arriving off the plane is where it starts and can take a couple of years of adjustment to living in another country with its own rhythm of life and traditions. If you’re the sort of woman who sees their mother every day and lives close by most relatives in an area of the Uk you’ve grown up in, but feel bored and the need to explore, I would try other areas of the UK before Aus. You will feel the family wrench enormously at unexpected times if you move to the other side of the world. You will have to deal and harden yourself against family events missed, absent old friends ( new friends will NOT be the same) and possibly not even being able to get back for sudden close family illnesses , deaths or weddings. Unless you have a lot of money (and time ) going back to the uk every year won’t happen but you may still feel the pull. Unless family members have money, and time, they won’t visit you ( and may not even if they do, as some will think it’s “too far” - despite you going back and forth on visits. You’ll feel guilty about going on holiday for a couple of weeks with your own family and not using that precious time to visit family in the UK instead and maybe slightly resentful that you can never just have a couple of weeks to yourselves in Spain again without pressure to “pop in” to the UK. When you do go back and try and meet people, you’ll find some can’t be bothered for a mid week meet up across town despite notice as somethings come up and it’s too far and childcare - despite you having flown 12,000 miles to be around the corner from them. You probably didn’t think when you emigrated you would feel pressure (real or imagined) to spend all your summer holidays for the rest of your life visiting the UK - many people do feel this to a greater or lesser degree. We try to strike a balance and are lucky at the moment with finances but these dilemmas are a reality for many migrants and they struggle with it. Having emigrated, the bonds to your original country alter in all kinds of unanticipated ways. These are all kinds of things that are never deeply discussed on WDU or by most “lifestyle” migrants but they are a part of being an uk immigrant in another country - all need to be considered and come to terms with before you move in my opinion but are hard to foresee for obvious reasons. It can take ages and much heartache, loneliness and stress before you really settle.

Completely agree with all you've said @juliesaway, that's certainly been very similar to my experience in the last nine years of living in NZ. I think lots of people move to the other side of the world, or at least consider doing it, for the wrong reasons. My husband is a Kiwi, but he'd been living in the UK for over 15 years when we made the move and even he found it hard and not in ways that he expected.
If you're moving for a 'better life' I think you're better off trying to fix the life you already have. There are advantages to making the move, but the lifestyle dream that's often promoted by people on TV shows like that, isn't real.

Me and DP laugh like drains at ' enough space for entertaining'. What's wrong with saying I want a massive kitchen.

Being fat and/or having a tattoo seems to be a prerequisite for being on the show.

It annoys the pants off me.
Yes, what they want is usually well out of their price bracket.
Even in our semi--rural town, sort of mid way between 2 cities in NSW, house prices average at AU$500,000+ for a 3 bedroom house. YES they do look spacious, don't they, but most of them are single storey. Lack of wall space makes it trickier than you'd think for placing cupboards/bookcases for storage and so on.
There's a lot of new development going on near us at the moment, and I've been able to visit a couple of those new homes. Big open plan white/pale spaces, not much in the way of storage space but worst of all, almost no land around them. Not great for children - no play space!

And not great for neighbour noise either - just because they're all detached doesn't make them sound proof.

We're not far from a lake, and probably about 20 mins from the nearest beach - but we don't go there much in the summer because it's too fecking hot! (pale Brit types with easy-burn skin and a tendency to heat exhaustion).

Food is expensive (much of it) and the prices of fresh produce vary enormously, seasonally and for supply reasons, far more than in the UK.
Everything really depends on the exchange rate as to how much more/less expensive it is - but even taking that into account I'd say that food was more in Australia. Fuel is cheaper. Rail travel is cheaper. Think that's about it!

Sweetpea55 some of the people on these shoes don’t look like they could provide any entertainment for anyone they’re as dull as ditchwater and have very little imagination or conversation 😂

We live 5 min drive from a beach but I haven’t spent any time there this summer yet and haven’t been swimming in the sea since last April. We also haven’t used our BBQ at home for over a year as prefer to cook in a kitchen like most people. Don’t really care! Things that may surprise some people! When it’s all immediately available you get used to it. Do love living near water but yes you can do it in the UK too! Hell of a lot easier to get around. When we have visitors from the UK they tend to moan about having to spend an hour or so to get out of town to the “countryside”, wine areas etc. No dear , travelling to the countryside in Australia is not like your afternoon tea in the Cotswolds. Things take time to get to and every “attraction” is not 5 mins from home. I even had guests that expressed surprised that I wore business clothing to work in the city. I think they thought I would be going to work in my professional job in flip flops shorts and a t shirt. Other relatives have said “oooh, living in Oz. It must be like being on holiday all the time”. These perceptions are really very interesting and I suppose it’s a lovely form of escapism for Brits looking out of the window at the rain. The Uk is a fabulous country, so is Oz. I’m lucky enough to love both. But reality also bites in both places 😂

I've had the same comments.
I live in a cyclone prone region. Had a horrific storm last week. One of my neighbours lost their roof!
But every time I chat with a friend back home.
"Ooh I bet the weathers lovely there"
"You're so lucky to live in such an amazing place! Must be like being on holiday!".
🙃
Have to agree with seasonal price variations too.
Strawberries have been as low as $1.99 for half a kilo in my local market, but also as high as $7.80 for half a kilo!
Cyclones and extreme weather can also decimate crops. The flooding in Bundaberg, for example, can have a huge impact across parts of qld. At one point bananas were $15.99/kilo after severe weather decimated the crops...

You do have to use your noggin though.
I spend about $140 a week on myself, Dh + 2 dc for food. $350 a month in the big grocery store (it's a monthly trip as it's so far) and $40-$55 a week in the small local fresh fruit+veg market for the fresh stuff.
In the uk it was about £45 a week (but youngest dc was a breastfed baby in cloth nappies so added little expense to the bill.
However I have seen loads of threads in expat groups on fb and other forums where people are spending $450+ a week on their family of four or $300 a week and they're a couple etc.
people just don't realize that eating out of season is what causes the price difference, I prefer to work around what's cheap and in season because it means we get a variety and save money but if you're insistent on eating out of season I can really see how people spend $500 a week...

I agree with julieaway having lived the expat lifestyle for 9 years. A lot closer to home. Despite cheap flights, not many people could be arsed to come over. Yet expected us to go and see them. Ditto dh’s family. He’s French.

Since we’ve been together, one, other or both of us at have been expats having lived for periods of time in his country, mine and surrounding countries. Most of his family - apart from his father - couldn’t be arsed to come and see us when we lived an hours drive away from them for 3 years let alone further afield. They came once because we laid on a party for them all. That’s it. They don’t even bother to call on us when we visit his fathers house, we are still expected to do the running around to their individual homes. Very small village mentality. No one moved away.

We have now given up on a lot of them. They didn’t bother about congratulations us after dds birth for example. His father no longer comes over. The guilt to go and see him during holidays is pretty massive. Last year we went twice. The second time I put my foot down and stayed nearby, not with him. I am chronically ill and have less energy than my 80 yo fil so the travelling is a massive strain on me and can take months to recover from.

Thumbwitches, I know what you mean about relative lack of wall space. Every room in my house has one wall a window, to the floor, so one wall less for a cupboard. The upside is the chap who built, then renovated the house put in tons of other storage space, so I have no complaints.

Julies, the drive to get to fab places has worked well so far, and my brother was astounded at how quickly we could get to the Dandenongs. As long as nothing involves a hack across Melbourne, you can get to lovely places fairly easily, although now I think of it, the quick ways are toll roads.

Merry, I'd always wondered how people spent so much. We very quickly changed to seasonal produce and now it seems perfectly natural. I do remember the banana-less year after the cyclones, though. No big deal, don't eat them if they're too expensive. There is always out of season US fruit but I don't buy it. It's quite exciting when the stone fruit season approaches; mangoes have been particularly good this year.

MerryShitmas: I couldn't agree with you more about prices.

A couple of months ago, on an earlier thread, I made the comment about buying only Australian grown stuff in season to avoid price fluctuations on fresh food (with the added advantage of getting food in peak condition), and someone responded that
a) most fresh food sold, particularly in Woolies and Coles, is from cold storage, and
b) that no one actually specifically buys in season food.

This certainly hasn't been my experience or practice. I have only ever heard of one person I know spending $12.99/k for bananas after a tropical storm - and that was because she was having a vegan dinner party and couldn't be bothered to think of a different main course.

.

I grew up watching westerns on TV in the east midlands. I dreamed of riding the range, but had to settle for my pony on bridle paths. One day, when I was 19, I bought a one way ticket to the U.S. (I’d had two holidays there prior)

It took 10 years of hard work, first living on the east coast then moving to a western state, but I got my ranch and I did ride the fence line and herd my cattle - all the time singing the theme to ‘Rawhide’. lol.

People don’t understand how hard you have to work to make your dreams come true. They want it all now.

My stepson and his girlfriend have just moved to Australia, we are going out for a month later in the year, maybe we should just have applied to Wanted Down Under and got free flights