To leave Australia and move back to the UK

[nameisnotimportant]

We have a great life here in Aus. Great lifestyle and secure jobs with great friends.

However we miss family so much, especially since having kids. Life in the U.K. would be a lot more secure in terms of buying a house and being able to bring up our kids in one area.

Pros of moving back to the U.K.

1. We could afford to buy a decent sized house in a nice area with a low mortgage. In aus, we will have to rent forever because house prices are absolutely ridiculous and finding a three bedroom in the area we want, would be near impossible. We would also have to stay in an apartment which isn't ideal with children.
2. We would be near family, wouldn't miss all the events like birthdays, weddings. Would have help with childcare and could actually have a date night once in a while.
3. Our holidays wouldn't have to be spent visiting family and would save us a lot of money.

Cons

1. We have a great group of friends in Aus and don't really have this in the Uk, so would have to basically start again in terms of making friends.
2. We would have the uncertainty of having to find new jobs and risk not liking them etc.
3. The U.K. weather, more so how long winter is because we actually don't mind the rain and are kind of sick of living in the sun.

4 Healthcare is better in Aus, we have private health insurance and get quicker access to services as the health system is generally not as strained.

So what do you think we should do. Should we move or stay put ?

Good lord, I'm a remainer and some of these comments are even making me roll my eyes. The UK isn't some grim, vast wasteland now

It'll take a while to make plans and sort jobs and stuff, but otherwise why not. I'd certainly plan and go for it OP.

Are you moving back op? At this rate brexit will never happen.

If you like rain but not snow you could move to Tasmania.

How old are the children? UK schools are currently chronically underfunded.

Hi OP

Do you know for sure you'd have help with childcare? I have read a few threads on here where people move nearer family as their family have offered help and it never materialises.

Are your friends Australian or ex pat British? Do you have any idea of their long term plans? I know a few people who have moved to Australia for a few years but a lot of the English friends they made ended up moving back

What would your long term plans be if you stayed eg woukd your pensions cover the cost of renting when you retire?

All public services in the UK are suffering it's not just healthcare, eg education budgets have been slashed, crime has increased as the spending on police and the CPS is a fraction of what it used to be etc. You might see quite a change from when you lived here before

@AmIRightOrAMeringue
Yes we will definitely have the childcare. My mum has offered one day a week, which she also does for my sister. Obviously things can change, people get sick etc, we could manage without it but it's nice to think we could save a bit of money on the childcare, especially with two kids.
We have visited pretty much yearly since being away, so we are aware of the current state of the U.K. which we still consider to be a great country. Our main pull is to be near family. A lot of our friends here are also British, so I am worried that if we stayed here in Aus they would eventually also start to move home and we would lose that support network. We have a pretty good super here but it would no way be enough to afford to rent (in the areas we like) into our old age, so the prospect of owning a house in the U.K. is a big factor in pushing us to move back.

It sounds to me like your head is saying Aus, but your heart is very much here
Come back, OP!

I would say come back

Nobody is REALLY sure how brexit will effect the UK so I feel like if your heart and head is telling you to come back then do just that.

Like you said you can always go back to AUS if you decided the UK wasn’t for you anymore and at least you know you have tried it and your sure you want to stay in AUS.

I have to ask though;

• Do you have family in AUS and so you guys relocated or was it for work ?
• Did you find it easy finding work ?
• Do you find wages are better or worst that in the UK ?
• How expensive is childcare ?
• I always assumed house prices were cheaper in AUS or even if pricing was similar you got ALOT more for your money.
• How diverse would you say Sydney is ?

Sorry to bombard you OP abut I have thought about relocating for a year or so and AUS has popped into my mind but I’ve heard it’s difficault to get a visa and such so I love hearing how people from the UK have gone about it.

What do you both actually do for work?
I’m an expat in Australia and I’ve found a lot of middle of the range sorts of jobs are so much better paid in Australia compared to the UK. My friends who have moved to Sydney did so for banking/finance jobs that may not be as easily available in the north of the UK. Are there many jobs in your industry where you come from?

@CTRL

I have to ask though;

• Do you have family in AUS and so you guys relocated or was it for work ?
• Did you find it easy finding work ?
• Do you find wages are better or worst that in the UK ?
• How expensive is childcare ?
• I always assumed house prices were cheaper in AUS or even if pricing was similar you got ALOT more for your money.
• How diverse would you say Sydney is ?

We don't have any family in Australia, we moved out when we were young, mostly to work and travel etc and then just ended up staying. We do have a great group of friends here though.
Our wages are more here but the cost of living is a lot higher too, so taking our savings back to the U.K. they will go a lot further in regards to buying property and we would definitely be better off financially back in the U.K.

Childcare is expensive but we get a rebate from the government, since we are citizens. I think it's similar in cost to the U.K. once you qualify for the free hours.
I think it's a bit of a rumour that house prices are cheaper here. You definitely get more house for your money in areas like Brisbane, Tasmania but we are in Sydney and would be looking at paying at least a million for a 2 bed house within an hour of the city and our mortgage would be massive. We could potentially move to somewhere like Brisbane but we just don't want to start all over again with friends etc and I just couldn't live in the heat of Brisbane. We could go somewhere cooler like Tasmania but it just feels like it is so remote, it's not really the place for us.

Don’t underestimate what you just said about having British friends - all my closest friends here (US) are European, every year one of them has moved home and now I’m finding myself with no close friends any more....

Used to be that house prices were cheaper in some parts of OZ ,but not any longer .Only have to watch Wanted Down Under to realize that .(dont think they even do any in Sydney BTW)!

Don’t underestimate what you just said about having British friends - all my closest friends here (US) are European, every year one of them has moved home and now I’m finding myself with no close friends any more....

We've found that everywhere we've lived. In London I had a lot of Australian friends - now I have none because they've all gone home. In the US I had some British friends and they all went home. People do go home, particularly in the 5 years after having their first DC and if that doesn't drive them home then elderly parents usually do.

@nameisnotimportant your family has citizenship ( like my dp and kids) you could move back to the uk and see how it goes. You could Go back to Australia if it doesn't work out.

I understand what you mean about the pull of Family and as we are getting older (mid forties) more and more of our friends are moving home to be closer to their aging parents.

However, my dad made me promise that we would never move back to the UK while the kids were young because there just aren't the opportunities there, schooling and most other public services are on their knees.

Granted we aren't as far away as you at all, but we still don't visit the UK very often. Once ever two years usually is enough for us. Thank goodness from FaceTime Whatsapp etc. We deserve to have our family holidays but we usually always invite grandparents to come with us.

I always assumed house prices were cheaper in AUS or even if pricing was similar you got ALOT more for your money.

I read something in the past year that indicated that house prices across the whole of Australia are on average the same as London house prices. Which was a bit astonishing. (I'm sure there are places where they are cheap, but I think the relative numbers of people living in such places are so low they don't affect the average.)