Moving to Perth

[trappedInYorkshire]

Hi,

I'm a long time lurker on MN, 1st time posting as hoping to get some advice if anyone can help me. We're a family of 4, 2 boys 3 and 5, and have just started the application process for moving to Perth. Probably looking at about a year till we can move, but been loving looking at various suburbs and also trying to work out a budget to see how much we'd need to save, is there anyone who could help with advice on suburbs and working out costs for moving?

Any help would be much appreciated if anyone's based over there.

Thanks

Perth is a vast place. Where will you be working? Give me that and I can advise on suburbs.

A reasonable rental will be $400 plus per week. YOu need to factor in that you may need to pay 6 months rent upfront.

Are you shipping personal belongings?

Basically, ever penny! We spent a fortune.

We both work in IT, so from what we've seen most jobs seem to be Perth CBD or Osborne Park but unless we get lucky then we'll be coming out and looking for work. From what we'd seen we were initially thinking around Lake Joondaloop, maybe Craigie / Wanneroo looked reasonable (well reasonable now we've adjusted to how expensive it is!).

Yes, we will be shipping personal stuff, that was another question, we do own our house at moment, but a lot of things are 4 - 5 years old, so weren't planning on bringing fridges etc, but then have heard these things are much more expensive, is it worth buying new and shipping over?

I think we're realising going to be a fortune! Aiming to try and save about £20,000 and hope that will last us till we find work, that seem reasonable?

On plus side, pay seems better for our work than here and quite a lot of it about.

One more question, do schools tend to offer breakfast clubs / after school clubs?

How long have you been over? Glad you made the move? I've wanted to move for last 8 years, so feeling v excited we've finally started.

Thanks for getting back to me.

I wouldn't stay in Wanneroo. There are nice bits I am sure but it isn't for me. Joondalup is nice and right on the train line into the city. When we lived in Perth we lived in Woodvale and Kinglsey. Good areas with good schools and commuting into the city was quick and cheap.

You need to be careful about buying new and then shipping. Your personal belongings for AQIS must be over a year old or you can be taxed. I don't know anyone who has - they are more trying to catch out people importing lots of products. If you do buy new and ship make sure you don't send in the new packaging and your things look used. Just be careful.

Buying appliances is expensive here but for furiture/starting again there is always Ikea and Fantstic Furniture if you want new stuff. Work it out. Get quotes for shipping. Our 20ft container cost about £4,800 plus insurance. You also need to add on flights, 6 months rent, buying new car(s). For prices on appliances have a look at Harvey Norman. You can do deals when you are here, especially if buying lots of applainces etc but it will give you a rough idea of costs.

Food is expensive but you don't have an equivalent of council tax as that is the responsibility of the landlord. Utilites are expensive too. Have a look at the bigpond website for current deals on tv, phone and internet. There is only one gas and one electricity company for perth.

Thanks again, that's very helpful info. Hadn't expected shipping to be quite as expensive as that to be honest, don't think the contents of our house are even worth that any more so may work out easier to just buy over there. Will do some digging and look at those websites you've mentioned.

no worries.

Yup, and insurance for us was about 15% of our inventoried value. (Cost another 1500 pounds -eeek)

I'm over in QLD so can't help on Perth exactly, but we have been surprised at the cost of living over here (on a 2 year contract with DH's work). You can get an idea of food by looking at the Coles website. Use my postcode if you like - 4061.

Our rent is scary. Over $900 a week (sits down rapidly). LAFHA helps, but if you are going over for PR you won't be eligible for that.

This is the Ikea website for WA. Some things are comparative - others are way more.

Clothes are expensive too. As a direct comparison this is the AustralianvPumpkin Patch website and here is the UK version. I would say lots of prices are bizarre. A pair of sunglasses that has the UK pricetag of 5pounds will have a Australian pricetag of $15.99.

It's lovely here. But I am looking forward to going back to the UK.

If you do ship, sor the insurance yourself. The name fails me but google shipping insurance, Liverpool. There is a firm there who do it at a fraction of the price of the packing company.

We've moved back to the UK now. Buggering Australian Immigration. Miss it dreadfully.

Mm, the more I look at definitely think we're best selling everything here and starting again when we get there. We were out in Sydney last year, my brother and his wife live there, so we were aware that everything seems to have become so pricey from when I've been in the past but budget for getting visas sorted and getting ourselves out there keeps going up and up and I'd definitely underestimated some of the costs.

$900 a week is a bit scary for rent! Have to say, we have tiny mortage here so think renting will be a shock for us, but we have seen some nice houses to buy in our price range once we're settled.

Hopefully will be worth it in the end, salaries for our line of work do look to be about 2 to 2.5 times what we currently earn here, which is what we'd heard you'd need to have equivelent lifestyle, just have to hope we manage to get jobs quickly as otherwise think we'll burn through our savings.

Thanks again for tips, appreciate it.

You can still send personal stuff though. Either as airfreight or by shipping depending on what you need to send.