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Living overseas

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Original poster

How much do you think you'd need to earn to live "comfortably" in Australia?

51 replies

mm22bys · 27/01/2008 06:30

I'm from Brisbane, currently living in UK, but am thinking about moving back to Oz in the near future. I read today that an average mortgage of $300K would have weekly mortgage repayments of more than $500.

I reckon that is a very conservative estimate of mortage repayments given the rise in house prices over the last few years.

How much do you think you'd need to earn, before tax, to live "comfortably"?

OP posts:
ghosty · 30/01/2008 07:34

20p, further out you can get 4Bed houses for 500K but that would make DH's commute over an hour each way and we left England to escape the commute ...
So, we can just afford to rent in the areas nearer to DH's work - but if we were to buy we may just get a 2 bed unit with no garden ...
I don't think 80K is comfortable in Melbourne. It is a good income and it is doable - but I regard comfortable as having some extras too like, being able to go shopping every so often/have coffee more than 1x a week/pay for 2 activities per child/go for weekends away at least 3x a year or have a nice holiday 1x a year. I don't think 80K gives that many extras.

ghosty · 30/01/2008 08:01

for example - very lovely inside but only 3 bedrooms and no 'acreage' just a nice looking garden ...

twentypence · 30/01/2008 08:40

There isn't a suburb here that could charge a million buck for that house. It may get 600K in the posh bit of Christchurch, but it would need a 4th bedroom and a large garden to get up to a million. It does look nice though. What do you get for 2million?

ghosty · 30/01/2008 08:48

Not our suburb - very swish

twentypence · 30/01/2008 09:00

Okay now you have to show me what you'd get for 500K which is what our house is currently worth (which is ridiculous BTW, just mad property prices)

bran · 30/01/2008 09:12

Do you think Australian property prices are going to slow? I don't know how much the American credit crunch would affect you in Oz, but it looks as though house prices in Europe are going to drop a bit. I wonder if this will have a knock on effect in Oz as most immigrants there are from Europe and new immigrants might be bringing less capital with them in future than they have in the past.

ghosty · 30/01/2008 09:23

Here you go 20pence ... bit deceptive as it says it has the 'postcode' but looking at the map it is on the 'wrong side' of the suburb ...

ghosty · 30/01/2008 09:27

I don't know if property prices with slow bran ... it is so hard to tell. They are not showing signs right now. But many British people are arriving in Aus and NZ thinking they will live like kings and then having a big big shock.
We had friends come from UK to NZ on a salary of NZ$60 and had been told they could live very very comfortably on that ... it was a huge shock to them when they saw Auckland prices ...

twentypence · 30/01/2008 19:14

At least the house that was twice the price had the decency to look at least twice as nice. So it's fair.

60K in Auckland isn't going to go far unless you had so much equity in your home in the uK that you have a teeny tiny mortgage.

ghosty · 30/01/2008 20:20

That's exactly what they did twentypence ... they had planned to leave their money in England for a bit but found they couldn't even afford rent on a 2 bed unit in a half decent suburb so they brought their money over and bought a house with a small mortgage - so that they could at least have a bit of the 'lifestyle' they had been promised.
He was one of the UK policemen recruited into the NZ force 2 years ago - his colleagues that went to Wellington or Christchurch are having a ball on their 60K .. not fair really ...

mymama · 30/01/2008 21:44

One near to the suburb we live.

www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=104472348&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=3258372 6&s=qld&snf=rbs&tm=1201729238

Have friends with a $300000 mortgage, 3 kids and approx $80000 income.

They have dinner or lunch out once a week, two do a sport and music activity. They also like to drink copious amounts of wine on a weekend .

They are also heading off to Fiji for a week (they did save a while for that one).

mymama · 30/01/2008 21:47

ghosty - I guess that is why so many 'southerners' are moving to Brisbane. They say approx 1500 a month .

Lovely city, great lifestyle.

ghosty · 31/01/2008 00:06

But then, what about the creepy crawlies in Brisbane?

mymama · 31/01/2008 01:58

Are you talking about the blokes or the bugs?

My ex-Melbourne neightbours tell me there are more flies in M then here. Think we win on the mozzies and loofas though. I have my house sprayed every 6 months....no problemo

ghosty · 31/01/2008 02:03

Flies I can handle - but loofahs?

I have had two huntsmen in this house and that is as much as I can handle ...

scully · 31/01/2008 03:06

I've heard predictions that property prices will continue to rise in Brisbane in the next 12mths. There is such a shortage of houses on the market to sell or rent, that there are so many more buyers than properties. We bought our place (7yrs old, 3bed, 2bath, 620m2) for $369k in Sep, can't find anything under $400k in our general area now, with 3bed and a decent yard for the kids. So glad we got in when we did or I would have had to go back to work full time

twentypence · 31/01/2008 06:34

What is a loofah?

eidsvold · 31/01/2008 06:37

loofah is a code word for large eight legged creatures.

HarrogateMum · 31/01/2008 12:50

mymama - which area are you in in Brissie? I think if and when we get there (various issues with our move at the moment.....) I would want to be looking outer northern, e.g. Cashmere, Lawnton etc.

suzywong · 31/01/2008 12:51

hello HM
How's it all going?

HarrogateMum · 31/01/2008 19:56

hello suzy - not bad ta. THings have gone on hold re Aus plans even though I have my visa, have to validate by August so will be coming to Aus at least on holiday before then. DH has potential of a job that he says he would be a fool to pass up over here, he wont know until May so just biding my time until then and waiting to see what happens!!

mymama · 31/01/2008 22:19

HarrogateMum am in the outer northern area near where you mention. Cashmere v expensive these days though.

HarrogateMum · 01/02/2008 08:10

hi mymama - is it expensive? Is there any reason why? I mean it doesnt have a rail link or anything does it.....? Are there any other areas round there that would be cheaper and just as close to a station (thinking express train from Petrie)

eidsvold · 01/02/2008 08:48

lots of people want to live there - nearby is Joyner or even samsonvale - just as good.

mymama · 01/02/2008 21:51

Just looked at real estate pages in local rag. Cashmere - 4 bed 2 bath house on 1 acre $599000 so not as exp as I thought but getting up there.

Mango Hill is nice. It has a quick bus link to Petrie. Is quite a nice area and has a Westfield shopping centre. I think it has a large number of expats living there.