Adelaide for a joiner and his family???

[AngelEyes74]

Hi

My partner and I are hoping to emigrate to Adelaide in the next year. He is in the process of applying for a skilled trade visa and -once we have ironed out a hiccup - we should have the visa granted soon.

HOWEVER.... although we are assured there is still plently of new building going on around Adelaide, we are struggling to find job advertisements for carpenter/joiners and the ones we do find only offer the equivalent of £20,000. This means we would be looking at getting a mortgage for a property at around £120,000 upwards which we could not afford as although Adelaide is meant to have the most affordable housing, this is too much for us to pay back or maybe even borrow, especially with the extreme stamp duty and high interest rates on the mortgages over there.

I guess I am just panicking because we have spent all this time and money trying to get the visa with people telling us how much work is available over there and how affordable housing is compared to the UK (where we currently live beyond our means in a 2 bed terrace house but can't leave after dark cos it is such a rough area)and are now realising the "affordability" of housing in Oz is all relative to how much you can actually earn.

Since we will have a 1 yr old by the time we emigrate, it will be too difficult for us both to work straight away so would rely on DP's income for the first while....

Any advice? Anyone in Adelaide who could put me in my place and give me some advice to bring me to my senses one way or the other?

Thanks so much for any response....

What sort of work do you do?

Is there much call for the work that you do, as well as your dh's?
Your combined salaries could help a lot!

Hi Angeleyes, I didn't want you to go unanswered. I am in Sydney, but have some connections in Adelaide and used to go there on business a bit. In general I would say that it would be a better plan to rent for a while - maybe 6-12mths to get a handle on Adelaide and the suburbs and schools etc and also to give interest rates a chance to come down. I opened a thread recently with a link to an international housing affordability survey and it did in fact say that Adelaide is quite unaffordable - like just about every other capital city in Australia.

Re the job situation - are you looking on www.seek.com.au and www.careerone.com.au ? The main newspaper in Adelaide is the Adelaide Advertiser which is a News Ltd paper which runs the CareerOne website.

I think that in the trades word of mouth plays a big part, so the best approach might be to contact directly the appropriate companies, rather than waiting for an ad. You could also try 'temp' kind of agencies like www.Skilled.com.au and www.readyworkforce.com.au . The main thing would be for your DH to get his foot in the door and get to know the market before determining the best way to go.

I hope that helps and that an Adelaide local comes along soon.

I can't extend much on what AussieSim has said already, but I am in Adelaide & the property is quite unaffordable at present, on a single wage. An average 3 bed has gone from $180k to $250k in less than a year.

We are renting & it is way cheaper that buying. The added bonus is that any repairs needed on the property, your landlord is responsible [as long as you didn't cause the damage, of course]. We looked into buying last year, but the interest on the repayments meant that we would be paying a mortgage & not doing much else. We also calculated that we would pay back WAY more than we borrowed.

The wages are lower here than in the UK. And your dh may not be on the same level here [experience wise] as he is in the UK. It isn't unknown for professionals to have to start right at the bottom & have to prove themselves.

I don't see many jobs advertised in your dh's field, but that doesn't mean they aren't out there, it is the same with dh's job, no advertising as there aren't many people in his trade anymore, so easier to go by word of mouth.

allgonebellyup may have a solution, but be aware that childcare, un-subsidised is in excess of $100 a day, so your wages will have to cover this too.

On the visa you are applying for, I don't think you get permanent resident status, so you will not be entitled to the centrelink [company who are responsible for benefits] subsidy for childcare.

If you are not getting PR then you may be able to claim Living Away From Home tax status which will enable you to pay your rent before tax and get a bunch of other tax breaks which will give you a bit more take home pay. Go to www.ato.gov.au and search under LAFHA. Your employer needs to do the packaging, so it would be better if you found a sizable employer who had a decent payroll function. Have you checked out realestate.com.au for rentals?

Your DP could try contacting building companies direct - try Sterling Homes, Scott Salisbury Homes, Eastern Building Company, AV Jennings. Is definitely lots of building going on & apparently there is a skill shortage. You will probably have to rent to begin with, house prices in Adelaide have gone through the roof. Depends what you have to sell here if you can a decent deposit together & there is a first home buyers grant available which is worth looking into to see if you qualify.

Wow
Thanks for the response. Really helpful - I have never even heard of the Living Away From Home tax status until you mentioned it AussieSim! That would really help out.

I have worked in many office jobs and also used to be a hair stylist but back when I left school no one wanted to send you to college so I was trained in salon. That means I couldn't go down the skilled visa route myself but I suppose it is something to fall back on if there was a local salon that didn't mind my lack of paper qualifications!

Anyway, we have noticed the house prices all over Australia have shot up since we were there back in 2005 and people have this false view of getting a 4 bed house with a pool in Adelaide for £100,000!!! ALSO no one seems to realise that although you can get a house for around £100,000, the salaries in Adelaide make this relatively expensive.

I just want us to have at least the same level of existence as we have here but with added safety and better weather/lifestyle etc. As I was saying earlier, we can't really leave the house after dark where we live and our mortgage is higher than all our friends who live in better areas but bought their houses before the market went crazy!!!

Thanks again. I am off to look into the building companies listed by TallulahBelle.

Hi Angeleyes
Ex-Adelaidian here - wants to go back but can't afford it!!

DEFINATELY rent for a while, there are loads of rental properties (look on www.property.com.au/ ) this way at least you can stay for a while and have a look round and see which areas you might want to live in before you buy. There are some crappy areas in Adelaide too.

There are lots of big storage facilities for your gear if you can only rent somewhere small.

But yes, it's expensive. So much so our house here is actually cheaper than it's equivalent out there, and at least we can earn more here.

I have heard of a housing price crash coming later this year in Aus - so fingers crossed!