Sweepea Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 I apologise if this was asked before but here goes. We are in the process of waiting for our PCCs and then hopefully will get visa grants to NSW under the 190. I hear all the stories of how expensive it is to live in Sydney. My husband will be the main breadwinner. He is currently an Associate Director of an audit firm in Internal Audit. Other than the city Sydney itself, where could he potentially find work? However, if he has to find work in Sydney, which are the areas about a 30 minute public transport ride from the city but not too far from the beach either where housing is more affordable. Could such an area also offer living in a house vs an apartment? we would rent initially and buy later once we are more settled and find what works better for us. Because of what I had heard about Sydney being so expensive, I was initially interested in looking at prospects in Melbourne but as accountants with under 70 points have not been invited, I applied for the 190 to NSW so we are bound there for 2 years. Twins are 19m old so I will have to stay at home with them part/full time depending on availability of daycare. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RYLC Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Re where to live and travel times: go on google maps and use their measuring tool to draw a 10km circle around the CBD. Anything in the circle will be approx 30 minutes travel (by car I'm assuming). Re jobs:. RELATIVELY speaking you have the golden ticket of Audit. The world is your oyster so start making contact with audit firms in NSW on LinkedIn (bypass the recruiters as you shouldn't need them for audit). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geite Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Hi Sweepea, Off the topic sorry.... How long did it take before you received your invite after lodging the EOI for the 190? See you lodged on 8 Oct 2015. We are on 70 points and really hoping to get our invite at some stage..... Thanks G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 (edited) 8 hours ago, Sweepea said: I apologise if this was asked before but here goes. We are in the process of waiting for our PCCs and then hopefully will get visa grants to NSW under the 190. I hear all the stories of how expensive it is to live in Sydney. My husband will be the main breadwinner. He is currently an Associate Director of an audit firm in Internal Audit. Other than the city Sydney itself, where could he potentially find work? However, if he has to find work in Sydney, which are the areas about a 30 minute public transport ride from the city but not too far from the beach either where housing is more affordable. Could such an area also offer living in a house vs an apartment? we would rent initially and buy later once we are more settled and find what works better for us. Because of what I had heard about Sydney being so expensive, I was initially interested in looking at prospects in Melbourne but as accountants with under 70 points have not been invited, I applied for the 190 to NSW so we are bound there for 2 years. Twins are 19m old so I will have to stay at home with them part/full time depending on availability of daycare. thanks! Hi Sweepea, Most of the audit jobs are in the city which is the Financial and IT capital of Australia. Audit jobs are much easier to find than say commerce and he is lucky to be in that position as RYLC shared. My wife is in Audit in senior management for one of the Big 4 and was able to move within the group from South Africa, they paid for our VISA's, relocation costs and flights from South Africa. Sydney and affordable is an oxymoron... Seriously, it's ridiculously overpriced, but it's where the work is... so... We live in Waterloo for the reasons you've mentioned above, we are 15mins from the Whoollahra beaches, 20 mins to Bondi and 30mins to the Eastern Suburbs beaches. We are a 10-12 minute bus ride into the Sydney CBD and I can cycle up to the Harbour in under 20-minutes. For the most part you're going to be looking at apartments, unless you can pony up over $1,000 a week for a small terrace. Suburbs that fit the bill are Surry Hills, Redfern & Waterloo. Then in the Inner West, Glebe, Annadale & Leichhardt. At the moment the median price for a 3-bedroom house in say Surry Hills is around $1.5 million with a weekly rental of $1,100 a week. Childcare is +- $35k a year per child (before rebates) if they are placed in LONG TERM care, so you're better off staying home with them and trying to get a day or 2, just know that it's competitive, we had our name on 6 waiting lists before we were able to get a spot, which was 1-day a week, eventually leading to 3-days. Hope that helps! Cheers Matt Edited January 28, 2016 by AFreshStart 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsta Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 (edited) Sydney has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. The locals get into massive debt to buy it Asking for cheap, near a beach and 30mins from the CBD is like asking for "clean, safe and close to my family in Kwa mashu township" ? My old man has a good way of looking at it. In South Africa properties don't go up beyond what people can afford. If you can't rent out the home and make some extra cash, why bother buying it? In Sydney prices are high because it's expensive to build here. For example, local town councils are uber inefficient at zoning new areas for homes. Add to that there are new migrants every year.. This means that property speculation is a way of life here. I. E. People buy a place to sell it on at a profit later. The problem is when too many people do it, prices become insane. Look, this isn't the Shanghai stock market as prices won't suddenly drop 40%. But it's the same cause (greed leading to huge risk taking ). Edited January 28, 2016 by monsta 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweepea Posted January 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Im a CA and in banking but was wondering if its relatively easy to get a part time banking job so I can work and stay at home. As mentioned before, im afraid of staying home full time for a few years with no Oz experience cos of my age. Going on 44 this April. But priority is hubby getting work as he will be the main breadwinner -we can always see what happens when we are there. That will take some getting used to. I have always enjoyed bringing in the bucks and independence. At least hubby gives me full access to his bank account and I can manage all our funds collectively. On the bright side hopefully things will work out for hubby at one of the audit firms but he is in Internal Audit vs External audit like your wife Matt. Your wife was very blessed to have all the expenses paid by her company. That's another whole exercise to work out once we decide what to take as based on advice best not to take too much. But family pieces of solid wood furniture including a piano (space...eek) are on the list. "Asking for cheap, near a beach and 30mins from the CBD is like asking for "clean, safe and close to my family in Kwa mashu township" ? " Monsta wishful thinking clearly LOL! The advice I got from RYLC on another post is not to try to recreate the life I have in SA once in Oz-you are right. Im going to have to make peace with that. Geite I updated my signature with dates. The thing with the 190 is you have no idea when they will invite so tho I settled in for a long wait things happened very quickly and hope once we get our PCCs that it will continue to do so. I hope you get your invite very soon. Thank you everybody for taking the time to respond 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rozellem Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Sweepea, look at Newcastle, not far north of Sydney. Its a bit like Sydney lite. Look for jobs on Seek and put in Newcastle to see what comes up. Either way, if you cant find a job on the level/exact fit you have now, be more creative with your searches and look for stuff you CAN do with your skill set, on a lower level. You just need your foot in the door! You can always go back up after a while, after the kids go to school, or when you have figured out the lay of the work place here. Plus, you would have earned Aussie experience and references in that time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweepea Posted January 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Rozellem I will definitely look into that. thanks very much we are quite happy to live elsewhere if hubby can get decent work outside of Sydney as although salaries will be lower, so too will the cost of living and hopefully property prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweepea Posted February 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2016 can anybody suggest any suburbs further away like 40 mins from Sydney CBD with public transport? Bridgette has pointed me towards The Shires. Any other options as I looked at a 3bed 2 bath townhouse in Sylvannia for AUD 800 000! Will it be like in SA tho its advertised for that amount you can still negotiate downwards? We are only going to have one proper income initially and don't want to stretch ourselves too much. Any great websites to search for property @AFreshStart . I see auctions are popular. Thanks Although our visa is not granted yet, I am keen to look into property and plan the move as there is sooo much to do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFreshStart Posted February 2, 2016 Report Share Posted February 2, 2016 Sweepea, If you think $800k is expensive, you don't want to know what our 2-bed apartment that's 15mins from the city cost This is the reality of living in Sydney (or insert London, Tokyo, New York City) and WHY people live further away. You'll find it hard to find any 3-bedroom house within 20-minutes of the City that's below $1million. We've seen GUTTED buildings go for that in Surry Hills. In fact the skinniest house in Sydney, a mere 48m2 on a 38m2 ERF sold for over $900 a few months ago, and if it sold in Nov it probably would have hit the $1-million mark. The insane prices are slowing, but I think ones dreaming if you think they'll crash to 50% of their value. A course correction is inevitable, but I'd say it's going to be closer to 10% by the end of 2016, at least here in Sydney. But it's a GLOBAL issue, just look at the cost of homes in London, Tokyo & New York City, it's the same. The Rand buys nothing in terms of property here. RE auctions, it's the preferred way to sell a house in Australia. It's best for the seller. Agents set a reserve and people bid in a crazed frenzy. Just watch the video in the link above. Sellers can make WAY more at auction, if the price doesn't make the reserve it doesn't sell, but here in the City, unless it's an absurd reserve it's most likely to meet that and exceed it. That said the NSW government has stopped agents from underquoting, the new laws came into effect on the 1st of January and they can be fined up to $22,000 for doing so. We experienced this ourselves, prices on one property we looked at were listed as "offers over $780k" and they got up to $900k, well above what we were willing to pay, and thus lost that property. A unit in our block of a similar size on a lower floor sold for more than $90,000 more than we paid in April, in June. I honestly think you are better off renting first, getting yourself established and THEN look at buying, and it might take a few years. We actually had no intention of buying, we took a 16-month lease, but the rent was killing us and we needed to move and that meant either renting something cheaper, or buying something smaller, which is what we opted to do. The deposit WIPED out our savings, which included the profit on our house in South Africa, our personal savings and both my wife's and my RA. It was a calculated risk that has paid off, but NOT an easy one to make. RE websites for searching properties the bets are Real Estate and Domain. It's TOUGH we looked at over 100 properties across 7 suburbs, narrowed that down to 30, inspected 10, put in an offer on 2, lost the first and were able to get ours only because the owner was desperate to sell and we were pre-approved by the bank to spend X and put in a offer, they received higher, but we were the most liquid. The unit opposite us went to auction a week later and sold for $12,000 more than we paid. Also, consider where you live or buy VERY carefully. I don't think you've really factored in the lack of a network here. You're children WILL get sick, they MAY have an accident at school and you will HAVE to fetch them. Can you afford to be living 40mins to an hour away? If there is traffic and you are stuck and you can't fetch your kids in time you'll be paying penalty rates. Also how much money are you going to be spending on driving - petrol, tolls & parking. This is why I advocate living smaller and closer to the city. My wife works 15-minutes away from where we live, 10-minutes to one school, 5-minutes to the other, and trust me there have been sick days, a trip to the emergency room, you can't plan for these things so need to be accessible. Anyways, not sure if that's helpful, but just our 2 cents and personal experience. Cheers Matt 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweepea Posted February 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2016 @AFreshStartthank you for taking the time to reply with such detail. I hear you about the calculated risk as I was also working out how much I would have as a deposit if we had to use part of our savings, hubbys RA, my Provident fund, sale from our home which luckily is paid off and profit from sale of our investment flat. We really are spoilt here in SA when it comes to property prices! Just scared that the longer we waited to get into the market in Oz, the more unaffordable it would be for us. But you are absolutely right about renting first. I will check out the sites at home tonight. I do need to consider with small kids what I would do. Now im in the great position to even have my kids at my work crèche and pay R2777 per twin per month so im "on call" and the clinic is a stones throw away. just watched them play from my office window:) I always like to get everybody else's viewpoints as that gives us food for thought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elleneo Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Just to update, Melbourne is the financial hub of Australia. Hubby is head of IT at an insurance company and specialises in financial software, we did our first 3 years in Melbourne, where he worked mostly in superannuation software. you have options, consider all of them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweepea Posted February 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 @elleneoUnfortunately we don't have that option since ours is the 190 NSW visa we are waiting for a grant for. I would have loved to have Melbourne as an option but it didn't work out. We need to do our 2 years in Sydney and take it from there. If we had 189, Melbourne would have most certainly been considered. Property prices in Sydney are just exorbitant! tgank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elleneo Posted February 16, 2016 Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Sydney is a hard sell for new migrants because it's expensive, but it's a beautiful city with load and loads of jobs! Don't worry about buying now, first enjoy the ride! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweepea Posted February 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2016 Thank you for the reassurance. I needed that as I do feel a bit cheated not to have the independent visa option right now. But on the other hand I count my blessings that we do have the option to even be in a position to just be waiting for visa grant 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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