grootliam Posted February 2, 2018 Report Share Posted February 2, 2018 Hi all We will hopefully land in Aus in April 2018. 457 Visa in tge bag but just sorting out a few things. I have been speaking with bond loan companies in Aus and they said we can get approval for house loan in Aus as soon as my probation period of 3 months expire. We were fortunate to sell our house in SA only a few days after putting it up for sale so we will have a decent deposit when buying. My three big quistions to others that have bought in Aus are: 1) Did you use a bank for your house loan or a bond company like the one I have been talking too? 2) When looking at houses advertised online many of them does not seem to have a real value in mind and are advertised as high 400s or mid 400s or just says make a offer. What is up with this? This makes me wonder what would happen if the price is advertised as 420k and then i offer 420k......would I actually get the house ore are they fishing for offers? 3) Do agents, banks and bond companies operate in a similar manner as in SA or is it a diffrent ball game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nev Posted February 2, 2018 Report Share Posted February 2, 2018 Someone has to pay the broker so it will always be possible to get a better deal direct from a bank, shop around first, then see if the broker can get you a better deal https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/borrowing-and-credit/home-loans/using-a-broker House prices can be advertised at whatever amount the person thinks will get people to show interest, basically they will take offers and then go with the best, or use the amount to get people to come to the auction, your best bet is to investigate what houses in the area have been selling for, and if the prices are going up or down at the moment, that will give you an idea of what the person is really expecting Not sure about the last from a purchase perspective, i do know it is a heck of a lot easier to get a bond here though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbop Posted February 3, 2018 Report Share Posted February 3, 2018 We just recently purchased a house and went with Liberty. The advertised price was in the low $400s, we put in an offer for mid $350s and were successful. Settlement is delayed in order to complete probation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grootliam Posted February 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 Thank you fir the replies @Nev and @bbop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyskies Posted February 5, 2018 Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 Do be careful of buying a house on a 457 visa. The rules have changed quite a lot over the last couple of years, but some of the requirements that I am aware of are: - some states (like Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales) apply a stamp duty surcharge to 457 visa holders. As stamp duty is already quite heft, you don't want to have to add to the cost of the house with more government taxes. - you need FIRB approval (that is foreign investor review board approval) - that adds another cost to the house as well as you have to pay a fee before they will even consider your request ($5,000 for land up to $1,000,000) - if you loose your 457 prior to PR and cannot get another visa before you have to leave the country you may have to sell the house unless the house was a new build or you built vacant land and built on it. I have heard of someone who was told by the bank that they would have to have their repayments tailored to the period of the 457 visa, but I'm not sure that that is correct. IMO you are better off waiting until you have PR before making the commitment to property, unless you are able to treat the property as an investment if you at point loose your 457 before PR comes through, or unless you believe that property prices will continue to climb and the additional costs are worth the risk of not getting into the market now - although by all accounts property prices are not expected to climb as much this year, and in some areas are in decline already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grootliam Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 Thankyou for the comments and concerns @Sunnyskies. I will lie if I said I was 100% sure of purchasing on 457 visa due to the risks and costs that you higlihted but a very quick calculation shows that at $400 per week renting we would spend over $80 000 over 4 years compared to buying wich we would have to pay initial costs to the value of $30 000 for a Queensland property of about $450 000 when deposit is greater than 20%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted February 5, 2018 Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 @grootliam mate I know exactly how you feel. I've never rented in my life before moving to Australia.... If I can add something to this, the process of emigration is stressful enough. Don't ruin it for yourself by adding this extra layer of stress on top of it without having the security of permanent residency. You're moving to a country and city where you don't know a single thing about which suburbs are good or not. Reading about a suburb on a forum and actually living in it is vastly different, I would look at renting as a trial period for a suburb. You need to go through the commute, the schools, the grocery shopping, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grootliam Posted February 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2018 Thanks @ChrisH My idea was to spend 3 to 6months renting and then to buy to be able to make a good buy. The risk and stress factor is there for sure but it seeemd that if a person were to buy a property with a 20% to 40% deposit and even have to sell after 4 years that the money spend would be much the same as if you rented over that same period and just leave you with the issue of selling it again.......I might be wrong but also have this mental block about renting long term and giving someone my hard erned money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 The first thing I would say here is: the Australian house market is VERY different to the South African market. We looked at houses near Melbourne, from RSA, and then decided we should rent in our preferred neighbourhood for one year before buying a house. So then we immigrated and got a rental contract. In that year I started looking at the houses available in the area. I looked at a wide range of prices and sizes to see where the market was at. I also used realestate.com.au to 'track' certain properties. I would see what price was advertised, look at the house itself, and then wait for it to sell and compare the SOLD price to the advertised price. This process helped us tremendously to know the going rate for houses in our area. So when we got round to buying we could make an offer with confidence. I know what you're saying about 'throwing money away' by renting, that's how it feels. But I think it's really valuable to invest this money and time to make sure that your considerable investment of buying a house is what you want, where you want it, and that you are paying the right price for it. Also use this time to get acquainted with all the property agents in your area. Go talk to them, ask questions at open houses. Be honest that you are looking to buy, but want to feel out the market first. We actually got really good advice form several of the agents we spoke to. Personal recommendation: Don't buy a house until you've done the ground work and research. Regarding loans and where to get them, we spoke to everyone we possibly could in terms of banks and brokers, and then took the best deal we could get, for what we wanted to do. We went with a deal we got from a small broker, because it gave us the best deal for paying off the loan very aggressively. So far, so good, a year on we are still happy with our deal. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 31 minutes ago, RedPanda said: compare the SOLD price to the advertised price Do you find the sold price online as well? It's quite difficult here as the sold prices aren't made public knowledge - only the estate agents know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grootliam Posted February 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 Thanks. Your advise is appreciated @RedPanda. @TamTam ı found the sold prices online aswell yes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted February 10, 2018 Report Share Posted February 10, 2018 23 hours ago, TamTam said: Do you find the sold price online as well? It's quite difficult here as the sold prices aren't made public knowledge - only the estate agents know. Yup! Not always, but often. I use realestate.com.au but there are other websites too. The Aussies are a lot more open with most of their business. It's quite refreshing. You can also often see the entire sales history of a house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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