We emigrated to Brisbane from Scotland 3 months ago and even though my new employer paid for much of it its still a costly experience.
Heres our costs (in uk pounds), obviously a lot of them are optional :)
1. £6150 to ship our stuff over door to door (40 foot container, they packed)
2. £300 maritime insurance
3. £300 customs inspection fee
4. £4000 flights for 7 (estimate, company paid)
5. £300 2 nights stop over in Singapore (money well spent)
6. £450 7 day people carrier rental.
7. £275 per week 3 bed holiday apartment rental (for 3 months)
8. £13000 Buy a car (we bought a car our first week here)
9. £1000 Buy electrical items we left behind
10.£900 Paying a months mortgage back home before finding someone to rent it
11.£600 Medicals/xrays for 457 visa for 2 adults 5 children
12.£250 Ordering UK passports for all the ones that had expired
13.£250 Buying a big gas barbecue (not optional, you need one!)
14.£500 Buying a big glass patio table that sits 8 (very optional) :)
15.???? Visa application and agency fees if used (company paid ours)
The Company who employed me paid for the flights and the removal costs, and the visa fees. They used an agent who was able to get the visa very quickly so its probably well worth investigating using one, ours handled the whole thing for us even booking the medicals in Scotland for us.
Showing posts with label emigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emigration. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Cost of living in oz (brisbane)
We have been here for 3 months now after emigrating from the UK and are starting to get a good idea of the cost of things.
Overall I'm a bit disappointed at the cost of living everyone tells you how much cheaper it is in Australia, but its not hugely cheaper.
Weekly shopping bill.
Ours is quite similar to the UK, bread is rather expensive, season fruit/veg is slightly cheaper than the uk, supermarkets don't sell Alcohol so theres not the same competition as there is in the UK but you can still pick up some tasty local wine for $6 if you hunt it out.
Transport
Trains are much cheaper, probably half the price, buses are cheap too, petrol is also half the cost of the uk.
Finance.
Mortgage rate is higher 8%+ and the best rate I could get on a car loan was 13.7% which is massive compared to the rates you get in the UK.
Rent.
We are renting a 4 bed house with a pool in a quite expensive area for $550 a week, the house is quite rundown though, theres no rates or water to pay, just electricity and phone.
Phone is $29 a month for line rental so a bit more than the uk.
Internet is expensive, we got a package deal with iinet for I think $69 a month which includes phone rental and 30Gig a month allowance, the allowances in oz are quite stingy and that 30 gig is actually only 10 gig peak time (1 noon until 2:00 am is peak time)
Eating out is a lot cheaper , although a chinese takeaway is about the same as the uk.
Pizza is really cheap, we get 6 large pizza's now and again for $42 (Tuesday night special). Fish and chips for 7 comes to about $45 and comes with more fish than chips (local fresh caught fish, delicious)
Cinema is slightly more than the UK.
foxtel (cable tv) costs about the same as sky did and has a fraction of the number of channels. It comes to about $100 a month with all channels and IQ (this is basically sky+ same remote too)
Electrical, we bought a big American style fridge freezer for $1200 which is about the same as we paid in the uk but we really had to shop around and I think the one in the uk was better (it had ice maker and plumbed in water dispenser)
Mike.
Overall I'm a bit disappointed at the cost of living everyone tells you how much cheaper it is in Australia, but its not hugely cheaper.
Weekly shopping bill.
Ours is quite similar to the UK, bread is rather expensive, season fruit/veg is slightly cheaper than the uk, supermarkets don't sell Alcohol so theres not the same competition as there is in the UK but you can still pick up some tasty local wine for $6 if you hunt it out.
Transport
Trains are much cheaper, probably half the price, buses are cheap too, petrol is also half the cost of the uk.
Finance.
Mortgage rate is higher 8%+ and the best rate I could get on a car loan was 13.7% which is massive compared to the rates you get in the UK.
Rent.
We are renting a 4 bed house with a pool in a quite expensive area for $550 a week, the house is quite rundown though, theres no rates or water to pay, just electricity and phone.
Phone is $29 a month for line rental so a bit more than the uk.
Internet is expensive, we got a package deal with iinet for I think $69 a month which includes phone rental and 30Gig a month allowance, the allowances in oz are quite stingy and that 30 gig is actually only 10 gig peak time (1 noon until 2:00 am is peak time)
Eating out is a lot cheaper , although a chinese takeaway is about the same as the uk.
Pizza is really cheap, we get 6 large pizza's now and again for $42 (Tuesday night special). Fish and chips for 7 comes to about $45 and comes with more fish than chips (local fresh caught fish, delicious)
Cinema is slightly more than the UK.
foxtel (cable tv) costs about the same as sky did and has a fraction of the number of channels. It comes to about $100 a month with all channels and IQ (this is basically sky+ same remote too)
Electrical, we bought a big American style fridge freezer for $1200 which is about the same as we paid in the uk but we really had to shop around and I think the one in the uk was better (it had ice maker and plumbed in water dispenser)
Mike.
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Where to live in Brisbane (for a new arrival from UK)
We arrived in Brisbane to a lovely holiday apartment provided by my new employer.
A 3 bed apartment in what estate agents would call the highly desirable area of New Farm. Views of Brisbane river, opposite the popular New Farm Park with giant kids play area, and just a 20 minute walk to work. Perfect, except its such a desirable area the apartment was probably worth $2,000,000. And weekly rent was just under $1000.
So we had a month to find somewhere more permanent to live while we waited for all our possessions to arrive.
We had several criteria.
1. Near a train station that would get me to work without too much fuss.
2. Near a beach, or have a pool.
3. Near good schools.
4. Be a nice neighbourhood.
5. Cost a maximum of $600 a week to rent.
6. Have at least 4 bedrooms preferably 5.
Some candidates were Shorncliffe, Sandgate, BaldHills, Bracken Ridge.
Fortunately there is one main website for home buying/rental
http://brisbane.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=sf&s=qld&t=ren&cc=&ty=&snf=rbs&cu=OBC
After viewing several places none of which quite ticked enough boxes we extended our search and eventually found somewhere south of the river in Graceville, a very nice area very close to a train station, just 20 minutes to the town center, very good local state schools. Five minute drive to a big shopping center (Indooroopilly).
No where near a beach but it has a pool.
Unfortunately the house wasnt available for a month until after we needed it so we moved to Redcliffe (Scarborough specifically) for a month.
This meant the kids couldn't start school yet, and I had quite a commute (90 mins each way) half by bus half by train. The train from Sandgate to Brisbane(Brunswick street, the stop for Fortitude valley) stops 14 times and takes quite a while to get into the town, but travelling by car can take just as long or longer if you don't set off early enough. (Even though its only 30 km). On the bright side we were 200 meters from Scarboroughs award winning beach. The kids had a great time playing on the beach every day and we bought a few fishing rods and did a bit of fishing as well as snorkeling.
With hindsight I now wish we had ended up permanently living by a beach. But Brisbane doesn't really have any beaches they are all on the outskirts, shorncliffe would have been perfect but houses just dont come up very often with enough rooms for our family.
If you want to check train timetables for Brisbane here's the link:
http://www.transinfo.qld.gov.au/
Incidentally train charges are less than half of the UK. I'm commuting a similar distance to the UK but paying $80 (£40) a month instead of £106. And so far the trains have been far more reliable than the UK.
A 3 bed apartment in what estate agents would call the highly desirable area of New Farm. Views of Brisbane river, opposite the popular New Farm Park with giant kids play area, and just a 20 minute walk to work. Perfect, except its such a desirable area the apartment was probably worth $2,000,000. And weekly rent was just under $1000.
So we had a month to find somewhere more permanent to live while we waited for all our possessions to arrive.
We had several criteria.
1. Near a train station that would get me to work without too much fuss.
2. Near a beach, or have a pool.
3. Near good schools.
4. Be a nice neighbourhood.
5. Cost a maximum of $600 a week to rent.
6. Have at least 4 bedrooms preferably 5.
Some candidates were Shorncliffe, Sandgate, BaldHills, Bracken Ridge.
Fortunately there is one main website for home buying/rental
http://brisbane.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=sf&s=qld&t=ren&cc=&ty=&snf=rbs&cu=OBC
After viewing several places none of which quite ticked enough boxes we extended our search and eventually found somewhere south of the river in Graceville, a very nice area very close to a train station, just 20 minutes to the town center, very good local state schools. Five minute drive to a big shopping center (Indooroopilly).
No where near a beach but it has a pool.
Unfortunately the house wasnt available for a month until after we needed it so we moved to Redcliffe (Scarborough specifically) for a month.
This meant the kids couldn't start school yet, and I had quite a commute (90 mins each way) half by bus half by train. The train from Sandgate to Brisbane(Brunswick street, the stop for Fortitude valley) stops 14 times and takes quite a while to get into the town, but travelling by car can take just as long or longer if you don't set off early enough. (Even though its only 30 km). On the bright side we were 200 meters from Scarboroughs award winning beach. The kids had a great time playing on the beach every day and we bought a few fishing rods and did a bit of fishing as well as snorkeling.
With hindsight I now wish we had ended up permanently living by a beach. But Brisbane doesn't really have any beaches they are all on the outskirts, shorncliffe would have been perfect but houses just dont come up very often with enough rooms for our family.
If you want to check train timetables for Brisbane here's the link:
http://www.transinfo.qld.gov.au/
Incidentally train charges are less than half of the UK. I'm commuting a similar distance to the UK but paying $80 (£40) a month instead of £106. And so far the trains have been far more reliable than the UK.
Ten Surprising things about Brisbane/Australia
We emigrated to oz almost on a whim with no real idea of what to expect, heres some things that took us by suprise.
1. It gets dark early, even though its 25 degrees and feels like summer (its winter at the moment) it still gets dark between 5:00 and 5:30, but dawn is early 5:30am.
2. The locals think its cold, even though its 25 degrees, some locals think its cold and can be seen walking their dogs on the beach wearing coats while the crazy English family are swimming in the sea.
3. Wild parrots all over the place, You can make it obvious you are foreign by excitedly pointing out parrots and other colourful birds to your children and taking photos.
4. Giant Fruit Bats roam the skies at night, our first day out at the local park suddenly cut short by the sudden fall of night at 5:30 resulted in seeing several hundred odd looking crows flying low overhead, that turned out to be rather large fruit bats.
5. Its full of cars, coming from Scotland where the roads are relatively empty it was a surprise to find how busy the roads are. Every attempt to drive along the M1 from the north into brisbane has resulted in a 10 km traffic jam.
6. 4x4's rule the road. Every other car is a 4x4, big toyota landcruisers seem to be the most popular.
7. Petrol is cheap, really cheap. At $1.35 a litre its nearly half the price of the UK, allthough the price is rising fast, its gone from $1.35 to $1.55 in just the few weeks we have been here allthough it seems to be dropping again.
8. The night is noisy. Maybe we are just unluky but our nights are filled with the sounds of wild creatures tap dancing on our metal roof, even after having a possum removed from its cosy home in our loft in week 1.
9. Fatal snake bites. None of us have been bitten/stung/eaten alive by snakes, spiders, jellyfish, sharks or crocodiles. Infact apart from spiders none of the above had made an appearance and even the spiders we have seen, while big are probably not life threatening, probably...
10. Its not cheap. The cost of living is supposedly cheaper in Australia (so everyone says) but you have to shop arround to get a bargain and a lot of things are just downright more expensive than the UK.
1. It gets dark early, even though its 25 degrees and feels like summer (its winter at the moment) it still gets dark between 5:00 and 5:30, but dawn is early 5:30am.
2. The locals think its cold, even though its 25 degrees, some locals think its cold and can be seen walking their dogs on the beach wearing coats while the crazy English family are swimming in the sea.
3. Wild parrots all over the place, You can make it obvious you are foreign by excitedly pointing out parrots and other colourful birds to your children and taking photos.
4. Giant Fruit Bats roam the skies at night, our first day out at the local park suddenly cut short by the sudden fall of night at 5:30 resulted in seeing several hundred odd looking crows flying low overhead, that turned out to be rather large fruit bats.
5. Its full of cars, coming from Scotland where the roads are relatively empty it was a surprise to find how busy the roads are. Every attempt to drive along the M1 from the north into brisbane has resulted in a 10 km traffic jam.
6. 4x4's rule the road. Every other car is a 4x4, big toyota landcruisers seem to be the most popular.
7. Petrol is cheap, really cheap. At $1.35 a litre its nearly half the price of the UK, allthough the price is rising fast, its gone from $1.35 to $1.55 in just the few weeks we have been here allthough it seems to be dropping again.
8. The night is noisy. Maybe we are just unluky but our nights are filled with the sounds of wild creatures tap dancing on our metal roof, even after having a possum removed from its cosy home in our loft in week 1.
9. Fatal snake bites. None of us have been bitten/stung/eaten alive by snakes, spiders, jellyfish, sharks or crocodiles. Infact apart from spiders none of the above had made an appearance and even the spiders we have seen, while big are probably not life threatening, probably...
10. Its not cheap. The cost of living is supposedly cheaper in Australia (so everyone says) but you have to shop arround to get a bargain and a lot of things are just downright more expensive than the UK.
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