General info. about living and working in Australia

[QSfamily]

Hi, my husband are considering relocating to Perth with our two sons and I just wanted some basic info. that perhaps they dont tell you at the expos.

We were wondering if we would be maintaining our current standard of living or whether we would be downgrading. Also how easy is it to really to get a mortgage and buy a property?

Our plan is to move on a business sponsorship initially. Would I be able to go as a dependant on my hubby's visa and look for a job when i get there? Do I need to get a transfer with my company now or find a new job before we head out. We do actually have interviews lined up when we go over on holiday in December.

How easy is it to get childcare for under 3's and is it very expensive?

We were told we could get a bank account and credit card easily but is that a credit card wherby we dont actually get credit because we need to leave a deposit in the bank amounting to our credit limit, ie we end up with a debit card?

Love to hear from anyone especially those in the construction industry about living and working in WA - Perth.

Finally, Is Perth better or Melbourne? We're still deciding which of the 2 places we'd like to go.

[Akatrin]

You know, without getting some details about your current standard of living, that's pretty hard to answer.

Still as a Perthite I'll give it a go.

Australia is a first world country. Perth is on a resources boom, so the economy is up, house prices are up (I think about 10% in the past year) but by the same token the cost of living and interest rates are up. Not much by my standards but the government seem to be trying to make a big deal about how "working class families can't afford stuff anymore". I don't see it myself though.

Morgages: dead easy. Of course the banks will want to lend you money. No matter who you are. You usually need a 10% deposit or something, but there are cases when this isn't necessary. I think the average house cost is $400 000.

Banking is very easy. The biggest banks are the commonwealth, Bankwest, Westpac and... that's all that immediately springs to mind. They usually allocate you a credit limit based off your income, but for security reasons a 1k limit will fit most people's everyday shopping. You don't need that money in an account (if you're a resident anyway), but you'll get charged interest if you don't pay it off regularly. still no biggie. Most banks'll let you have free ATM withdrawals from a debit account from their ATMs, and charge a couple of dollars for using the ATM of another bank. Getting cash withdrawals from a credit card is expensive, 5 dollars per transaction or so.

Also because of the boom lots of people are putting their houses on the market. But you've got to be quick!

Childcare: depends if you qualify for subsidies. Very expensive if you're wanting to start your own childcare business but I've never heard of any childcare shortages.

Construction Industry: Well, I'm a newly qualified teacher and there were others who after getting their teaching qualification were going into construction. so it pays very well at the moment, as you'd expect with the property boom, and there's a big demand for workers.

Also I've never had a problem finding a job. Once you start seriously looking I've always been able to find something part-time at least within a week. No idea what industry you're in though. For secretarial stuff my aunt has a lot of success temping and apparently that pays well so if you need something to fall back on there'd be that. If you like your job now, why change?

Perth V Melbourne. lots of people really like Perth. to be fair, it does have just about everything you'd want and it's very nicely spread out, lots of suburbs, good for raising kids. However if you want to be professionally compeditive in any artistic discipline, movies, etc you have to be on the east coast. Melbourne has really nice resturants, more historical buildings, but it's got some grubbier areas too. Perth is really quite clean, I think.

So there you go. I like Melbourne coz it's more alive, has more nightlife and is more romantic. Perth sometimes feels depressingly dull like a suburban people factory. But hey, maybe that's what you're looking for.
I can say this, Perth WA has faaaaar overtaken Perth in Scotland :P

gee this turned out long :P

[Akatrin]

oh and another thought, BankWest are owned by the Bank of Scotland, so you might be able to ask them for advice/deals if you're already with them.

[QSfamily]

Hi thanks for that.

Regarding our standard of living, we currently have a 4 bed - detached house with double garage and 2 cars. I just wanted to know if I'd still be in similar circumstances should we move to Perth and if only one of us is working.

Various people have told us that Perth is boring compared to say Sydney or Melbourne but we're looking for a good environment to bring up the boys rather than an abundant nightlife. For instance I hate London and would never choose to live there because its not child friendly and its grey and miserable (felt that way when I was young free and single)

You mentioned that you're a teacher. One thing which the representatives at the expo refused to answer anyone was - Where are the best schools located? Which area is the best to live in? Do kids attending public school perform as well as kids at a private school?

I am a quantity surveyor but I think the sector my company specialises in WA Perth is somewhat different to what I do here.

Anyway thanks again for your comments.

[Akatrin]

Yeah you should be able to get a house like that easily. It'll probably be single story, most of them are.

Schools: well there's a trend in the past 5 years or so where Everyone who can afford it will put their child in a private school. It's expected that in ten years or so the majority of students in government schools will be Aboriginal.
Private schools tend to have a more caring environment, and much nicer resources/classrooms.
One measure of a "Good" school is their TEE aggregate. TEE is the west australian version of A-levels. It is used to determine university entrance.
The curriculum council publishes the average TEE for each school, so you can compare them on their website:
School comparison Statistics
some schools such as John XXIII (ranked 19th) charge about 6 thousand a year, but you have to prove your Catholic. Others like Perth College (ranked 10th) are more likely to charge 15 to 20 k for a student in their final years.
For all-boys: Christ Church and Hale are the only two in the top 10. Going by the statistics, private schools way outpreform public schools. But be careful: if you're kid's below average there are stories of some private schools not allowing students to take the TEE because it'd bring their score down.

Which area is the best to live in: It really varies depending on what you want.
Lots of tradespeople live out in Joondalup. Mostly built in the 70s the houses are the sort you can renovate on the side and sell for a bit of a profit. But it's a bit far to commute every day if you need to go into the city.
Lots of UK migrants like Woodvale. I taught in the school there for a while, and I quite liked it. However, it's next to Greenwood and Wanneroo: Greenwood is where lots of refugee-migrants seem to live, Wanneroo has problems with teenage-boys forming gangs and chasing others.

Further into the city, Inglewood and Mt Lawley are very nice, federation houses, some in need of renovation and 10 mins north of the city. Further in however is Northbridge and Highgate. Highate's not too bad, but Northbridge houses our collection of clubs - megre though they may be, not a good place for a home.

In the western suburbs is also quite affluent (but more affordable), out near UWA nedlands is quite a nice suburb, close to the river.
South of the river I don't know much about :P

[QSfamily]

based on your info. re the schools then, we would possibly have to factor into our income and expenditure approximately 12 to 40k per annum for the boys education.

When we were househunting in Edinburgh, we struggled against alot of competition for houses in good school catchment areas. We did come across some properties in a good location (at a high price) but would have had to send the boys to private school as well...... Is this a similar situation in Perth?

[Akatrin]

If you're going government, there are ways around the catchment area boundaries, but they're quite compeditive.

Houses are expensive, but commuting is easy, public transport is cheap and generally safe during the day. There are lots of houses up for sale and lots of auctions.