smilingsenthil

We are living in Melbourne and both me and my wife work in IT. We are thinking about retiring in Perth buying a house away from the busy areas in a calm quiet place. However, we have 3 kids (9 yo , 11 yo , 16 yo). Though the schools seem to be OK in Perth I am not too sure how good are the UNIs in Perth. As my elder one will soon be jumping in toa UNI and others will soon follow , I am wondering if Perth has good Universities to the standards of Melbourne. I am hearing that most students from Perth come to Melbourne to do their UNI and that is not what we want after moving to Perth. Please share some inputs on the best UNI options in Perth and whether we can go ahead with our planned perth move without having to worry about the kids having to travel back again to Melbourne for UNI. Thanks.

Hi Vidya, I would suggest not less than AUD 10,000 (Excluding your airfare). It is important to have peace of mind while looking out for job and it may take 2 -4 months to get a job. I have also sent you a private message with some more details as we have been to perth recently and did some study on things.

Yes Porty, that was the impression I had too...that Aussies gamble a lot...Maybe that's only in Melbourne and Sydney...Or there maybe a lot outside this forum who don't bother spending their time in forums :-) Or it maybe like you said...Not admitting as most people usually end up with a loss in casinos...:-)

JR, Thanks for the info. Yeah..I guessed that it would not be one of the best as I see very little tourneys in their website and as you said most of them are satellites. But still being a forex/commodities trader who works from home , I thought it makes sense to just go out on a weekend to play some live poker where I can catch new friends. Unfortunately, there seem to be no one in this forum who visits there regularly !!!

Hi all, I have been doing part time gambling and playing poker online for a while. We intend to move to Perth this year end and I just browsed thru the Crown Casino website and it seem to look great. There seem to be lot of poker tournaments out there but I guess they are not as great as Melbourne/Sydney. I just wanted to know if anyone here ever visited the Crown Casino in Perth and do we have any part time gamblers here ??? Any poker players here by any chance ?

Well..I visited Perth as a tour to access the city and I simply loved it for it's Asia-like climate. I'm living in Singapore and so Perth is close by with same time zone. So we are sort of decided on Perth but just thought of checking with others on why a lot of people choose perth over Sydney/Melbourne.

Wow..that's a lot for information for me. Well, the problem is that I'm not planning to work anywhere :-) I'm a full time forex/commodities trader and so wouldn't like to move out of the house. So the basic necessity for me is a big house and a good school. If there is a beach nearby, it is great. That was the reason why I considered Rockingham. If there are other places that can give me a good house and decent school (doesn't matter how far it is from city), would be willing to consider.

We have almost decided to move to perth this year end but just few last minute confusions over the right city. I see that majority of the population from the UK seem to be migrating to the Perth while majority from Asia (like India, China, Philippines) seem to choose Sydney/Melbourne. I'm interested to know why is that ? Sydney seem to have 10 times more job opportunities than Perth and I wonder why people from the UK choose perth. Is it becoz it's more sunnier than Sydney ? Is it because it's more calm and quite without the busy life style that Sydney offers ? Or is it because of any Visa regulations that allow them to migrate only to Perth ? After migrating to Perth , have you guys travelled to Sydney and how do you feel ? Being a IT guy, I see more job opportunities in Sydney but having visiting Perth last year, I simply love the calm quite life style in Perth (I lived in Sydney too). Your inputs on this would be really great.

Porty and Straight, Thanks for your inputs. Porty - Would you please share with me the reasons for disliking Rockingham and Joondalup ? I hear most of them stay around these suburbs (like Secret Harbour, Port Kennedy, Balvidives, Currambine etc). If you dislike these, then I'm interested to know the reason. In addition, I would like to hear from you the suburbs that you think are good (with decent schools) where I can rent for 500-600 per week (a house not a unit). How about Canningvale ? It seem to have good schools and rentals also seem to be affordable. Please suggest.

Hi, After much deliberations, we finally decided to move to Perth on 30th Oct 2013. We have 2 kids girls - 9yo (primary 4 next year) and 3yo (kinder garden next year). We have few important questions..pls help. 1. Shall we register for a school before reaching there or we can only register once we reach ? In other words , is there any action for us to take regarding schools before we reach or nothing at all. 2. For the kinder garden, I heard that there is no guarantee for seat even if the child is in catchment area. Is this true ? We want both our kids to go to same school. 3. If we don't find a good school in our area, shall we apply for schools in other suburbs ? In that case, what is the possibility of getting a seat ? 4. Should we apply for only one school at a time or can apply for multiple schools ? 5. We are looking for a good big house to rent so we are ready to move away from the city (like Joondalup or Rockingham etc). Can you please suggest good schools in outside suburbs where we can get cheap rentals as well. The questions are with regard to government schools. Please help to answer them and provide us with any additional details that can help. Thanks

Dear Roses, I'm glad that I found atleast one (of so many who read my wishes) who could respond me back with a new year wish !

Seems like I have got two answers which are contradictory to each other one saying that the income is the one which decides the mortgage and other saying that a bank has offered loan as much as the monthly income making it impossible to pay. Would be glad to hear more on this from others.

Brains, 1986 to Perth and 2008 to Cambodia...! Does it mean that you lived in Perth for 22 years ? Or you went back to UK and migrated to Cambodia again ? Let us know how many years you lived in Perth to decide that it is not suitable for you. If it is 20 odd years, then that is very long and we would certainly like to hear from you. I would advice people who are commenting about third world asia to check the facts. Cities like Singapore, Hongkong, Shangai etc are great place to live and Asia is currently booming in the economy and all of us know what happens in developed western countries like US or UK or even Australia. So please keep a broader mind before commenting about other places in the World. Having said that, my short visit to Perth have proved to be a great experience and I'm certainly looking forward moving there particularly to enjoy the calm (or so called dull) life style. But if someone is not interested in that and have other opinions, I would still like to hear them.

For all those who are already having a fabulous life in Perth and for those who have just moved in to Perth and especially for those who are planning to MIGRATE to Perth in 2013 WISHING ALL OF YOU A VERY HAPPY AND WONDERFUL NEW YEAR 2013 AHEAD

Does it mean that those who earn around 80k can only buy a house worth 250k ? That is a bit of a surprise to me. That puts a big stop on people to buy good houses as I don't believe that they can get decent houses for that price. So who is buying then ? The houses which costs more than 500k are being bought by those who earn 150k per annum ? Or is there any other short cut ? I'm sure that people who earn less would still be able to buy decent houses as banks basically give housing loan based on the property and little consideration to the actual income of the person. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Taylor, from what I have been told the housing prices have actually gone down in the recent years. I have seen couple of houses where the owners have bought around 700k some 5 - 6 years ago and are willing to sell it for the same price even today ! In Rockingham, one great house close to the beach was sold for just 450k (a 4 bedroom one) and enquiries in that area revealed that there are great bargains at the moment. Ofcourse, I understand that no price is a good or bad price and if the economy falls it can hit the rock bottom. However, even if nothing changes and the property did not appreciate in the next 5 -6 years it will still give us a satisfaction of living in our own house and if it appreciates in value it is a bonus. But yes, i agree to the fact that some people may not have decided where to live and for some the deposit would be a lot of money initially. I'm not talking about that initial phase though, but once you get a job and steady the ship is it that people are buying houses ? I think still a lot are renting primarily because most of them might just be unsure of settling down for life I suppose. But is that a correct way of looking at it ? Becoz eventually when you decide to settle it could be too late to buy (as prices may rise). Would be glad if some senior members who are residing in Perth for long years could comment on this subject.

During my short visit to Perth, I enquired the rentals as well as home sales in few suburbs. A good individual house in a good suburb comes anywhere between 600 - 800 AUD and if you have to buy it it costs around 600k to 800k. Now the question is if you go for an INTEREST ONLY housing loan, one may have to pay only as much as what they would be paying for a rented house. In that scenario, why would people go for renting house when they can actually buy them and still end up paying more or less the rental amount as the monthly installment thereby giving a good chance of property appreciation down the line. Is it only to save that initial downpayment for buying the house or am I missing something else ?

Thanks for the explanation. I have no problem if it is a concern only for few weeks in a year. We were worried if that is the case always. Anyone who live in NOR can help with their inputs please....

Finally, we were there !!! Visited Perth with family and stayed for just a week. Covered the CBD, Kings Park, Rockingham, Swan Valley, Cottesloe Beach, Fremantle Markets etc. Stayed in Joondaana (near Mount Hawthorn). It was a great place, calm and quiet compared to Singapore. Wonderful climate at this season of the year. Found great restaurants as well. However, seems like I a strange concern if somebody could help. The house-flies seem to be following us everywhere. Even inside the house, the flies were disturbing us. It followed us to Swan Valley as well. We need to keep our house doors (including the sit out doors) closed. However, when we went to beach side areas like Fremantle, Rockingham etc, the flies disappeared. So based on this, shall we conclude that it is advisible to stay near the beach ? Is it a seasonal behaviour or is it always like this ?

Thanks all for your suggestions..I think I already have a loads of places to visit in a week's time. However, I would like to take up the opportunity to visit some schools as well to get some idea. Kindly advise if the office will be open since this is a school holiday season. I'm focussing on schools in Canning Vale, Willetton, Booragoon, Leeming,Melville etc. Kindly advise the best schools in these areas (primary). Margaret river seems to be fantastic based on my research but seems just too far to cover it this time. However, Whiteman Park looks fabulous and not too far away from where we are staying (Osborne Park).

Ali, Can you please suggest us few things to do and places to visit in Perth. Currently we have plans to visit Fremantle Shopping places, Kings Park, Swan Valley, Rottnest Island, Cotteloe beach, Rockingham, Garden City Shopping Centre, Adventure Park etc. Is there anything we missed.

Can someone please suggest a good TAX Consultant in Perth. I want to discuss about the taxations on trading in the financial markets and other business tax guidelines. Thanks.

Thanks Ali. Can you please provide me their details. Moirclan, thanks a lot for all the places you suggested. Are u refering to Singapore when you say Cashew Park , Holland Village ? Where do you live in Perth ?

After lot of deliberations on which city to choose (tossing up between Sydney and Perth), finally we decided that we can make a trip to Perth and we are indeed coming to Perth on 3rd Dec for a short stay ( only a week ). The idea is to get a nice look and feel of things and to see if that suits us. Just to introduce, we are Singaporeans , living in Singapore , basically from India. Both me and my wife are software engineers and have 3 kids (8yo,3yo,4mths old). We have booked an individual house in Joondana/Osborne Park (in Powell Street) for a 7 days stay. Though we are not from the UK, we are very much interested in making new friends regardless of the race. We would be delighted to meet up with few families who live in Joondana/Osborne Park or anywhere nearby. We don't mind inviting interested families to our house and let them taste some delicious Indian dishes :-) Would be great if you could help us with some tips on the places to visit during our trip. Though we are tentatively planning to settle down in Perth by end of 2013 , you never know. So we would like to take up this 7 days to see the most important attractions in Perth. Kindly help with your inputs. Thanks Kumar

Thanks a lot for this information. This gives me an idea on how much I would need to spend if I prefer Rockingham. But I think Kolbe is basically for secondary education and at the moment my kids are still primary. So I think I need to put them in Star of the Sea Catholic Primary school. Do you have any idea about it by any chance ?