Cost of moving and living in Adelaide for the first 12 weeks

[Guest jones1541]

Hi everyone

 

I've never started a post on here before but here goes. We are a family of four moving to Adelaide Jan/Feb 2013, we were just costing everything up and it has come up quiet a bit more than we expected! A short term fully furnished rental is so expensive, we have cost it for 8 weeks, in Happy Valley, Flagstaff, Aberfoyle area. Is eight weeks too long? We have seen long term rentas advertised but are unsure if we could secure one in less than 8 weeks?? Any comments/experiences would be greatly appriciated!

 

These are our costs for the first 12 weeks (not including shopping, utilities, car insurance/tax etc) :

 

Shipping £4000 (full container)

Flights £2800

Short term fully furnished rental for 8 weeks £3,900

Car renal for 4 weeks £580

Long term rental bond and 1 month of rent £2190

Car purchase £5000

 

Grand total £18,470:arghh:

 

Is this realistic? Do you have to pay more rent upfront for a long term rental?

 

Claire

[Guest The travelling brummie's]

Hi, you wouldnt need to rent a short term for 8 weeks, rentals go through very quickly in australia providing you can find a suitable place. why dont you email a few real estate companies and ask about time frames hyperthetcally.

 

Literally we found somewhere we liked and it went through and we moved in 2 weeks.

[Guest Guest6899]

Hi everyone

 

I've never started a post on here before but here goes. We are a family of four moving to Adelaide Jan/Feb 2013, we were just costing everything up and it has come up quiet a bit more than we expected! A short term fully furnished rental is so expensive, we have cost it for 8 weeks, in Happy Valley, Flagstaff, Aberfoyle area. Is eight weeks too long? We have seen long term rentas advertised but are unsure if we could secure one in less than 8 weeks?? Any comments/experiences would be greatly appriciated!

 

These are our costs for the first 12 weeks (not including shopping, utilities, car insurance/tax etc) :

 

Shipping £4000 (full container)

Flights £2800

Short term fully furnished rental for 8 weeks £3,900

Car renal for 4 weeks £580

Long term rental bond and 1 month of rent £2190

Car purchase £5000

 

Grand total £18,470:arghh:

 

Is this realistic? Do you have to pay more rent upfront for a long term rental?

 

Claire

 

Hello, cant comment on exact prices such as shipping but sounds about right and flights. we bought a car after a week think it was about $40.00 a day, car purchases are very expensive, but should get something for around $7500 (depends on exchange rate). Bond, again that differs, we paid $2250 for ours + 3 months up front as we really wanted the house. though normally you only need to pay it fortnightly. we paid for a fully furnished for 8 weeks but got our new rental after 6 and just had both until the container came. our friends moved into their rental after one week and just borrowed some of our furniture until their container came. Rentals are usually for one year but occasionally you will get a 6 month one.

 

Its all expensive and you outlay lots of cash when you move and arrive.

[OKMorris]

Hello, cant comment on exact prices such as shipping but sounds about right and flights. we bought a car after a week think it was about $40.00 a day, car purchases are very expensive, but should get something for around $7500 (depends on exchange rate). Bond, again that differs, we paid $2250 for ours + 3 months up front as we really wanted the house. though normally you only need to pay it fortnightly. we paid for a fully furnished for 8 weeks but got our new rental after 6 and just had both until the container came. our friends moved into their rental after one week and just borrowed some of our furniture until their container came. Rentals are usually for one year but occasionally you will get a 6 month one.

 

Its all expensive and you outlay lots of cash when you move and arrive.

 

 

Hiya we are only a couple but i can give you an idea of what costs are so far - and yes it is expensive money is running through our hands like water at this very moment you just have to embrace it and know it will all be ok when you start earning dollars

 

Flights - approx £700 each - go with Singapore Airlines as they will double your luggage allowance to 40kg per person if you have not yet had your visa stamped i.e. its your first time to oz on it

 

Shipping - cant really comment as we had a tiny 1 bed flat to move over so costs will be all off!!!

 

Car Rental - £200 per week - we only rented for 1 week and then bought a car as one of our first things we did - see costs below

 

Car: 7000AUD - 2006 Holden Viva - nothing special but does for us - that was an on the road price with a dealer - make sure you do a deal on this and get them to pay the stamp duty and first 3 months rego at least

 

Short Term rental for 1 month - 1500AUD - we rented an aprtment in the city for 1 month so we are right in the thick of it and we prob only need 3 weeks as we have secured a longer term rent and we have been here 2 weeks

 

Long term rental- 3200AUD up front - this includes a 2400AUD bond and 2 weeks rent up front in Plympton Park - closer to the city than most here on the forum so not the cheapest but we both have jobs in the city so are going for the public transport commute each morning.

 

Other incidental costs include 55AUD each for changing over your british driving licences to australian ones, mobile broadband which we have found invaluable to have right from when we land as you seem to use internet for everything - Crazy Johns were the cheapest at 49AUD for 3G of data and this will do until you get a long term rental and can get broadband and just general food and living as we have been so usy during the day we find ourselves eating lunch out etc wherever we are so ends up costing a bit!!!

 

Hope this helps and obv this is just my example but these were the main set up costs we have had so far along with prob many other things

[Guest jones1541]

Hi' date=' you wouldnt need to rent a short term for 8 weeks, rentals go through very quickly in australia providing you can find a suitable place. why dont you email a few real estate companies and ask about time frames hyperthetcally.

 

Literally we found somewhere we liked and it went through and we moved in 2 weeks.[/quote']

 

 

Hi Travelling brummies

 

Thanks for the advice, i will email a few companies tonight

[Guest jones1541]

Hello, cant comment on exact prices such as shipping but sounds about right and flights. we bought a car after a week think it was about $40.00 a day, car purchases are very expensive, but should get something for around $7500 (depends on exchange rate). Bond, again that differs, we paid $2250 for ours + 3 months up front as we really wanted the house. though normally you only need to pay it fortnightly. we paid for a fully furnished for 8 weeks but got our new rental after 6 and just had both until the container came. our friends moved into their rental after one week and just borrowed some of our furniture until their container came. Rentals are usually for one year but occasionally you will get a 6 month one.

 

Its all expensive and you outlay lots of cash when you move and arrive.

 

Hi Baggienurse

 

Thanks for the information, I think we will probably have to stay in short term rental for at least 6 weeks as we wont have anything until our container arrives, and we cant send our container ahead of us because of christmas! Did you have to have references for your long term rentals?

 

It does seem like money will go really quickly initially! Can I ask where your husband works? My husband is a learning disability nurse and he has emailed a couple of private companies, if there is any you can recommend it would be greatly appriciated

 

Claire

[Guest jones1541]

Hiya we are only a couple but i can give you an idea of what costs are so far - and yes it is expensive money is running through our hands like water at this very moment you just have to embrace it and know it will all be ok when you start earning dollars

 

Flights - approx £700 each - go with Singapore Airlines as they will double your luggage allowance to 40kg per person if you have not yet had your visa stamped i.e. its your first time to oz on it

 

Shipping - cant really comment as we had a tiny 1 bed flat to move over so costs will be all off!!!

 

Car Rental - £200 per week - we only rented for 1 week and then bought a car as one of our first things we did - see costs below

 

Car: 7000AUD - 2006 Holden Viva - nothing special but does for us - that was an on the road price with a dealer - make sure you do a deal on this and get them to pay the stamp duty and first 3 months rego at least

 

Short Term rental for 1 month - 1500AUD - we rented an aprtment in the city for 1 month so we are right in the thick of it and we prob only need 3 weeks as we have secured a longer term rent and we have been here 2 weeks

 

Long term rental- 3200AUD up front - this includes a 2400AUD bond and 2 weeks rent up front in Plympton Park - closer to the city than most here on the forum so not the cheapest but we both have jobs in the city so are going for the public transport commute each morning.

 

Other incidental costs include 55AUD each for changing over your british driving licences to australian ones, mobile broadband which we have found invaluable to have right from when we land as you seem to use internet for everything - Crazy Johns were the cheapest at 49AUD for 3G of data and this will do until you get a long term rental and can get broadband and just general food and living as we have been so usy during the day we find ourselves eating lunch out etc wherever we are so ends up costing a bit!!!

 

Hope this helps and obv this is just my example but these were the main set up costs we have had so far along with prob many other things

 

Hi Okmorris

 

Thanks for the information (some of the thigs you adviced we hadnt even thought about), I'm starting a list to make sure i remember everything!! Looks like money goes really fast initially. Did you have references to secure your long term rental?

 

Hope it all goes really well for you

[OKMorris]

Hi Okmorris

 

Thanks for the information (some of the thigs you adviced we hadnt even thought about), I'm starting a list to make sure i remember everything!! Looks like money goes really fast initially. Did you have references to secure your long term rental?

 

Hope it all goes really well for you

 

Hiya - we basically just gave them our lifes documents but really useful to know is that we owned in the UK and it was invaluable to have our Bill Of Sale from our house and our mortgage statement to say we were all paid up on time - I also got genreral credit references from the bank before we left to say we were of sound financial status and in no debt - we submitted this along with our passports etc and got accepted so I assume those extra documents helped as we had absolutely no rental history whatsoever!!!

 

Good Luck

[Guest Guest6899]

Hi Baggienurse

 

Thanks for the information, I think we will probably have to stay in short term rental for at least 6 weeks as we wont have anything until our container arrives, and we cant send our container ahead of us because of christmas! Did you have to have references for your long term rentals?

 

It does seem like money will go really quickly initially! Can I ask where your husband works? My husband is a learning disability nurse and he has emailed a couple of private companies, if there is any you can recommend it would be greatly appriciated

 

Claire

 

Hiya Claire, we gave details of the person who we booked our short term rental with and they did our reference, there were no issues with this. yes money will fly out, tbh it still is, lol.. we've just bought a house, loads of fees and charges, dentist bills, school fees it never ends but i wouldn't change it!! hubby works for disability SA, they use enrolled nurses for their nursing care within their homes. I'm sorry but i don't know anywhere who have learning disability nurses, it maybe worth putting in a seperate thread..

 

Lisa

[elainew]

Claire,try MINDA which employs Learning Disability Nurses. Some other folk may also have an input :-)

[Guest jones1541]

Claire,try MINDA which employs Learning Disability Nurses. Some other folk may also have an input :-)

 

Thanks Elaine

 

Claire

[Guest jones1541]

Hiya Claire, we gave details of the person who we booked our short term rental with and they did our reference, there were no issues with this. yes money will fly out, tbh it still is, lol.. we've just bought a house, loads of fees and charges, dentist bills, school fees it never ends but i wouldn't change it!! hubby works for disability SA, they use enrolled nurses for their nursing care within their homes. I'm sorry but i don't know anywhere who have learning disability nurses, it maybe worth putting in a seperate thread..

 

Lisa

Hi Lisa

 

Thanks for the info, sorry to be a pain with loads of questions but I see you work at Flinders hospital, I'm a RGN and I've read really good stuff about this hospital, do you know if they recruit from UK or do they prefer you to be in Adelaide already? I've got an interview with a private hospital next month!! Can i ask which area you moved to first and where you have bought a house now? It's so hard to choose where to start!! It's really nice to hear you wouldn't change anything, I'm getting a little bit scared as its all becoming very real!

 

Claire

[Guest jones1541]

Hiya - we basically just gave them our lifes documents but really useful to know is that we owned in the UK and it was invaluable to have our Bill Of Sale from our house and our mortgage statement to say we were all paid up on time - I also got genreral credit references from the bank before we left to say we were of sound financial status and in no debt - we submitted this along with our passports etc and got accepted so I assume those extra documents helped as we had absolutely no rental history whatsoever!!!

 

Good Luck

 

Hi, thanks yet again for the info, its getting a little scary now

[trevorpayne]

I dont know where you are heading for but we have used Century 21 and Southgates for our long and short term rentals, both have been fantastic.

I know some one put you can find long term rentals quickly here which you can but as you are shipping your furniture over you will need to stay fully furnished.

Our shipping was delayed by 2-3 weeks so we had to extend our stay in Aldinga ,which century 21 where very helpful with and let us use their office address for our post.

As for your sums they seem pretty much on the mark.

Good luck with your move.

[Guest Guest6899]

Hi Lisa

 

Thanks for the info, sorry to be a pain with loads of questions but I see you work at Flinders hospital, I'm a RGN and I've read really good stuff about this hospital, do you know if they recruit from UK or do they prefer you to be in Adelaide already? I've got an interview with a private hospital next month!! Can i ask which area you moved to first and where you have bought a house now? It's so hard to choose where to start!! It's really nice to hear you wouldn't change anything, I'm getting a little bit scared as its all becoming very real!

 

Claire

 

Hiya, no problems with the questions, when we first arrived we stayed in Reynella in elainew house for 8 weeks, lol.. very nice, great start to coming to Adelaide. we drove around and loved Port Noarlunga and found a brand new build, large two storey which we loved and currently live in. however we have just bought a lovely 3 bed with a pool in Christies Beach, so lived in a few places within the year.. I work on the Acute Medical Unit at Flinders, i had my interview and got the job whilst in the UK.. they only tend to give out temporary contracts unless your specialised like neonates.. if you interested in critical care, medical or cardiac then the contact is sally holding. its natural to be scared, but summers coming so cant be bad..

[Guest seajayj]

Hi Claire

 

my wife and myself moved over here 6 years ago, when we moved over our house sale fell through just before we moved out, which meant that we had to rent for nearly 12 months, it turned out to be a good thing as we then spent time to research the area we wanted to live and now live in a beautiful part of SA, Maslin beach, of which part of the beach is for naturists, not us by the way, but has the best beach in Australia... my point is that many who move over here buy within weeks of coming over and have not really had chance to get to know the good and bad areas, it is a great place to live and you will realise the benefits in due course, but give yourself time, its a learning experience, lots of us worried about money, jobs, missing family, but if you take time everything falls into place.

 

keep in touch with people on the sites, take advantage of the meet and greet services, go to the new migration meetings, join some of the local clubs, surf life saving is a good one as a lot of poms seem to have joined them. Don't be shy, get out and meet people and you will get a lot of help and support, and good luck you're gonna have a great time, its just spring here and the weather is getting hotter. Its great

[Guest jones1541]

I dont know where you are heading for but we have used Century 21 and Southgates for our long and short term rentals, both have been fantastic.

I know some one put you can find long term rentals quickly here which you can but as you are shipping your furniture over you will need to stay fully furnished.

Our shipping was delayed by 2-3 weeks so we had to extend our stay in Aldinga ,which century 21 where very helpful with and let us use their office address for our post.

As for your sums they seem pretty much on the mark.

Good luck with your move.

Hi thanks for the information, i will have a look at both

[Guest jones1541]

Hi Claire

 

my wife and myself moved over here 6 years ago, when we moved over our house sale fell through just before we moved out, which meant that we had to rent for nearly 12 months, it turned out to be a good thing as we then spent time to research the area we wanted to live and now live in a beautiful part of SA, Maslin beach, of which part of the beach is for naturists, not us by the way, but has the best beach in Australia... my point is that many who move over here buy within weeks of coming over and have not really had chance to get to know the good and bad areas, it is a great place to live and you will realise the benefits in due course, but give yourself time, its a learning experience, lots of us worried about money, jobs, missing family, but if you take time everything falls into place.

 

keep in touch with people on the sites, take advantage of the meet and greet services, go to the new migration meetings, join some of the local clubs, surf life saving is a good one as a lot of poms seem to have joined them. Don't be shy, get out and meet people and you will get a lot of help and support, and good luck you're gonna have a great time, its just spring here and the weather is getting hotter. Its great

 

Hi

Thank you so much for your post,everyone is so helpfull! We are not planning to buy anything for at least a year, were thinking of getting our first short term rental in Port Noarlunga, just need to figure out if I want to commute 40min to potential work place. Difficult to assess as I dont know what the trafic is like. We will defo take all the advice

[Guest jones1541]

Hiya, no problems with the questions, when we first arrived we stayed in Reynella in elainew house for 8 weeks, lol.. very nice, great start to coming to Adelaide. we drove around and loved Port Noarlunga and found a brand new build, large two storey which we loved and currently live in. however we have just bought a lovely 3 bed with a pool in Christies Beach, so lived in a few places within the year.. I work on the Acute Medical Unit at Flinders, i had my interview and got the job whilst in the UK.. they only tend to give out temporary contracts unless your specialised like neonates.. if you interested in critical care, medical or cardiac then the contact is sally holding. its natural to be scared, but summers coming so cant be bad..

Hi

That sounds LOVELY!! We are thinking of getting a short term rental in Port Noarlunga as it looks stunning seems to have everything and schools look good, but I'm a bit concerned about the commute time to Burnside (that is if i get a job) it says 40 min on the route planner, is this realistic? I havn't got a clue what the traffic is like! Looks like all the publig hospitals only give temporary contracts, no harm in sending my C.V I suppose.

[barbaitch]

It's so nice to read all these lovely, helpful posts from people all in the same boat - who don't even know each other - but all just trying to help their fellow Poms-new-to-Oz. Truly, PomsInAdelaide - as well as PomsInOz - are such great forums, and I just want to say a big THANK YOU to each and every one of you for being the people you are. We're all in it together, and even though most of our paths will never meet, we're all the same for all that, for all that...

 

 

I'll always be grateful for the day I found you ...

 

Edited September 26, 2012 by barbaitch

[cliffy]

I drive often from Aberfoyle Park to Burnside WMH. It is not a quick trip as there are no direct main roads and you are cutting across the city suburbs. Some days it takes me 40 mins because of the traffic on Goodwood Road and Cross Road. Port Noarlunga would be an extra 10-15 mins on that. I would look to live somewhere in the eastern suburbs if I was doing it every day.

[Guest jones1541]

I drive often from Aberfoyle Park to Burnside WMH. It is not a quick trip as there are no direct main roads and you are cutting across the city suburbs. Some days it takes me 40 mins because of the traffic on Goodwood Road and Cross Road. Port Noarlunga would be an extra 10-15 mins on that. I would look to live somewhere in the eastern suburbs if I was doing it every day.

Hi, thanks for the information, think an hour each way everyday would probably be too much for me eventually!

 

Claire

[Guest Guest6899]

Hi

That sounds LOVELY!! We are thinking of getting a short term rental in Port Noarlunga as it looks stunning seems to have everything and schools look good, but I'm a bit concerned about the commute time to Burnside (that is if i get a job) it says 40 min on the route planner, is this realistic? I havn't got a clue what the traffic is like! Looks like all the publig hospitals only give temporary contracts, no harm in sending my C.V I suppose.

 

Hubby says Burnside is quite a way from here and you don't want to be stuck in your car for an hour each way on a beautiful day, lol .... Flinders and im sure other hospitals such as noarlunga, RAH hospitals etc use lots of pool nurses & agency so you could work for those if you don't need a regular job initially? + RDNS are always advertising too, depends what you want.

[Guest USA soon just SA]

I am so happy to read this thread. We are arriving late october, and have been setting up and budgeting for all of the upcoming costs. You are not kidding that it looks really expensive! The numbers you quoted are about in line with what we are confronting, which was a great releif to us because we thought we had made terrible decisions leading to crazy costs. I have followed this forum for a while now, and depsite reading almost all of the posts, I did not find much mention of the anxiety and feelings that come up in these last few weeks (or if I did read them, they did not sink into my memory because I had no frameowrk to relate them to at that time). WOW, this is truly an emotional time for everyone, and tears are common lately. I am very proud of my wife and daughters, as they always pull through these tough emotional spots to look at the big picture of what this adventure will bring us as a family. Needless to say that the magnitude of the upcoming costs does not make these times any easier, but we knew what we were in for, and this will not deter us. I just keep telling myself what others on this site have said, it gets better in teh short term, and much better in the long term. I sure am looking forward to that!

Edited September 28, 2012 by USA soon just SA
clarify one point

[Guest pixie7]

Hi

Just wanted to say that those last weeks in your home country and the first in adelaide are the most emotional and hard work ever... but it is worth it and I think everyone feels the same and most importantly you will get through it! Ask if you are stuck- we've all been there and will help newbies.

 

As for costs the first weeks the money does literally run through your fingers- we did holiday rental for 2 weeks (no way will it take you 8 weeks to find a place- 3 weeks at most) and found a long term rental in that time, bonds for houses are usually 6 weeks rent if over $250 a week, then usually another 2 weeks up front- take references from UK/US to the viewings with you as well as ID. Cars are expensive- we used a small local rental place which was way cheaper than the big ones and my advice would be to buy asap even if its an old $1000-2000 car it will probably be more worthwhile than renting a car for 4 weeks.

 

We- like lots of people on here camped in our first rental place until we had the cash to buy things and our shipping arrived- we just bought the basics at first- camp chairs (!), fridge, kettle, plates etc, bed etc all kmart or Big W's finest at this point I can look back and smile fondly at the memory of those first few weeks but the reality was the fun wore off quickly- but I would do it exactly the same again, we were cautious about money being spent until we were earning and we agreed to keep a set amount in savings for unemployment/emergencies at home etc and we still do have our disaster fund, it worked for us taking things slowly and building up our new life

 

As soon as one of you has a job and the $$ start being earnt you can relax-ish! But please don't panic, you will be fine no need to worry- we have all been there and survived and don't forget others are nearby that are ready to help good luck