Anyone have any experience applying for skills based permenant residency?
Anyone lived in Sydney before. How's the beach life. Quality of housing. Expenses, salaries, jobs.
Thanks!
Anyone have any experience applying for skills based permenant residency?
Anyone lived in Sydney before. How's the beach life. Quality of housing. Expenses, salaries, jobs.
Thanks!
Hello, I lived in Sydney for 15 years. Beaches are great if that's your thing!
Quality of housing much bigger than hong kong and cheaper too!
Standard of living is slightly cheaper... groceries and rent cheap - eating out is roughly the same as hk.. salaries in Australia are quite high depending on the industry - though taxes are much higher than hk.
skills based PR is quite simple and can be applied online via the Australian government website.
The non coastal areas in Western Sydney where most Sydneysiders live are much cheaper than the beaches areas.
Sydney's housing prices, like Vancouver, are still among the top 5 or 10 in the world.
Cost of living except housing is actually much more expensive than all of Asia, including Hong Kong and Japan. Eating out, the same meal in Sydney compared to in HK, is very expensive. Has shopping and service taxes, HK does not have this tax. Expensive clothings and mobile phone charges........But salaries in Australia are high, compared with all of Asia and the US. With much more higher income tax rates than HK.
The much higher eating out, shopping including groceries and clothings and tax rates are the reasons me and my friends choose HK instead. As HK Chinese, we don't like western food and the types of Asian food in Australia. Eating out in HK is cheaper, more choices of Asian and Chinese cuisines and tasty. For example, I don't think you can buy rice congee or youtiao+soy milk for breakfast or late night snack in Australia. Or eat a bowl of cheap wonton noodles. Yesterday I went to the old part of Kwun Tong, the numbers, variety and opening hours of eateries at the street level are just amazing. I like Mainland Chinese cities too due to the same reason. You can eat cheap and tasty Chinese food in the middlle of the night.
Last edited by lighthse003; 12-04-2016 at 01:09 PM.
Hi there,
As someone who recently moved from Sydney to Hong Kong I can tell you that aside from rent, everything is more expensive in Australia. However, if you are looking at living closer to the beach in a somewhat nice apartment without house sharing, rents are also quite expensive.
You are looking at an income tax of around 30-40%.
I transferred from the Sydney office to the Hong Kong office with the same company, and the salary I get paid here is more.
Another thing worth mentioning is that most shops close by 5:30pm, except Thursday when it is late night shopping and they stay open until 9pm. Restaurants close by 10-11pm and you cannot buy alcohol in any liquor stores (only places selling alcohol) after 10pm. Pubs and clubs in the city are affected by lockout laws which mean that you cannot get in anywhere after 1am and all places close by 3am.
The benefits of Sydney I would have to say is the nature aspect. You have amazing beaches, mountains, national parks and you spend most of your time outdoors. The weather is amazing and humidity is nowhere near as bad as here. Also, work life balance is a lot better and you are not expected to work long hours (this of course depends on your industry).
It really depends on the lifestyle you enjoy and want to have.
I've lived in Sydney twice...the first time I lived in Newtown, the second in Petersham.
I don't rate Sydney's beaches but I was raised on the west coast where the sand is white instead of bricklayer yellow! Remember, Sydney gets cold...I would say the beach season for non-surfers is only 3 months...and then it's rammed.
For me, Newtown and Leichardt with their independent cafes, veggie restaurants, cafe cum bookshops...I loved all that...the big Italian greengrocers on Norton...most pubs in Sydney are fronts for legal gaming...horses and pokie machines.
Crime is off the scale...
I wouldn't raise kids through teenage years in Sydney...
+1
What he said.
Great city to be a gangster, if you have the gumption. Policing, law-enforcment, and sentencing are all pretty effeminate and prone to showing up 15 mins after the fact + slaps on wrists. (Unless your wife phones in that you've been beating her; then all bets are off - that'll get you a SWAT Team.) Otherwise, feel free to cook meth, be a loanshark, whatever. Icing on the cake is that only criminals are allowed to have guns. The police don't count as they will arrive 15 minutes after you're done with whatever.
Conversely, NOT such a great place to be a regular law-abiding citizen: you'll be nanny stated and hedged in with all sorts of rules about what you can and cannot do with your own property and business.
The place is vasty overrated unless you're either (a) gay or (b) wealthy enough to live on the harbour.
As for the tax regime: punitive to people who work hard, and when you see what they piss your taxes away on, you'll stroke out.
OTOH, get out of big cities and the nature, fresh air, and lifestyle, and people can be excellent.
Last edited by Kinch; 12-04-2016 at 03:29 PM.
@Kinch - Can of worms officially opened, for today's entertainment.
@shri must be my CIA training!
I was keeping quiet because I haven't lived there for ages, but it sounds like it hasn't changed that much.
But one thing people havent mentioned yet: as well as exhorbitant prices (unlike Americans and Europeans, Aussies coming here don't get sticker shock here when they want to buy decent shoes, computers or whatever), you will need to factor in the cost os running a CAR. With lots of petrol. Public transport is a disaster, at least in any area you might actually want to live in. In the areas with half-way decent transport (less than 30 minutes walk to the nearest train station or bus stop, transport timetabled at least once an hour), you will - as LD and Kinch pointed out - need to watch out for the crime.
Although the variety and freshness of foods available there was much better than here, the price of eating out means that for many it is strictly a Special Occasion activity.