I think if you settle down in cities other than Melb and Sydney, mortgage repayments should be quite affordable. Median house prices in these cities (Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane) are around A$540k - i think this price range is quite affordable for a working couple.

A cheap strata is around A$600/qtr - it is very hard to go below this. Don't need to check the water rates as they are pretty standard no matter what type of unit it is (house water rates is different as it is based on usage).

Public holidays is so few in Aust - luckily i get rdo (roster day off) which is a day off every 4 weeks.

You may be right on this. I have only been interested in buying units in the eastern suburbs/inner west so the strata may be higher due to the location.

You must understand that Aust is based on a socialist system - one that is skewed towards protecting the poor and punishing the rich (through high taxes). If Labor comes into power in May, expect the left movement to increase their power by punishing employers/big corporations.

Aust is unlike US or UK where the powerful business lobbyists remain strong. This is the reason why a lot of businesses are closing down in Aust and moving offshore. Aust doesn't want people to get rich otherwise they will not have such high taxes - they want the rich to pass some of their wealth to poorer people. When it goes too far left (dependency on welfare), the country falls behind and usually something has to give - end result is currency depreciation or businesses moving out of the country.

This is the reason why you can get a comfortable life in Aust but not one based on luxuries.

I graduated from Syd Uni in 1983 and have quite a few friends move back to Kl and some who stayed back in Sydney after they graduated. I feel that our group in Sydney has done better (financially) than those in KL. No doubt we have a couple of friends who have probably amassed more than Rm15mil living in KL (money not from parents) but overall i feel that the group in Sydney has done better financially. The group from KL has most of their children studying in Aust (those who want to study) and their parents in KL have told their children to try to get Aust PR and stay back as they don't see a good future for them in Msia.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Jan 25 2019, 10:45 AM

Australia can provide anyone with a very comfortable retirement if you work hard. There is the option of the age-pension if you fall behind in savings when you get old. How many countries in the world provides that?

I am retiring at a very young age and if i elect to work a little longer, i can increase my retirement savings quite significantly. However i am quite happy with what i have now and even if i have an additional A$2mil, i don't think i will live my life any differently. I guess in life we just have to be happy with what we have and i feel this actually brings us more happiness than forever hoping we have more.

Wow!!

If your pay goes from A120k to A150k/yr, you may be getting A$30k more a year but the govt has a hand in one of your pockets so you only get to keep A18.3k (37% marginal tax + 2% Medicare levy). Looks good on paper but you got to share it.

https://www.ato.gov.au/rates/individual-income-tax-rates/

I have an accountant friend live in Marayong in the late 80s and he has upgraded several times and now lives in North Sydney. Don't know too much about Marayong nowadays as i have no friends living there now.

I think you will see more and more bad news coming in the next 2-3 years for those who have bought new apartments - i already see my younger friends who have bought in the last 2-3 years (with interest-only loans) wanting to sell but feel heart broken because they have to lose money so they say they will only sell if they cannot get their interest-only loans renewed. I think a lot of people are in this situation where they don't want to sell (at a loss) and hope for a change in market sentiment (so they will lose less) when their interest-only loans become due. There are a lot of interest-only loans coming due this and next year so you will see a consistent number of sellers on the market all the time. Nobody wants to sell at a loss (esp properties) unless they are forced to and you can bet 80-90% of sellers on the market now are due to interest-only loans (that cannot be renewed).

There was a report by a real estate agent saying most people who don't have problems with their loans now will not be selling. Most of those selling are those who cannot get their loans renewed as banks are trying to reduce their interest-only proportion of the total loans. I have got a good Egyptian friend who has 4 properties (on interest-only loans) and is now forced to sell as the interest-only term is expiring and the banks will no longer renew these loans. He now has to take up principal+interest housing loans but he cannot meet the repayments (a lot more than before) so he is forced to sell.

It is lucky the Banking Royal Commission caught this practice - if it had been left longer, the housing downturn would have been a lot more severe.

I remembered my Egyptian friend would buy me lunch every few months (2-3 years ago) to celebrate because the banks have just revalued his properties and increased his borrowing limit. This went on for about 2 years until a year ago. Nowadays he calls me up to see if i can give him an overdraft to cover unexpected expenses . I have been telling him to be careful as he is already 60 years old but he keeps saying i am stupid because of my conservative approach!! He doesn't earn much with his wife only working part-time and he managed to secure A$1.6mil worth of loans!! He uses a mortgage broker who is very good at fudging the figures

I saw some lion dance going down Liverpool Street (in front of BBQ King) last Sunday so they have already started going around. Luckily weather seemed to have cooled down today - yesterday was the hottest day since i came back from KL and the power cutoff (in Randwick) around noon yesterday didn't help either. Luckily i was at work but my wife was at home and she indicated this is the first time she experienced a blackout in her 29 years in Sydney.

Talking about rats, the report last week about a rat running around in Din Tai Fung (Westfield City food court) has been very damaging to the company. We had dinner at Din Tai Fung (World Square) last night (around 6pm) and there were only about half the normal amount of people - usually we have to wait to get a table but last night was so quiet.

Wow. You are really in woop woop land!! How long are you there for?

If you are looking to buy so far away, you have to be prepared to travel. Some of the suburbs you mentioned i haven't even heard before!! Why don't you go for a smaller block nearer the city that is closer to train stations?

Judging from your posts, you must be very young esp since you say you like gaming.

You still have a long way to build up a good career and now that property prices are dropping, that is working in your favour. Since your wife is also working, you should be able to save quite a fair bit. Hopefully the Aust economy will remain strong but there is a good chance a recession is looming due to the high household debt (and people reducing spending).

Apologise if there is a perception as if i am reprimanding/ridiculing you because you are still gaming at a considerable age.

I am 57 now and don't understand anything about gaming. When i saw some threads with DOTA on it a year ago, i was wondering what it was and after goggling it found the answer. Just shows what happens when you don't have kids.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Feb 16 2019, 04:24 AM

All the signs are showing that house prices in Sydney will go down much lower towards the end of this year. No politician dares to talk about house prices which is a good indication of how things are.

I have been telling you about how my Egyptian friend has gone from 1 property to 5 properties in the space of 4 years - well, the latest news is that St.George bank is forcing him to come up with more equity. Two of the properties were on one loan with a expiry date of 15/2/2019. The bank valued his 2 properties (Casula) at A$1.3mil but he owes them A$1.35mil. He has negative equity on those 2 properties!! This is apparently a very common scene for those who bought in the last 4 years and it is not getting any better. You can probably save yourself quite a lot of money by waiting another 1-2 years before committing.

I think the banks all know there are a lot of people with negative equity (esp those with interest-only loans). Now what would you do if you were the banks? If you stop lending (as you know property prices are dropping), the whole economy will suffer. If you lend, you must base your lending on the most conservative valuation (as the valuation probably has to factor in a discount). This is where the problem is - the banks must not let their clients know the real situation of the current market as this will create a crash - imagine if everyone knows how widespread the problem is!! However, their clients will find out later but then it is too late as they would have already purchased. This is exactly where we are at the moment - the banks and the govt wants a slow price decline (this is similar to the method used by stock exchange to restrict trading during a crash). Why do you think the banks (and the govt) are not releasing any negative news about their loans? The answer is - they want a slow gradual decline (and not a crash!!) and they hope eventually the market will balance out. People will not tell you the extent of the problem (unless you know them well) and i know a lot of friends in the construction industry.

My cousin is in the construction industry (in Sydney) - he has a company that does soil analysis (so they can tell how high a building can go on a plot of land). He is extremely worried about the current situation as he has about 12 properties (bought over the past 12 years and the last 4 during the peak) on his books (all interest-only loans) - you cannot blame him as he is in the construction industry so he was extremely bullish in the past. My cousin probably doesn't need to worry too much because he has a very rich father who can bail him out. From this you can see why Sydney prices has been so crazy the last few years - it was because of the interest-only loans!!