Living in Sydney

You are a lucky person!
Yes you can indeed ride, run to work, most (I say most) companies have showers for those who like to exert themselves before work or during their lunch hour.

Unfortunately... it is expensive. I am sad to say. Lower north shore... normally more expensive than most, but, it seems to me the prices have dropped a bit in Sydney, so I guess, now is the time to buy.

Good salary rate too for Sydney... good luck.
Perhaps you should rent first to get a feel of where you would really honestly like to be. Everyone has their own taste.

Question first! Where are you coming from? (from your spelling, I'd guess US - or perhaps you made some allowance for this being a US-based board!)

Then answers - of sorts:

1. Less lower north shore is a good neighbourhood, and yes - you will pay over the odds to live there.
Depending on where you end up working, you may find cheaper suitable places. It all depends on what you want.

2. Running and/or cycling to work is not common, but it is possible. Again it depends on where you live and work. In summer, which is pretty humid, you may be quite unpopular, unless you pay particular attention to personal hygiene.

3. $80K-$100K is a better than average salary for Sydney. But then, Sydney is an expensive place to live! Pretty interesting, challenging, exciting, though.

More info from you may get a more precise or intelligent response from me -but no guarantees on that second qualifier, though! - come to think of it - no guarantees on the first, either. MAY is probably the most important word in that sentence!

Thank's for the info Ben & Margo,

Well I got the job and we're arriving in Sydney 6th October from the UK.

I'll be working in Castlereagh Street and have 6 weeks temporary accomodation set up.

We need to buy a good people mover and find a long term house rental.

Ideally we would like a 3+ bed house with garage & garden for the kids.

Any ideas what my take home pay would be for $95k p.a.?

This would help me work out how much rent I could afford and most probably dictate which area we move to.

We have alraedy visited family in Scotland & France to say goodbye and I did not apreciate how difficult it would be.

Any ideas on how to set up a PO Box in Sydney that we could direct our UK mail to?

We are really excited just now and a just a tad nervous.

Any further info graetfully appreciated.

George & Val.

To find out your net income... got to
tax calculator
There you will find how to work it out, it all has to do with tax brackets.

Good luck!

re Sydney rents
www.domain.com.au is the equivalent of fish4homes in Oz - check it out. But Sydney rents are quite expensive and have just gone up by about 20% recently as there is an acute shortage of rental properties with vacancy rates of around 1.5%. And the lower North Shore can be expensive. Calculate on spending about 40-50% of your net salary on rent. Good news is water and council rates are paid by landlord. Good luck.

We are a NZer and Ozzie living in Bristol, due to go back over the next 2 years (slowly, via various spots around the world), so know how the dislocation feels. I hope you have a great time there.