4mo ago

Moving to Brisbane: what do I need to watch out for?

Accepted a job in Brisbane. Moving from the Southwest US.

Apparently Grace Removals will be shipping our stuff.

We have a kid that’ll be eligible for 1st year in January. Public or private school?

How did the housing market get so bonkers?

Am I going to have to bring extra ketchup through customs for my kid, or is the tomato sauce close enough to make an easy switch?

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Even if you plan to put your kid in private school later, I'd recommend public for primary (elementary) school. Our schools in general are far better than what the USA offers.
The government spent 40 years telling Boomers that investing in property was "Safe as houses", so lots of them have multiple properties. Also: They allowed foreign ownership, so we have international investors buying homes here where their assets are safe.
Tomato Sauce is so much better than ketchup, but you can buy Heinz ketchup here if you desperately need it for some reason.
We don't have Mexican food. We have occasional Mexican restaurants that are good (not sure about Brisbane), but Mexican food is not ubiquitous in Australia like you'll be used to. If you love Mexican, overdose on it before you come here. I can't think of any other food examples where you'll miss from the USA.
California and South-East Queensland are moderately comparable climate-wise. You'll be right at home.
- I appreciate the commentary, especially about loading up on the Mexican food. I had a sneaking suspicion that we’d end up having to make our own more often than not.
  
  we do have incredible asian food though!
- The government spent 40 years telling Boomers that investing in property was “Safe as houses”, so lots of them have multiple properties. Also: They allowed foreign ownership, so we have international investors buying homes here where their assets are safe.
  All this is true, but the more critical reasons are the capital gains discount and negative gearing.
  
  It was semi necessary at the time, there is a window of boomers who have very little super as the majority of their working life was before mandatory super requirements got to useful levels.
  So - get them into cheap investment property with negative gearing and CG discounts, let them build up equity, sell the family home/pay off mortgage when reaching retirement, use the cash and investment property to live a better life than just the pension.
  It's not particularly necessary now, but we've let that horse well and truly bolt and every man+dog is into investment property now.

10 comments