Maybe it’s not the best topic to start the blog but as almost 6 months passed since I moved to Sydney I got some first impression about staying here and want to share it. Of course, it is not the final version of my thoughts but just the current vision of the situation. Will update it in future.
So let’s start.
Property price
Property in Sydney is like a BitCoin - huge soap bubble. Everybody is waiting when it blows. And it is crazy to buy property now as the price is at the peak. This situation is not unique. It is said it is similar to California and many other “attractive” regions. A lot of reach Chinese people have difficulties with transferring money from China and saving from the government. The easiest way is to buy property somewhere and lease it. And they do - they are ready to pay crazy money for almost ruined houses just because it is a good investment and the safest. This makes the situation on the market really awful when the price for the house can become twice higher just in a year. That’s why locals don’t bother buying their own property.
Rent price
There are too many reach people here in Sydney who earned their money outside Australia and decided to spend it here! That should not be bad but compared to them you feel poor especially in the aspect of renting. Just some numbers: our office is located in Surry Hills where you can rent starting from $600-$700 per week. If you want to live near the beach or at least have Harbour view be ready to pay $2000-$4000 per week. OMG!
Private childcare price
The education system in Australia doesn’t provide childcare for kids under 5 years old when they can start to attend primary school. The only option here is to visit private childcare centers. The prices are terrible! I understand that private childcare is expensive everywhere because parents prefer to have the best service for their kids. But… my kids visited private kindergartens in Russia and that was expensive too. Though totally not so expensive. Back in St. Petersburg we paid 35 000RUB per month that corresponds to 2/3 of our monthly rental price. While here in Sydney private childcare price starts from 120$ per day!!! And can go higher, up to $150-$160 per day. That is more expensive than our rental price per day.
Public transport expenses
Public transport in Sydney is awful. Periodically I have to wait for 20-30 mins for the next train. Also, it is a very usual situation that due to some accident all the transport is postponed and you have to find alternative ways to reach your destination. At the same time, it costs not huge but I’d say higher than normal. Usually, I spend about $40 per week passing half of my way by car.
Home internet
The Internet is the worst thing in Australia. Since Australia is an Island they have problems with connection to WWW. So the Government organized an initiative NBN (National Broadband Network) - built the magistral network and started to sell traffic to local providers that can only retail it to clients. Not only this network is a single point of failure but the problem is the speed - it is awful in peak hours (evenings, especially on weekends). And of course the price. Currently, I pay $75 per month for the limited (!) 500Gb internet package with the 50Mbps speed which is a bit lower commonly. And if you want to have unlimited traffic with the same speed or higher it would cost you starting from $90 per month (of course you can save a bit by signing a fixed contract with termination fee or buying router from your provider).
Road fines
Just a short fact - fine for the turn under the red arrow signal is $439!
Local beer
Local beer sucks! Of course, you can buy some German beer but… Strangely it’s quite hard to find the most famous Australian beer Fosters. So when I accidentally found it in the shop I decided I have to try it. It was the most useless waste of $16.