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Home loans are available from several types of lenders, and these include commercial banks, mortgage companies, credit unions, and even mortgage broker. Discuss with all the financial institution and finance brokers to understand their assessment of “the best” loan structure for your personal situation, and ask them to explain their recommendation to you to ensure that you have sufficient clarity on what you may get yourself into. Generally the maximum term for any home loan is 30 years with the option of paying the loan on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. Just note that the more often you can make repayments, the lower the interest cost and the sooner your loan will be repaid. Talking about repayment, do remember to ask about the penalty for lump sum payment early repayment (if any) as you may want to have the flexibility of changing where your loan comes when the competition for your loan mortgage business heats up.

Right from the start, do remember that many charges associated with a loan from the financial institution and brokers are negotiable and may vary enormously, thus you will have to do your homework. With all the information collated, you will then have to assess which of the plan that you are comfortable with and can best afford for the duration of the loan repayment term, and not just by taking the lowest interest rate. Also do take note that home mortgage for the property that you are living in is a non-tax-deductible expense; and due to the income tax structure in Australia it will mean that every one dollar saved on your mortgage is almost two dollars earned before tax paid.

Once you are comfortable with how much you can borrow along with the periodic loan repayment amount and tenure along with the entity that the loan will be coming from, it will be prudent for you to get the in-principle approval for the loan requirement (regardless if the loan is off-shore or on-shore). If you do not have the pre-approved loan before you go to inspect the home of your choice, you may lose out to other potential buyers who have the pre-approved loan. This is even more critical if you intend to get a home loan from your country of origin as such loan may take longer to be approved when you submit the application. Thus, the saying of “early bird catches the worm” is very true in this situation.

The topic next week will be on “research the home property market”, unless there are feedbacks from readers via this website and/or friends directly on other points highlighted above. Have a great week ahead.

After you have confirmed that you are eligible to buy a property in Australia as your house, the next thing is for you and your spouse or your loved ones to determine the budget that you can afford as a household unit. If you are the lucky few that do not require any loan, the budget will be as simple as what you want to spend for your new home. However, if you need to borrow from a financial institution (be in off-shore or on shore) is inevitable, you will need to consider your budget carefully as the repayment amount may differ vastly depending on the financial institution that loan is taken from and along with type of loan that you have taken up.

You will need to consider your budget affordability for the entire duration of the loan term, and what this means is that you will need to take into consideration of what may happen in the next 12 months (e.g. new baby on the way – congrats to you and your spouse if that is the case) or do a crystal ball gazing exercise to foresee what may happened after 12 months (e.g. spouse becoming a homemaker or perhaps the potential of interest rate moving up). As you may already know by now, every point of interest rate going up can probably effect you financial position adversely.

Thus, when considering your budget affordability, following are some of the cost that must be taken into account as it may impact you immediately one you sign on the purchase document:

01. stamp duty and GST

02. inspection fee

03. home building insurance

04. loan establishment fee

05. legal or conveyencing fee

06. council and water rates

07. moving cost

The savings grace from all the cost above is the First Home Owner Grant Scheme (“FHOG”) which is a national scheme to introduce by the government to offset the GST introduced. I will dive deeper into the subject of FHOG in the future.

The topic next week will be on “research for loan and arrange for pre-approval”, unless there are feedbacks from readers via this website and/or friends directly on other points highlighted above. Have a great week ahead.

I was just having dinner with two business acquaintances from Sydney today, and an interesting discussion (or should I say question) came up. The topic – “Which is the best suburb in Sydney”.

For one of the business acquaintance, Glebe or Newton would be the best suburb in Sydney as it is near to the city; yet not losing its quintessential village atmosphere. The other reasons that came up subtly were because there is a multitude of eateries/restaurants and my acquaintance favourite pass time is enjoying glorious food! After a few drinks I realised that my acquaintance lived in Newton with a son going to the University of Sydney. Guess what University of Sydney is just a stone throw away from their family abode, thus may be a bit too hippy/student orientated for some. So it seems that best suburb means family convenience?

For the other business acquaintance, Surry Hills is the best as it THE über-modern trendy hangouts for je ne sais quoi yuppies. You guessed it right; the other business acquaintance is still a single yuppie who is living with a partner, and both of them love to hang out at Surry Hills markets or café, hopping for the best latte in Sydney! I was told that in Surrey Hills is where one can find a lifestyle of tattoos, facial piercing, and walking bare feet without being stared at. If you are an animal lover, you may not feel comfortable as this suburb have its annual Australia Day Dog Race along the main road.

At the end of the dinner, my conclusion was that the best suburb is Sydney boils down to numerous factors that include affordability, marital/children status, amenities, lifestyle, and most importantly one’s perception and believe. For me the eastern suburbs of Sydney (e.g. Bondi or Coogee) will be the best if I am still single, but as I am married with kids; the eastern suburbs will expose my kids early with to many aspects of life that I rather not expose them to. Thus, for me Heathcote is the best suburb for me as it allows me to go for camping, boating, bush walking, and any sporting activities with my wife and kids; albeit further to commute into CBD. If and when bored with the outdoors activities, there are several great shopping centres to visit. For education, there are 2 primary schools and a huge high school along with a good selection of private schools.

So which is the best suburb in Sydney for you, and why?

Before you decide to buy a property as your house in Australia, you will need to know about the existing restriction on who is allow to buy a house in Australia, especially when you and/or your spouse may belong to any of the following categories: (a) Australian citizen, (b) Australian PR, (c) waiting for your Australian PR, (d) expatriates, or (e) students.

If you intent to buy a house in Australia and you are not an Australian citizens or PR (regardless whether you have submitted your Australian PR application) you will need prior approval from the Australian government, unless you fall under one of the following category:

1) you have an Australian spouse who is buying the house with you as joint tenants; or

2) you and your spouse hold a “special category visa”, e.g. a New Zealand citizen; or

3) you are a student from a recognised tertiary institution with a student visa valid for at least the next 12 months.

If you do not fall under any of the category above, you will need to submit your application in writing to Foreign Investment Review Board (“FIRB”), and the form can be downloaded from http://www.firb.gov.au/content/application_form.asp?NavID=46. The form may take about 40 to 90 days to be processed, but FIRB is also known to have expedited the approval process to about 5 days if you inform them about your need/situation. Thus, if you are entering into a contract prior receiving the approval from FIRB, it will be paramount for you to ensure that the contract you are signing is conditional upon you obtaining foreign investment approval to avoid a breach of the Australian statute. On the same note, you should not engage yourself in any auction sales as auction bid are not conditional by nature; therefore breaking the law (and risk imprisonment) and be subjected to legal action from the vendor.

The topic next week will be on “determine your budget for the home”, unless there are feedbacks from readers via this website and/or friends directly on other points highlighted above. Have a great week ahead.

On Sunday 26^th Aug 2007, the Australian government has just release a document entitled “Becoming an Australian citizen - AUGUST 2007 DRAFT” to provide the public an indication of what the new Australian citizenship test will cover. There were some concerns among impending Australian PR applicants and expatriates that they may have to take the test as well. Well, as of public knowledge today, there is no indication that this will be the case.

However, if you are an existing permanent residence and are planning to apply for the Australian citizenship, you may be affected by the new changes. Some of the salient points on the Citizenship Test include the following:

Purpose: To assess whether you have a basic knowledge of the English language

Approach: Computer based written multiple-choice test

Subject: General knowledge of Australia and the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship

No of Questions: 20 questions drawn at random from a pool of 200 questions

Passing Criteria: 60%, including all 3 correct answers on responsibilities and privileges of citizenship

Venue: In every office of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Frequency: It will be regularly scheduled

Is you are wondering on the format of the questions, here are some sampler:

01) In what year did Federation take place?

02) Which day of the year is Australia Day?

03) Who was the first Prime Minister of Australia?

04) What is the first line of Australia’s national anthem?

05) What is the floral emblem of Australia?

06) What is the population of Australia?

07) Who is the Queen’s representative in Australia?

08) How are Members of Parliament chosen?

09) What are the colours on the Australian flag?

10) In what year did the European settlement of Australia start?

Note: As all my writing on this topic of buying property in Australia was written based on my own experience when looking for my home in Australia. Thus, you should consider its appropriateness to your own circumstances (including your family and/or loved ones), and if you are not familiar or not comfortable with certain topic you should obtain professional counsel from people trained on the topic; e.g. legal, financial and taxation.

Following were the fundamental steps that you can take when looking for a property that you can call home:

01. Determine your (and your spouse’s) eligibility

02. Determine your budget for the home

03. Research for loan and arrange for pre-approval

04. Research the home property market

05. Organise for property inspection

06. Negotiate and make the offer

07. Negotiate and make the deposit

08. Arrange for conveyancing

09. Arrange for insurance

10. Settlement

The topic next week will be on “determine your (and your spouse’s) eligibility”, unless there are feedbacks from readers via this website and/or friends directly on other points highlighted above. Have a great week ahead.

As a self professed coffee addict who have my lips and tongue scalded once too many time, I was glad to come across an Australian made product that is really revolutionary in my view. Just imagine this product can help me (and I believe many others) from saying “OUCH” (due to scalded lips and/or tongues) to “WOW”!

You may also have the potential to be a distributor for this product (if you are in the trading business) or use it in your business (especially if you run a catering or food business). So what is this revolutionary product that I am referring to? Well, it’s a lid, but it is an intelligently smart coffee lid that will let me know if the coffee is too hot, and the following picture will indeed paint a thousand words…

A good friend just informed me about some strange laws in Australia (Victoria, to be specific) which he read on The Daily Telegraph (dated 17^th August 2007 12:00am). The first is that “In Victoria Australia, only a licensed electrician is allowed to change a lightbulb” and the second is that “In Victoria Australia it is forbidden to wear pink hot pants after mid-day on a Sunday”. Out of curiosity, I have searched through all references to bills introduced into the Australian Parliament along with its transcripts arising from the hearings of committees when they are considering legislation and the Budget Papers. The conclusion is that both the laws above are not true. It will be interesting if there is a different finding from someone else on the subject.

Based on the information that I read from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia, there are numerous programmes made available by the Australian government for potential migrants to immigrate to Australia, and it includes but not limited to:

1) General Skilled Migration (“GSM”) visa programme. This programme is meant for potential immigrants who have the necessary skills and qualifications for an occupation listed on Australia’s Skilled Occupation List (“SOL”). Do note that there are impending changes the GSM visa programme that will be introduced on 1^st Sep 2007. However, any potential immigrants who have submitted an application under the GSM programme on or before 31^st Aug 2007 will not be affected by the changes.

2) Doctors and Nurses visa programme. This programme is meant specifically for potential immigrants who planned to be in Australia based on their professional occupation as doctor or nurse. [Note: Click on “09. Living & Working” under “Pages” on the left to view more details on such opportunities.]

3) Employer Sponsored Workers visa programme. This programme is meant for potential immigrants who have the necessary skills and/or qualifications required in Australia, and they must be sponsored and employed by a lawfully operating Australian and overseas employers. Generally, there are 2 main types of visa are available for this programme:

a) Skilled Workers Temporary Visa Options. There are several categories within this option and it allows the potential immigrants to be in Australia for a period of between three (3) months and four (4) years or even permanently (under the Labour Agreements arrangements) without any limit on the number of times they travel in and out of Australia.

b) Skilled Workers Permanent Visa Options. There are several categories within this option and it allows the potential immigrants to be in Australia permanently without any limit on the number of times they travel in and out of Australia.

4) Business People (Provisional and Permanent) visa programme. This programme is meant for potential immigrants who planned to be in Australia for business development purpose. There are several categories within this option and it allows the business people who plan to establish or have established business in Australia and it offers a permanent pathway for permanent residency in Australia.

5) Family Members visa programme. This programme is meant for potential immigrants who have fiancé(é), partner, children, parents, and other family members who is already Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens.

6) Returning Residents visa programme. This programme is meant for potential immigrants who are (i) current or former Australian permanent residents, (ii) former Australian citizens to travel overseas to return, or (iii) former Australian permanent residents, and persons who served in the Australian Armed Forces before 1981 to return.

Before my wife and I decided on where to live when we immigrate to Australia we travelled to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth to view the cities with our kids to find out which city fit us best. The travelling and accommodation cost for this endeavour can be very expensive, and what we found out is that if you would like to hunt for reasonable accommodation you may find them in ZUJI Hotels and for