One for the girls

Don't know your Aussie Rules from your 20/20 or your wipeouts from your tries (or is that trys??) Well help is at hand with a new Aussie based web site just for us....

http://www.sheknowstherules.com/ She Knows the Rules...or will soon A new website designed to connect women with sport in a way that makes them feel more confident about attending, watching and engaging with sport is here!

Ok not very PC, but here in Aus you have to get used to that, the Aussies say it how it is and don't worry too much if they might offend - personally I think it's great.

The best thing about this site is you can get the info to show the boys how much you know about sports - oh and Pommie guys you can gen up on the Aussie sports so you don't sound like too much of a girl when you get to the pub with your new Aussie mates.

Sports are really big over here, this quote from the site says it all 'Former Prime Minister John Howard once suggested that the only job in public life more important than his own was that of Australia’s cricket captain.' So learn, and enjoy.

I have to confess I went to the WACA to see a 20/20 match, ok I still don't quite get the cricket, but to sit in the sun for an afternoon, drinking wine and watching guys playing sport....it was a great day out.

Vote Confidence - The Case for Confidence

The case for confidence. Check out this great site showing the positive attitude currently in WA!

Life's pretty good over here in W.A. While the rest of the world is running around like a bunch of headless chooks caught up in recession fever, West Australians are busy getting on with the job of making this state a top-notch place to live.

Everywhere you turn, you'll find confidence. It's in the people. It's in the economy. And no, that's not lavender in the air, that's confidence and a can-do attitude.

In the last few months, surveys have shown that consumer confidence is back to where it was before the global economy went kerplunk. Just take a look at how we're spending our hard-earned cash. Between April and May 2009, retail purchases were up 3.4%* and car sales up 3%*. And according to 59%** of people surveyed, current buying conditions are positive. In fact, property developers are planning on expanding retail businesses over the next five years***. Not bad considering we're supposed to be in the midst of a global financial thingamaggiga.

The mining sector is on the rebound too. Billions of dollars have been invested into major oil and gas operations, including the massive Gorgon gas project that's just been given the green light. So it comes as no surprise that W.A. employers have the highest rate of confidence in Australia. Even one in five international businesspeople**** believe there's nowhere better to be living right now, than right here.

But it's nothing West Australians didn't already know. We're already busy buying up houses and homes in preparation for a brighter future. Real estate sales have jumped by 23%*****, and home loan approvals have skyrocketed by 30.8%* in the last year. That's what happens when 56%** of West Australians reckon our economy will go from strength to strength in the next 12 months.

References:
*Chamber of Commerce and Industry - "Economic Trends"; 9 July 2009
**Curtin Business School - "CCI Survey of Consumer Confidence; June quarter 2009
***Press Release - "Development survey shows long-term confidence in WA retail property"; 19 December 2008
****Press Release - "Nowhere better than Australia to ride out crisis: survey"
*****Press Release - "Real estate is safe as houses for investors";8 July 2009

First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) and Stamp Duty

FHOG
In Western Australia, the government has made a grant available to first home owners of $7,000 to put towards the cost of their first house.

As a permanent resident visa holder you too will be eligible for this grant when you buy your first home in Australia.

Even better news is that if you buy (or build) your house before 31st December 2009 you will also be eligible for the First Home Owners Grant Boost, which is in addition to the WA Government funded $7,000 First Home Owner Grant.

If your contract is made before 30th September 2009, this is:

• an additional $7,000 if you are buying an established house or;
  
• an additional $14,000 if you are buliding or buying a new house.

Or if your contract is made after 30th September 2009 and before 31st December 2009, this is:

• an additional $3,500 if you are buying an established house or;
  
• an additional $7,000 if you are buliding or buying a new house.

You can find out more about this at the Government of Western Australia, Department of Treasury and Finance

Stamp Duty
In addition to this grant if you are a first home owner you may also be eligible for no or reduced stamp duty on your property purchase. Currently, if the property is bought for under $500,000 there will be no stamp duty to pay. Further details are available here.

In addition to these incentives you may also be eligible for the

Home Buyers Assistance Account
The Home Buyers Assistance Account is established under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 to provide first home buyers with financial support.

The scheme provides a grant of up to $2,000 for the incidental expenses of first home buyers when they purchase an established or partially built home through a licensed real estate agent for a purchase price of $400,000 or less.

Again for more details of this and your eligibility see here.

All in all as a first home buyer in Western Australia you get a pretty good deal.

If you have any specific real estate questions please feel free to contact John (john@ozhouserental.com) as he is a real estate agent in Rockingham and can help you out.

Another Happy Customer :)

"We stayed at 14 Haselmere Circus for a month when we first arrived in WA.

The house was great, well furnished and spacious with everything we needed.
The garden was gorgeous and backs onto a park.

The location was very convenient for all the shops and services in Rockingham and also close to the train station for trips to Perth.

Moving straight into a house was great as it gave us a residential address for accessing services and getting established. It also helped us to settle quickly as it was much more homely than other types of accommodation.

John and Tracey were a great source of local information and support and helped us to find our way around, organise cars etc. Most of all, it was a huge benefit that they had been through the process themselves, so knew what we were experiencing both practically and emotionally.

Renting out 14 Haselmere definitely helped to make our big move smooth and as hassle free as possible. We would recommend it to anyone else like us, planning to move over from the UK.
Sam and James"

Internet access when you arrive

You've spent the last year, or more, researching on the internet, finding out about your new home, applying for jobs, communicating with the locals and others going through the same feelings, hopes, fears, doubts as you. Your virtual community has been a great friend, but when you arrive you may be left alone - argggh!

When you get to your new home you want/need internet access more than ever. To apply for your tax file number (TFN), apply for jobs, find out about schools, and more importantly to keep in touch with all your friends and family that you've left behind.

There are a few options that you can investigate, which will get you on line, if not immediately, then as soon as possible.

Your local area will probably have a library, we are lucky in Rockingham in that we have access to three, with good opening hours, the one I use Safety Bay Library is open to 7.00 Monday to Thursday. These have free internet access, you may have to book a slot (check with the local library). See http://libraries.rockingham.wa.gov.au/

If you have wifi access on your laptop then you can sit in McDonalds for 2 weeks! Rockingham McDonalds has free wifi access.

More areas in Perth have wifi access. In 2007, ResourceNet was launched in Perth – Australia’s first Wi-Fi internet network which is free for everyone 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Known as the “Resources Quarter”, the area includes St Georges Terrace, and Hay and Murray Streets west from William Street, up to the Barracks Arch near Parliament House. Free Wi-Fi spots are also available outside of the city centre, such as the main streets of Subiaco, Leederville and Mt Lawley. Fremantle café strip has free Wi-Fi along South Terrace, from Gino’s Café to the Capri Restaurant.

There are many more spots in Perth, and Perth Walkabout has compiled a handy listing of free wifi hotspots in Perth.

div>ADSL, Broadband, home based. When you arrive in your rental property you will be able to set up ADSL, Broadband, Dial-up, or even Satellite. We used BigPond which is part of Telstra, and were set up within about a week. Check whether ADSL or Broadband is available in the area you want, the ISP websites will point you to a search to check what is available. It is available in our property.

Other suppliers are Optus, IInet, Primus, but there are many more to choose from, and these will vary from area to area.

Mobile Broadband may be the way to go, again the above suppliers have products for you. By getting mobile broadband you will be able to use this wherever you move to without having to pay out a further connection fee, (subject to coverage areas). youcompare.com.au can show you the available options.

Rockingham schools for the 21st Century

Primary schools in Rockingham, Kwinana and Mandurah will share in $56.5 million funding for new projects under round one of the Federal Government’s Primary Schools for the 21st Century Program (P21)

P21 is the second phase of the Rudd Government’s $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution program.

The P21 program is delivering much needed funding to primary schools for major infrastructure projects, including libraries, multipurpose halls and classrooms.

For example, Rockingham school East Waikiki Primary School received $2.3 million towards a precinct for early childhood, kindegarten and pre-primary ages.

The following local schools also received funding for projects:

Cooloongup Primary, funding for 2 Classroom & Multipurpose Block $1.7 million

Endeavour Education Support, funding for Multipurpose Room $270,000

Endeavour Primary School, funding for Multipurpose classroom block and Enclosed Covered Assembly Area $1.8 million

Safety Bay Primary School, funding for 2 Class ECE and Enclosed Covered Assembly Area $1 million

Secret Harbour Primary School, funding for 4 Classroom Block $1.4 million

Waikiki Primary School, funding for Enclosed Covered Assembly Area $100,000

Warnbro Community High School Education Support Centre, funding for
Multipurpose with Covered Area $920,000

One of our happy clients

We love to hear from our happy clients, here's an email we recently received.

We were very fortunate to have come across Tracey and John’s rental advert just a few weeks before our long-awaited holiday to Perth.

Tracey and John were extremely helpful leading up to our arrival and offered us plenty of ideas of places to visit and things to do while we were in Perth; they also excitedly told us that we were their first paying guests!

On arrival Tracey and John met us at the rental and showed us into what was to be our ‘home’ for the next 3 weeks. The house was cosy and comfortable and we had kindly been left a ‘survival pack ‘ of essentials, which was much appreciated as we had arrived in the evening with three very jet-lagged and hungry children. There was even a very welcome bottle of wine chilling in the fridge but it wasn't chilling for long!!

The three bedrooms were spacious, comfortable and had plenty of wardrobe space for a family of five. The living accommodation was roomy and had all the mod cons needed to make our stay stress-free. In the lounge/dining room there was comfy new furniture, a large TV (it just a pity that it was wasted on the dire Aus terrestrial stations!!). The bathroom was spacious with a large shower cubicle, bath, and loo plus there was plenty of cupboard and drawer space for all our toiletries, etc.

We noticed that there was air conditioning in all/most of the rooms but as our holiday was during the winter (July/August) we felt that the property would have benefited greatly from having sort of central heating. We managed to heat the lounge quite well with the electric fire but the other rooms were very cold, even by hardened Brits’ standards!!

The kitchen/dining/family room was well fitted out with a double-oven gas cooker, microwave, fridge with freezer compartment and ample cutlery and crockery. There was a large table and 6 chairs and a sofa In the utility room there was a washing machine, large chest freezer (which we found very useful as we were on a budget and could buy food in advance and freeze it, thus also cutting down on the shopping trips). The iron and ironing board provided were also very useful and we were left plenty of linen and bath towels for our three-week stay.

Outside, to the back, there was a large covered patio area with tables and chairs, clothesline, a grass area for the kids to play on and a large garage and a carport with electric door. The whole back garden area was enclosed, making it safe and secure for the kids. The property was protected by a burglar alarm which, on our arrival, John admirably explained how to set and unset!

During our stay in Rockingham we were close enough to all the people and places we wanted to visit and, despite all the winter rain, we had a wonderful stay in Western Australia.

Thanks again, Tracey and John, for helping to make our holiday such a memorable one; hopefully, if all our emigration plans come to fruition, we'll meet again Downunder soon!"

Warmest wishes
Karen, Ashley & the Boys