YAY!
I got an email last week from the Foreign Investment Review Board informing Brendan and I that we can now buy a house under our visa conditions! For those you who aren’t aware, Brendan and I applied for permanent residency in Australia on June 17, 2009. We were issued with Bridging Visas as a consequence, which meant that we had as much rights as anyone on a business visa or equivalent.
Therefore, purchasing or building a house required a lot of hoop jumping that we weren’t prepared to go through. Now those hoops have been lowered and we are looking at getting our own place instead of wasting a whopping $19,760 a year renting our current 3×2 villa in Westminster.
We have been looking at buying or building a home for about two years now. Well I have anyway—it was something I was going to do whether or not Brendan was going to do it with me, but I’m glad he’s jumped on board!
Anyway, we had a chat to Mum and Dad and thankfully we have some savings that can form the requisite 20 per cent deposit required of non-Australian residents. Add to that some money from an insurance investment I have stashed away (and totally forgot about) and we have something here. Brendan has agreed to start saving now for all the nitty gritties we’ll need to once we get the new place as part of his contribution. I’m just glad he’s going on the mortgage application with me really…
We are horribly excited to say the least, so let the house-hunting begin!